So shocking was the unprovoked attack that many expected Washington to declare war then and there. More than 40 servicemen and civilians were injured. Four people died – two US sailors, an oil tank captain, and an Italian journalist. Nine Nakajima fighters strafed the convoy with machine gun fire, shooting even on its lifeboats, while three Japanese Yokosuka rained down at least 20 132-pound bombs. On December 12, 1937, the US Navy river gunboat USS Panay and three Standard Oil Company tankers were evacuating American citizens trapped by Japan’s invasion of Nanjing when they were targeted from above in an attack that, like Pearl Harbor, stood out both for its mercilessness and the fact that the US and Japan were not at that time at war. A tribute to our instant celebrities.The USS Panay, at right, of the US Navy's Yangtze River Patrol is shown in Shanghai, China, in 1928. “I lost the ring, but got the girl,” Leon would joke. They pushed Leon back up the stairs before the ship’s magazine exploded below. You’re crazy, the guys down in the hold told him. He had spent over two months salary to buy an engagement ring for his high school sweetheart back home, and he wasn’t about to let it go down with the ship. As everyone was trying desperately to get off the heavily-damaged battleship USS Oklahoma, Leon was fighting to get below to his locker. He lost too many buddies that morning at Pearl Harbor to just stay silent.Īnd, there’s Leon Kolb, who almost gave his life for love that horrible morning. Some school principals didn’t want veterans to come talk to the kids, as if you could sweep Pearl Harbor under the rug. Ray Kuhlow could always be counted on to speak to school kids on Memorial Day or Veterans Day, telling them stories that were becoming harder and harder to find in history books. “They couldn’t bring themselves to and neither could I,” he said. Like Bill Aupperlee and his twin brother, Joe and his parents never talked about those three weeks. “My father got a telegraph saying I had died in the attack, but three weeks later he got another one saying I was alive,” he said. According to the military, Joe was one of them. Joe Mariani served on the USS California, which got hit hard, losing 87 men. “We joked with him that we couldn’t take him anywhere without drawing a crowd. “He may have been ‘grandpa’ to us, but anytime he donned his Pearl Harbor Survivor’s cap in public, he became an instant celebrity,” she wrote. His granddaughter, Lisa Lunny, sent me a heartfelt note to let me know he had passed. George Keene was the last active member of the association. “My brother and I talked about everything in our lives, but we never talked about that moment again.” “When we found each other later still alive, we hugged and shed a few tears, then got back to work,” he said. Bill was helping recover the bodies of the dead, praying he wouldn’t see his own face among them - his twin brother, also serving at Pearl. Nobody told the one about the morning after the attack when they cried. One by one, the last handful of members left from the local chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association got up to tell their favorite Aupperlee story, which always ended with a laugh. He could make an undertaker laugh, which he actually did at his own funeral. We weren’t walking softly anymore.īill Aupperlee had the Irish gift of gab. The survivors got up off the deck and picked up that big stick. The enemy left Pearl Harbor for dead that morning. More than 2,400 Americans were killed, and much of our naval fleet and the aircraft parked on them were either sunk or badly damaged. 7, 1941, our nation was sucker-punched by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service at Pearl Harbor. We haven’t forgotten and hopefully never will.Īs another president named Roosevelt said, “walk softly and carry a big stick.” These guys carried the stick.Įarly on the morning of Dec. Roosevelt promised would live in infamy - and it has. These are the guys who made a huge down payment 81 years ago today, on a date that President Franklin D. “Thank you,” they heard over and over again. They didn’t need to say a word as they walked down the street or sat in a restaurant together for their monthly meeting. They loved those white, sharp-looking Pearl Harbor Survivor caps they wore whenever they went out in public.
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