Edward Stone was born in September 1923 in Towanda, Pennsylvania. He grew up in that small town and had an excellent education. Stone's mother had worked prior to her marriage to his father during World War 1. Stone's father had worked in the movie industry prior to the war. After their marriage, the couple moved to Towanda where Stone's father worked for a railroad company. When the Depression hit in 1929, his father's number of work days were reduced. He went back to the movie industry on the West Coast. Subsequently, his father abandoned the family and later became an alcoholic. Stone's mother died when he was 11. Stone and his older brother were on their own with Stone being under custody of the pastor and then the bank. Stone learned responsibility early. He worked at two jobs while he was in high school. He learned Morse code and amateur radio operation when he was 13 years old. He had teachers who mentored him. He graduated in May 1940. Stone somewhat kept up with the aggression of Germany in Europe. He knew little of what Italy or Japan was doing. He collected scrap iron and magazine paper that ultimately went to Japanese war production. The United States was neutral and trying to avoid another big war. While learning Morse code, he listened in on Navy message transmissions. That was when he began to think about joining the Navy. He became interested in becoming a submariner.

With his interest in submarines, Edward Stone decided to join the Navy and enlisted in December 1940. After acceptance, he went to Newport, Rhode Island for training. The train trip was cold. Locomotive problems delayed his arrival. When he arrived at Newport, the barracks was warm. He went through the recruit entry process and started training. He was issued a rifle, and discovered that he had a good chief. After graduation, Stone wanted to put in for radio school even though he already knew Morse code. His chief talked him out of it because of the school's redundancy with Stone's existing knowledge. Stone went into submarine indoctrination which became known as Spritz training [Annotator's Note: named after training school Master Chief Torpedoman Charles Spritz]. World War 1 submarines were used for the training. After graduation, Stone's first submarine was the R-13. A priority became learning the process for operating the toilet properly otherwise the backflush could be disastrous. The sewage collection tanks would ultimately be blown to sea. Because of cost limitations, there were delays in Stone being deployed to Pearl Harbor, his next station. He went aboard the USS Pyro (AE-1), an ammunition ship, for the voyage. During the course of the voyage, Stone was tapped to become a radioman on the ship. He lost his dream of becoming a submariner.

Edward Stone was aboard the Pyro [Annotator's Note: USS Pyro (AE-1)] and found the ship had good cooks. That was important to a sailor. Underway to Pearl Harbor, they thought they encountered German warships. It turned out to be American battleships and escorts steaming to the Atlantic. They voyaged through the Panama Canal and reached San Diego and then San Pedro. It was July 1941 and tensions were mounting between the United States and Japan because of President Roosevelt's [Annotator's Note: President Franklin D. Roosevelt] embargos. The Pyro reached Pearl Harbor in August 1941. The weather was great. The Pyro's crew enjoyed water sports on the beach even though it was dangerous at times. The ship went out on maneuvers with other ships prior to the Japanese air raid on Hawaii. During those operations, an underwater target was identified as a submarine. Authorization was initially given to proceed to drop depth charges but was reversed. It was a Japanese submarine carrying a midget submarine that was spying on the American fleet. The evening before the attack, the normal inspections aboard Pyro were carried out. Stone stood by and started the emergency radio during those inspections. That was fortunate that it was run briefly the day before the raid. The ship had old World War 1 equipment since its keel had been laid in 1918. At general quarters, Stone was sight setter on the forward five inch 51 caliber gun. The gun took 12 men to operate. It was strictly a surface weapon that was ineffective for antiaircraft. There were four guns on the ship with 48 men who would be vulnerable to Japanese strafing attacks. After the inspection the day before the attack, Stone went swimming, enjoyed a luau, and then looked for a sake bar but it was closed. He returned to the ship and planned to rise at 6:30 for breakfast before his watch started.

