It was Feb. 27, 1942, he was 21, and "that water was cold," Joe said, in a voice like Alabama, where he grew up.
If he hadn't gone to the galley to get sugar for the coffee for his crew in the boiler room when the torpedo hit, Joe Tidwell likely would have died with the rest. But he was a good swimmer, and he managed to get to a raft where he and 10 others were picked up.
On Sunday, Jim Rodan was on hand to welcome Joe to Cape May - for a second time.
An 87-year-old Navy veteran from Lower Township, he had met the Jones survivors in a local diner after they were pulled from the icy Atlantic.
"You probably don't remember me," Rodan said with a smile, shaking hands with Tidwell, then doing it again for the cameras.
Watching these two old salts - Tidwell in a wheelchair, Rodan leaning on a cane - was among a succession of emotional moments Sunday.
Volunteers organized by Atlantic Divers, which coordinated the Jones dive for free, joined the Tidwells and other veterans at the restored World War II lookout tower. As the weather turned from steamy to rainy, the gathering became a celebration of family, history, and country.
"This is epic," said Gene Peterson, the owner of the Egg Harbor Township firm.
"The dive went like clockwork. We had a great team."
Peterson supervised a deep-water training session for James Eric Tidwell at a quarry near Lancaster.
On Friday, they departed from Utch's Marina on Brian Sullivan's 36-foot boat, the RV Explorer. It took two hours to reach the Jacob Jones, and with Peterson acting as his diving tour guide, Tidwell was able to spend 22 minutes exploring the wreck.
The experience "was one of the most patriotic things of my life," Peterson said.
