(Photo by Claudette Olivier/Church Point News)
Church Point native, U.S. Navy veteran and Pearl Harbor survivor Joe Richard enjoys a cold beverage during social hour at an April 13 American Legion Post 225 event. On April 30, Richard, Louisiana’s last living Pearl Harbor survivor, will visit the National Museum of the Pacific War, located in Fredericksburg, Texas.
State’s last living Pearl Harbor survivor headed to WWII Museum
CHURCH POINT — Good loving, good whiskey and good food — that’s been the secret to long life for Church Point native Joe Richard, Louisiana’s last living Pearl Harbor survivor.
“And some Coors Light — don’t forget that,” Richard said, laughing, as he enjoyed a cold one during social hour at an April 13 American Legion Post 225 event.
The U.S. Navy veteran, 97, will visit the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas, on April 30.
Richard will be driven to the museum by American Legion Post 225 Commander Dennis Hart and his wife, Carolyn, as well as Richard’s daughter, Connie Figureon. American Legion Post 225 Vice Commander Lee Daigle Jr. whose father, Leander Daigle Sr., the post’s oldest Legion Rider, will also make the trip to Fredericksburg.
“It’s a good way to honor one of these guys,” Hart said. “For 97 years old, he is doing mighty well. It’s (the trip) going to be fun.”
Richard will be escorted by others from Post 225, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9903, the American Legion Riders, Patriot Riders from Louisiana and Texas and the Acadia Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Prior to leaving Church Point on April 29, the caravan will drive by Church Point’s elementary, middle and high school and Our Mother of Peace Elementary for the students to wish the group a safe trip. Hart said plans are in the works for an escort from the Texas State Police and a reception when Richard and the tour group arrive at the museum on April 30.
Also along for the trip will be Ted Stout, of Sunset, who organized the excursion. Stout is also a member of American Legion Post 225 and VFW Post 9903.
“We were talking one day — I’ve been to the Nimitz Museum a couple of times — and Mr. Joe here served under Admiral (Chester) Nimitz in the Pacific. I was telling him about the museum I went to, and that’s when he had the desire to go to the Nimitz Museum. We’ve been talking about it (going to the museum) for a couple of years.”
Stout will be part of the caravan’s motorcycle escort.
“We’ve got four motorcycles and three vehicles, about 12 people so far,” Stout said. “We have motorcycle groups of combat veterans from different organizations that are supposed to join and drop out along the route.”
Those interested in being part of the motorcycle or vehicle escort can contact Ted Stout at 337-662-5529, Lee Daigle at 318-453-4121 or Dennis Hart at 337-326-1945.
Richard was a shipfitter first class, serving as a ship tender on the USS Rigel, based in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He had only been stationed there for a handful of months before the Dec. 7, 1941, attack would become a memory he would never forget.
“We were at the old coal docks, that’s where the ships were,” Richard recalled. “We had no power, nothing — the ship was there for repairs. In November, the tugboat brought us in to Pier 13. That’s where we were at when the bombing started. Where we were at, the planes had to fly over us to get to where they were going (to bomb). The pilots were flying so low, they would wave at me, and I could see their eyes.”
Immediately following the attack, Richard helped rescue comrades from the USS Arizona, and he would still be rescuing people a few days later.
“Three days later, we happened to pass by the USS Oklahoma, which was also damaged in the bombing, and I thought I heard some knocking,” Richard said. “I made the boatswain cut the motor off, and we paddled around and we knocked.
“We went back and got our gear and cut out three of them (survivors) that had been in there for three days. They had just their heads sticking out of the water.”
That was the last he saw of the three men he helped rescue that day, but that would change almost six decades later.
“They went to the sick bay, and we went on our way,” Richard said. “Fifty-seven years later, at a (survivor’s) reunion in Las Vegas, we were sitting at a table and a fellow that we cut out said, ‘You know, I’d like to meet the ones that cut me out. I’d like to thank them. So my buddy who was sitting there with me told him, ‘You want to meet him, well just go on the other side (of the table) — that’s one of them.’ So he did.”
Richard said he and the man kept in touch after the reunion, and Richard said that the man went on to have nine children — all daughters.
“He passed away about two years ago,” Richard added.
As Richard continued his service in the U.S. Navy, he was eventually sent to Japan and was in Hiroshima and Nagasaki following the bombings there.
“I went to both places,” he said. “There was nothing there for miles.”
When his service ended, Richard returned to Louisiana.
“I had a girlfriend who was working for the VA in Baton Rouge,” he said. “A company there was looking for someone to work at a culvert plant. She said, ‘I’ve got just the guy.’ She called me up, and I went to work that same day. They put me in charge of the whole thing.”
Richard said he later opened a service station on Airline Highway until his property was needed to expand the roadway.
“I said, ‘Well, I’m going home,’” Richard said. “I built a welding shop, and I stayed in there 54 years.”
Richard, who has visited the WW II Museum in New Orleans and was interviewed for one of the displays there, said he looks forward to seeing everything at the National Museum of the Pacific War.
“It’ll be something new for me,” he said. “They say it’s beautiful (the museum), and he (Nimitz) was my big boss, so I’d like to see his museum.”
He continued, “He’s (Nimitz) the one who won the war in the Pacific. He was sharp.”
When asked how he felt about being Louisiana’s last living Pearl Harbor survivor, Richard’s reply was simple.
“Makes me feel old — old but young.” he said, laughing. “I’m 97.”