Edward Stone began his morning duty [Annotator’s Note: 7 December 1941 aboard the USS Pyro (AE-1) in Pearl Harbor] with radio transmissions being very quite. A buddy called out that strange planes were coming at them. Stone spotted one of the first planes to attack the US battleships. The airfields nearby had already been hit by Japanese aircraft. General quarters was sounded and Stone ran to his gun for the attack. The 5” gun he manned was ineffective against aircraft. The order was given for the gunners to secure their weapon and go to their normal duty station. As Stone was proceeding to the radio room, an armor piercing bomb exploded only 12 feet from the ship with a loud boom. Ship’s power was lost on the Pyro and Stone was ordered to get the emergency radio going. He was showered with falling debris from the bomb but was not injured. Only one injury occurred on Pyro. The crew knew that the country was at war with Japan. Things happened fast. The enemy approached the islands from an unexpected direction. Early radar detection of incoming aircraft was disregarded because of a concurrent flight of B-17s [Annotator’s Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers] coming from the West Coast. All the B-17s were being sent to the Philippines during that time. Stone has a negative attitude toward General MacArthur [Annotator’s Note: Philippine commander General Douglas MacArthur]. He lost the B-17s and other planes in the Philippines which were still lined up wing tip to wing tip in his airfields eight hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Shortly after Stone brought on the emergency radio, engineers on the Pyro got the generators back on-line. The second wave of Japanese aircraft was basically high level bombers. There were false rumors later in the day that Japanese troops were landing on Hawaii. The Pyro was readied to exit the harbor if need be, and Stone was posted to guard the gangway to the ship. That night general quarters was sounded again as aircraft approached the harbor. It was American search planes that had attempted to find the Japanese. Many of them were shot down by mistake. The crew of Pyro assisted men who had escaped their ships by swimming through the oily water in the harbor. They cleaned and fed the fatigued men. Those who they rescued had no bunk facilities so they lay down in the grass and just slept there.

Edward Stone realized that the United States was not prepared for war when the attack on Pearl Harbor happened. He saw the old battleships on battleship row that had been damaged or destroyed. The newest ship was the California [Annotator’s Note: USS California (BB-44)] with the others being much older. The Navy Yard attempted to rescue the personnel trapped in the Oklahoma [Annotator’s Note: USS Oklahoma (BB-37)] which had rolled over. The Arizona [Annotator’s Note: USS Arizona (BB-39)] and the Oklahoma were both destroyed that day. Drops of oil are still emitted from the Arizona to the surface. An individual can observe it from the memorial above the sunken ship. During the afternoon after the attack, the first lieutenant took Stone to the boat deck. He showed Stone the bullet holes that hit behind while he was racing to get the emergency radio operational. An enemy pilot had Stone in his sights. The Navy Yard at Pearl Harbor did a great job of recovery of the damages. A destroyer, USS Shaw [Annotator’s Note: USS Shaw (DD-373)], was hit while in the drydock. Hit by an armor piercing bomb, the Navy Yard reconstructed the ship and drydock. She rejoined the fleet and went to Mare Island Navy Yard on 23 March [Annotator’s Note: 1942] and was fit with a new bow. Two days after the attack, Stone was able to get a closer look at battleship row. The Pyro had tended men escaping from their ships during the attack. Some sailors felt that when Japan attacked China back in 1937 that the United States would be going to war with the aggressor. Stone felt during the attack that war existed with Japan. Had the attack started on the next day, the Pyro would have been alongside the USS Nevada [Annotator’s Note: USS Nevada (BB-36)]. Stone would not have survived it. The damage from an ammunition ship [Annotator’s Note: the Pyro carried ammunition to resupply larger ships] would have been much worse in the harbor. The Pyro left Pearl Harbor on 12 December in the afternoon. A torpedo was fired at the ship and grazed its hull. It maintained radio silence in route to San Francisco. When Pyro reached its destination, rumor had it that she had been under submarine attack and had been sunk. Maintaining radio silence had fueled the rumors [Annotator’s Note: Stone laughs].

