Pearl Harbor survivor recalls attack
NORTH UNION TWP. – It was 7:53 a.m. when the first plane hit. The second struck at 8:55 a.m., crippling the United States’ Pacific fleet and launching the country into World War II. Without warning, Japanese carrier-based planes bombed Pearl Harbor located on the southern coast of Oahu Island, Hawaii, that early morning of Dec. 7, 1941.
Oliver West, 80, of Charleroi clearly remembers these horrific series of events. Just six months into his four years of service, West was stationed about 10 miles out of Pearl Harbor at the Schofield Barracks 25th Infantry Division.
It was a Sunday morning and most of those on base were in church. There was a party the night before.
West, then 17, awoke around 6 a.m. He remembered he stashed a pitcher of beer in the cook’s refrigerator. While drinking it, he took a seat on the quadrangle where revelry was held. In a short period of time, he saw the smoke.
“I thought they were doing maneuvers,” West remembered. “I said, ‘Maneuvers on a Sunday?’ What was going on here?'”
He then witnessed the planes travel through a triangular gap in the mountains.
“It came down right through the pali right on the gap,” West said.
Through a spray of bullets, West watched a cook buckle. The man held his leg. He had been hit. The cook stood about 50 to 80 yards from where West sat on a curb.
The unexpected attack caused people to run for cover. Most of the ammunition and guns were locked up with only one person on base possessing the key.
“We might as well threw apples at them,” West said.
As the planes flew overhead, West could see the Japanese pilots as clear as someone standing in front of him. First went the torpedo planes; next flew a mixture, he said.
He said the scatter of bullets just missed a supply of combustible containers.
“If it would have hit that, it would have blew up that whole island,” West said.
Military officers rushed from church calling for soldiers to grab whatever they could and head to the beach where machine guns were jack hammered into the shoreside coral. The base was under a Class A alert.
“Four or five men from my outfit ran to the kitchen,” West said. “I grabbed clothes.”
The soldiers were prepared to begin shooting, speculating that Japanese troops would make a landing by boat. The landing never happened, and by 1 p.m. the carriers that launched the planes from 274 miles off the coast of Oahu were heading back to Japan.
The U.S., with Britain as an ally, declared war on Japan the next day.
At a Pearl Harbor remembrance service held at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8543 on Tuesday, a number of West’s comrades thanked him for his service.
Steve Winsler said his uncle Joseph J. Winsler was at Pearl Harbor.
“When they bombed, he just got off the boat when it exploded,” Winsler said about his Uncle Joe.
“I attended today in his memory as well as the others who were killed defending their country,” Winsler said.
According to the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, military casualties were 2,280 killed and 1,109 wounded, while 68 civilians also died. Nineteen naval vessels, including eight battleships, were sunk or severely damaged and 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed.
Speaking to the crowd, Donald Burkholder, adjutant with American Legion Post 301 in Connellsville, called the bombing of Pearl Harbor “one hellacious moment in time.
“To get through what those guys got through was unbelievably heroic,” Burkholder said.
“They did it for America,” he added.
Today, Pearl Harbor is a national historic landmark that greets more than 1.5 million people every year. A floating memorial has been built over the sunken hulk of the USS Arizona, while the battleship Missouri, site of Japan’s surrender, is also preserved as a memorial.