Place of Death: Tallahassee, Leon, Florida
'In keeping with the highest traditions'
As a 22-year-old seaman, Martin Benjamin Bruns was already a three-year U.S. Navy veteran on that deceptively peaceful morning of Dec. 7, I 941, aboard the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor.
Bruns, a clerk, was on the deck of the mighty battleship when Japanese planes came screaming out of the sky to bomb and strafe and send the United States headlong into the world's most terrible war.
Now 78, the Lafayette Oaks resident and retired naval administrative officer is a man of few words. He struggles to rind the right ones to describe how his life was forever changed in a flash.
"It happened -- pow!" said Bruns (pronounced Broons), striking his palms together like a thunderclap. "That was it."
That was it for 1,177 of his shipmates who died, the worst single disaster in U.S. naval history. But that wasn't it for the mild-mannered clerk from Fredericksburg, Texas.
The text of his commendation describes what happened next better than any words he can manage:
"He assisted in fighting fires ... while the decks were being strafed and bombed by enemy aircraft and later assisted badly burned men over to the life lines. On orders to abandon ship, he rescued injured men who were faltering in the water and swam them to a nearby quay.
"He then assisted in loading wounded men in a 50-foot motor launch and proceeded with the launch toward a boat landing, assisting in the rescue of men in the water on the way. After discharging the wounded men at the landing, he manned an abandoned 50-foot motor launch as engineer and returned to his ship to pick up the remaining survivors on board and men at the quay.
"On the way back to the landing more survivors were picked up from the water. He then returned for a final trip to the Arizona making certain no more survivors were left stranded, then passed the remaining battleship moorings looking for survivors.
"During the period he was making these boat trips, Japanese aircraft were continuing with heavy bombing and strafing attacks in the area. His initiative and devotion to duty under heavy enemy fire were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service."
The memories, he says, are largely stashed in the recesses of his mind, but he gets choked up when asked to recall them.
"As things go on," he said, "you lose track of unpleasant, dreary thoughts."
Bruns, who left the Navy in 1968 after 30 years' service, wears hearing aids these days. But he's fit and trim at 138 pounds and works part time at a local animal hospital. He doesn't trumpet his wartime achievements.
"I was there, so what? I just happened to be there."
How can others say thanks?
"To appreciate what they got ... what my shipmates got killed for," Bruns said. "They contributed their lives."
By Bill Berlow Sunday, November 9, 1997
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT NEWSPAPER
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