Edward Stone normally stood four hour watches in the Radio Room [Annotator’s Note: aboard the USS Pyro (AE-1)] and then was relieved by another radioman. He enjoyed that work. He would go into town when he had leave. He corresponded with his brother and a number of people. He notified some of his family that he had survived the Pearl Harbor attack. The Pyro sailed back to Pearl Harbor after San Francisco. It shuttled ammunition and personnel back and forth. The Pyro had carried Torpedo Squadron 8 to the new aircraft carrier Hornet [Annotator’s Note: USS Hornet (CV-8)] before the Battle of Midway. That whole squadron was lost during the battle. The Pyro developed the first technique for transferring ammunition at night to the larger warships which steamed alongside each other. Stone did his duty on Pyro until he took a transfer to new construction in August 1942. He sailed on the USS Henderson [Annotator’s Note: USS Henderson (AP-1)] and returned to San Francisco. He served as a Shore Patrolman for a time. It was good duty for four or five weeks. He then went to Philadelphia to put a new minesweeper into service. He commissioned the USS Force (AM-99). He was transferred to the New London, Connecticut area to operate on the Force as a target vessel for the Perspective Commanding Officer School. From there, he was transferred back into the submarine service.

Edward Stone commission the submarine USS Bumper [Annotator’s Note: USS Bumper (SS-333)] at Electric Boat. He met a great outfitting officer who had been around the world with the Great White Fleet after his graduation from the Naval Academy in 1907. His name was Harold Johnstone and Stone respected his knowledge and experience as a submarine commanding officer. Electric Boat hired him. During the World War One period, the United States made submarines for Canada because of neutrality requirements preventing making them for England. Johnstone went to England then Russia where he was imprisoned after the Bolshevik Revolution. He escaped and walked to Turkey over a six month period to eventually return to the United States. Johnstone worked with Stone during the Bumper time frame and developed a fondness for him. Johnstone’s son-in-law turned out to be the skipper of Bumper. After trials, Bumper went to Key West to work with the sonar school there. That was not possible because select critical hydraulic equipment on the submarine was inoperable. It was discovered that some of the seals were installed backward and salt water intruded into the system causing corrosion and failure. After repair, the submarine made for the Panama Canal. The boat’s executive officer contracted appendicitis and peritonitis. He was removed from the ship and his status was lost. In 1946, the former Bumper exec and Stone reunited and celebrated his survival. They, along with Bumper’s skipper, took leave ashore and celebrated heartily. Stone met Dick O’Kane [Annotator’s Note: Richard O’Kane was awarded the Medal of Honor] from the Tang [Annotator’s Note: USS Tang (SS-306] at that time. He had been a prisoner of the Japanese after his submarine sank as a result of its erratic torpedo. After the Panama Canal transit, the Bumper made for Pearl Harbor. While at Okinawa, Bumper encountered the Franklin [Annotator’s Note: USS Franklin (CV-13)] which had been heavily burned. Afterward, Bumper deployed for its first war patrol in the Formosa area and the East China Sea. Friendly aircraft would drive the Bumper to submerge more than enemy planes did. Since the submarine was performing life guard duty for downed Allied pilots, that made them less effective. Submarines rescued approximately 500 aviators during the war. After staying on station for 60 days without picking up a survivor, Bumper was sent to the Philippines for rest.

Edward Stone and his submarine [Annotator’s Note: USS Bumper (SS-333)] deployed to the Southwest Pacific after a 30 day rest in the Philippines. It proceeded to sink a heavily laden sailboat. After resetting torpedo run depth, it sank another ship, an enemy tanker. Bumper encountered an enemy convoy. The skipper went after an old Japanese destroyer which was escorting the convoy. The destroyer commander determined the American submarine was there so he abandoned his convoy and escaped. The torpedoes fired from the submarine were often erratic. The torpedoes were terrible during the war. The Bureau of Ordnance blamed the ineffectiveness on the submarine skippers, but it was the equipment. The torpedoes would not even detonate after striking the hull of the enemy ship. There were steering, depth control and detonation problems with the American torpedoes. Submarines did manage to sink 58 percent of the Japanese ships that were destroyed.

