"It was a very, very good experience for me even though I lost my left arm, and I was left handed, you know."

-Belton Copp

COURAGE UNDER FIRE: Brilliant, handsome, and athletic, twenty-one-
year-old Belton Copp was poised to inherit a life of privilege on December 6, 1941. The grandson of legendary nature artist John James Audubon, Copp was a varsity playmaker on the Yale gridiron when the Japanese Imperial Navy launched their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

Copp enlisted in the Navy, triggering a series of events that would land him on a motor torpedo boat in the Pacific, speeding headlong into the jaws of the Japanese. In his final firefight, Copp was wounded in the arm, which became gangrenous and required amputation.

Says Copp, "It was the best thing that happened to me really - this whole incident -because until then I'd had everything my way, you know - Exeter (Academy), Yale, all that stuff - and a football player. And I learned that there are some people that aren't quite that lucky. It was a very, very good experience for me even though I lost my left arm, and I was left handed, you know."

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