Chester Mike Kotsmith
My grandfather was the Lieutenant Commander at the time of Pearl Harbor. His name was Chester Mike Kotsmith. He passed away August 7, 1998.
My whole life, he told us stories of Pearl Harbor. The one that comes
to mind at this time is when the bombing was taking place, he was trying to
get his shipmates offboard. There was one enlisted guy who came to the side of the ship but was afraid to jump overboard. My grandpa asked him if he knew how to swim and the guy said "no". Grandpa told him you're going
to learn
real quick and threw him overboard. Funny thing is, the guy beat him to shore. My grandpa had a dog that was the ships mascot. He was a bulldog
and his name was "Mike". The crewmen made Mike a uniform jacket with
all the rank pins and medals he would have had if he were a man. My grandpas
crewmen made two chests for him that have him name and number on the top. All the hardware was melted down from Japanese war planes from Pearl Harbor. I'm lucky to have one of them. I know my brothers can fill me in a lot more
and will find out more info. from them. I don't have any of his military pictures but will get some from my grandma. I know also tha my grandpa played Navy Football.
Thank you for responding back. I saw the previews for Pearl Harbor the movie almost a year ago and it made me cry then. I know what pain he went through with the memories. He was a member of the Pearl Harbor "USS West Virginia" Survivor group until his death. I truly miss him.
Mickey Sincomb