Edward Stone was aboard the USS Bumper (SS-333) after its first war patrol when it entered Subic Bay in the Philippines for rest. The boat was resupplied by a submarine tender. Anything needing repair was also taken care of by the tender crew. Bumper was in the Philippines at the end of the war. On Bumper’s third war patrol, it served not only as an attack submarine but as a mail carrier. It brought bags of mail to other submarines as well as the latest movies. Stone acted as the news distributor on the sub. He picked up the latest news from radio reports. He then generated a daily news report for his vessel. The captain of the boat was well pleased to have a constant flow of the latest reports of world events. The skipper died on the golf course in December 1986. His last command was as Commandant of the Eleventh Naval District in San Diego. Stone coordinated reunions for the veterans of the Bumper as well as published the periodic news updates for the group. Stone received radio messages about the dropping of the atomic bomb by the Army Air Forces on Hiroshima. The skipper originally worried that Stone had fabricated the story until Nimitz [Annotator’s Note: Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet Chester Nimitz] officially released the news [Annotator’s Note: Stone laughs]. Afterward, the sub proceeded to Australia where Prime Minister Attlee [Annotator’s Note: Clement Attlee succeeded Winston Churchill as British Prime Minister at the end of the war.] was making the announcement that the war had ended. Stone found a friend in the British Navy and joined in some activities conducted by a USO type organization in Australia. Another crewman from the Bumper joined them. The trio was taken in by the mayor of a town and his wife who coordinated their activities. The trio participated in a kangaroo hunt but never saw any. They shot quite a few rabbits instead. Returning from the adventure back to base, their train experienced a washout because of lack of ground stability under the tracks. The trio had to take a taxi ride back to Perth. The cabbie was a wonderful guy. The Bumper then returned to the Philippine Islands.

Edward Stone and the USS Bumper (SS-333) joined Submarine Squadron Five in the Philippines. The squad was classified as the “Caribou Squadron”. They were stationed in Subic Bay and remained there until January 1946. When the Bumper first arrived in the Philippines, Stone went to Manila and observed the city was destroyed. Life in Subic Bay was leisurely for the crew. The captain kept liquor on his boat locked up while they were on war patrol. Stone enjoyed the submarine service. The food was excellent. The officers were great. Some had come up through the ranks but most were Annapolis people [Annotator’s Note: US Naval Academy graduates]. Bumper remained in the Philippines until January 1946. From there, the submarine transited to Pearl Harbor before returning to San Diego. Stone had so much leave accumulated that he was ordered to use some of it. His wife had begun her journey to meet him on the West Coast when she received word that Stone was on his way home. She turned around and returned home. They both arrived at their home almost simultaneously. She got pregnant during his two month leave. Stone returned to San Diego and his submarine after his leave.

Edward Stone and the USS Bumper (SS-333) were ordered to return to Pearl Harbor. The boat operated out of Pearl Harbor for the summer [Annotator’s Note: 1946]. She and another submarine escorted a large Japanese submarine from Hawaii and proceeded to fire one torpedo each into it to sink it. That prevented the submarine from falling into the hands of the Russians. That was about the beginning of the Cold War. Stone was discharged from the Navy in late 1946. He would go on to use the G.I. Bill to further his education. After graduation, Stone obtained a job with General Electric and moved to Syracuse, New York.

Edward Stone benefited from his service because of the education and good job he obtained through the utilization of the G.I. Bill. The whole world changed after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The National WWII Museum is a very impressive institution. Stone feels it is very important for young people to understand what happened and why it happened during the war. The fight against Hitler, Mussolini [Annotator’s Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini], and the Japanese warlords was necessary. The emperor [Annotator’s Note: Japanese Emperor Hirohito] was just a figurehead in Japan. The generals wanted to conquer their part of the world. The Allies had to stop them and did a good job of it. When questioned about the necessity of dropping the atomic bombs, Stone responded that the casualties would have been much larger for both the Allies and the Japanese had an amphibious invasion been necessary. It is a difficult question, but he ponders whether he would have survived the war had those weapons not been used.