I really enjoyed listening to this book. Perhaps it's because I have held a ham license for more than sixty years (WB9VEG) or because I like minutiae.
Mason joined the Navy in 1940 as a radioman. He describes the training to be a radioman in detail (they were expected to send and copy Morse at upwards of 35 words per minute (the best I could ever achieve was 13). His assignment to the California instead of the Arizona was a matter of luck and his survival during the attack on Pearl Harbor was fortuitous as well as his battle station assignment was above decks on the maintop where he had a Birdseye view of the attack and was able to jump overboard when the "abandon ship" order came. Most radio operators were sealed into the radio room deep in the bowels of the ship and had little chance of getting out during an attack.
Mason was a product of the depression. An honor student at his high school, no one in his small high school was offered any kind of scholarship, so the future looked bleak, pumping gas, or driving for a local physician. His girl had just dumped him for someone else, so he was susceptible to the entreaties of the local Navy recruiter and enlisted for a one year tour of duty as a radioman. This was in mid-1940. Despite constant warnings of war, the press and those seemingly in the know were sure the "slant-eyed Japs" would be quickly overcome; after all, there was no way they could construct any kind of weaponry that could challenge the mighty United States Navy.
Clearly, Mason was not impressed with the level of preparedness, or lack thereof, of his battleship. They seemed to spend more time working on spit and polish to keep the brass happy than in drill, and comments made by a British sailor from the warship Warsprit which docked alongside of them briefly on its way to being repaired at Mare Island, did nothing to assuage his concern. The Brit, after being shown around the California, Mason's ship was dismayed at the inadequacy of the anti-aircraft guns. He thought they were short half the number they should have, much to the surprise of Mason who thought the California fairly bristled with antiaircraft capability.
Late that summer, he was given a promotion and new duties that probably saved his life. He was moved to the maintop, on the mast high above the decks, to act as relay for information from the spotter planes who would radio back how accurate the gunners were in hitting their targets. Most of the radiomen were sealed (quite literally) in the radio room and most died during the bombing. He escaped by not being there, but at his assigned post high above the decks. It was an interesting duty, although watching the huge shells leave the barrels of the guns could inspire awe. As flames licked high above the turrets, the shells raced toward their targets at 2500 ft/sec sounding like closely-passing freight trains, the ship being pushed sideways in the water from the recoil. It inspired thoughts of Armageddon.
Mason was on the California during the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was sent to his station at the maintop to be able to handle radio messages. It was an order that saved his life. Forced to abandon ship three times — he had been sent back after each command to leave, in order to work some of the radios — he finally had to leave permanently when the battleship was close to capsizing. Most of his friends were killed. Given that several of his shipmates had been in the brig for failure to maintain a watch or being late for duty, he justifiably wondered what the punishment might be for the admirals and captains, if not the president, for their failure to maintain a good watch and prevent the destruction of most of the fleet.
Mason doesn't spare us the details of a sailor's life before Pearl Harbor: the infamous short arm inspection, the inspections for venereal disease after leave, nor the medical officer who "enjoyed' doing circumcisions and insisted on performing them on those who hadn't been so already blessed.
His description of the attack on Pearl Harbor is vivid and frightening. Forced to abandon ship three times following vacillating orders and horrific circumstances, he and the surviving shipmates had little positive to say about the officers who had risen to command during peacetime and failed dramatically when put to the test, with some exceptions. The book concludes with the end of 1941. His wartime service continued in two lesser known works: "We Will Stand By You," and "Rendezvous with Destiny - A Sailor's War." Mason died in 2008.
One fascinating tidbit concerned the writer Walter Davenport, an editor at Colliers, who visited the California. Mason, an aspiring writer himself, was anxious to see the famous writer, was disappointed by the story that resulted: "The Impregnable Pearl Harbor" that came out in June, 1941.*
Out of curiosity, I looked it up. See https://www.unz.com/print/Colliers-1941jun14-00011/
Wonderful thing, the Internet.
If you are interested in the ship itself, Wikipedia has an excellent entry at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_California_(BB-44)
Another book that might be of interest is Stephen Bower's https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1689965.Trapped_at_Pearl_Harbor?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=QfQ6ZQvo6g&rank=1
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