From the August 10, 2017, Chicago Tribune by Michael E. Ruane, Washington Post.
The Marines began lining the rail of the troop ship before dawn to peer at the distant shape as they approached.
War correspondent Richard Tregaskis remembered things being so quiet he could hear the swish of the water as his vessel steamed toward the island.
It was 6:14 a.m. Friday, August 7, 1942, eight months to the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl harbor.
"Suddenly ... I saw a brilliant yellow-green flash of light coming from ... a cruiser on our starboard side. I saw the red pencil lines of the shells arching through the sky, saw flashes on the dark shore ... where they struck."
It took a second for the booming sound of the guns to reach him, and when it did, he jumped.
They were the opening salvos of the epic World War II battle for the island of Guadalcanal.
--GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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