Uncle Albert was stationed aboard the destroyer tender USS Dobbin (AD-3), which was at anchor in Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 December, 1941. According to records, the ship took shrapnel damage in the attack, and several crewmen were injured; one of them was apparently Uncle Albert, because he later was in hospital on 12 December when he wrote a letter home.
Dobbin was moored northeast of Ford Island with five destroyers alongside, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941. Dive bombers singled out this nest, and fragments from near misses killed three men and wounded several others on board the tender. Concentrated antiaircraft fire from Dobbin and the destroyers broke up a second attack before any additional damage was done. Throughout the attack, Dobbin's boats plied the waters of the harbor, rescuing survivors from burning and sinking ships.
http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/auxil/ad3.htm
