Bob Warnock, Submarine
Veteran of WWII, has passed away
Sailor Rest Your Oar
Since 09-11-04
On 3 August 2004 shipmate Bob Warnock went on final
patrol. Warnock lived many, years in Santa Rosa with his late wife, Lolita,
before he moved to Florida in late 2002 to be near a son. He died Aug. 3 in
the care of a hospice in Tampa. He was 92. Warnock was a zestful man who
square-danced into his 90s and only re¬cently was wheeling about Tampa on a
scooter.
A native of New Mexico, he was 18 when he joined the Navy in 1929. Early the
morning of Dec. 7, 1941, he was fin¬ishing up an all-night shift as an
electrician's mate first-class aboard the submarine Cachalot.
"I was waiting for relief," he said in a 2000 interview, "when I saw this
plane go into a dive over Ford Island. "I saw the plane drop something. I
heard the explo¬sion, and I knew the jig was up."
A second plane, emblazoned like the first with the red fireball of the
Japanese Imperial Navy, flew maybe 100 feet over Warnock's head after dropping
a torpedo that damaged the light carrier Helena, moored a stone's throw from
him. He drew his .45-caliber pistol and fired up at the fleeing attack plane.
Though VVarnock's bullets missed, or caused no apparent damage, they were
among the first shots fired by Americans in VVorld VVar II.
Warnock left the Navy after the war and became an electronics engineer with
Kodak. He and Lolita had been married 67 years when she died late in 2000.
Warnock is survived by his son, Ray Warnock of Tampa; his daughter, Kay
Berliner of Redding; four grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.