World War II veteran survived kamikaze attack
Nov, 10-2009 3:33 pm
By SUZANNE MARINO
Staff Writer
NORTHFIELD – As Margate firefighters stopped to shake his hand and offer their thanks Sunday afternoon at the close of their Veteran’s Day ceremony, Henderson Hemphill, 88, of Northfield seemed fairly nonchalant about it all.
One would conclude that he is just a nice and gentle man. But behind that pleasant demeanor is man who in World War II stared at destruction and chaos in the South Pacific but would not let it get the better of him.
He is today a grandfather, father, husband and brother. He is a retired machinist who spent most of his career working at NAFEC – the National Aviation Facilities Experimental Center, renamed the FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center – in Egg Harbor Township.
Hemphill is also a member of what some people call the Greatest Generation – the people who built our nation, many of whom are no longer living.
Hemphill heard the call of duty and enlisted in the Navy at the age of 19 in 1940 and went off to Newport, R.I. to learn to be a machinist, a career he would later pursue outside of the military.
After basic training he was assigned to the destroyer USS Pringle, where he worked as a machinist.
“I am a ‘plank holder’ on the Pringle,” Hemphill said with pride, explaining that it is someone who works on a ship and then goes on its maiden voyage.
“I got on her in 1942 and I got off her in 1943 when I was blown off the ship. She was blown up in the China Sea by a kamikaze pilot,” he said in an interview Sunday.
“I spent three hours treading water before I was picked up by one of the other ships that were in the area at the time.”
Hemphill said 87 members of the 132-man crew survived the attack.
His knee lacerated in the incident, Hemphill was taken to Okinawa to recover and spent the balance of his stint in the service stationed in Seattle, where he worked in a machine shop.
His injury earned him a Purple Heart. He said it took years for that medal to find him, and it was finally presented by Congressman Frank LoBiondo a few years ago.
Hemphill has kept ties with his buddies from the ship attending reunions until a few years ago, when the toll of the years began to make travel tough for some of the former soldiers.
“I still keep in touch with four of the guys,” Hemphill said.
He is a member of American Legion Post 295 of Northfield and Fleet Reserve Post 13 of Northfield.
At one time there were 60 to 70 members, Hemphill said, and they would get together for meetings and activities. Those numbers have thinned, and now only 16 or so are still mobile enough to attend meetings.
Hemphill is a hero from a war that raged 65 years ago and is still a hero today.
He was in Margate Sunday afternoon to stand alongside his granddaughter Haley DePersonaire, a first-grader at the Union Avenue Elementary School who talked about her “Henny Pop Pop” in a poem she wrote for school.
Nazia Tahia, who interviewed Hemphill for a sixth-grade project at the Northfield Community School, said she learned new respect for veterans.
“I used to think Veterans Day was not a big deal. Now I know better and I have learned to appreciate the veterans, especially the older ones now,” Tahia said.
To comment on this story email marino@catamaranmedia.com
