Frank Pomroy
H company 2nd Battalion 1st Marines (Heavy weapons)

The day we landed, a torpedo (G4M1 Betty) bomber came in, 30' off the water. Machine gun bullets pooping around, we all went inside the ship. This bomber hit the side of ship, and crashed into the superstructure. The explosion killed all the crew of the engine room, torpedo went off in superstructure. A big ball of fire rolled down, landed on the deck below. The Navy guys put water on us, then we helped fight the fire.

We stayed on there fighting the fire, the paint on the deck was bubbling. We saved two hatch board and mattresses to use a life raft. Finally, we had to abandon ship, and threw our raft into the water, and began paddling to shore, but instead we ended up in the channel, with too many sharks. Finally, a ship came by, and saw us. We waved back, but it kept on going, then circled back and with a hook arm, they just picked us up
They told us the whole Japanese navy was on its way down to Guadalcanal! This destroyer had radar and was a picket ship. Later that same night, there were explosions in the distance, and headed towards Savo. This was the night with the Canberra was sunk, and we picked up survivors then headed down to New Caledonia, because no ships back to Guadalcanal. I didn't get back until the night of the Battle of the Tenaru We had a lot of loyalty to our friends... I wasn’t about to go back to the states, we came there to fight. As soon as I got back I got a jeep ride out to my company which was along the Tenaru.