LAKEPORT – Community members gathered Monday morning to remember the lost and honor the survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor 68 years ago.
The empire of Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Sunday, Dec. 7. 1941, would propel the United States into the second world war.
Lost were more than 2,400 souls and the United States' sense of security from the rest of the world's strife.
What emerged was a country that would rally to win wars in both the Pacific and European theaters, with Pearl Harbor becoming a symbol and a rallying point.
Due to especially frigid December temperatures expected Monday, the annual ceremony began in Library Park, where the flags on the Pearl Harbor Survivor's memorial mast were raised by the Sea Scouts, the United Veterans Council's Military Funeral Team fired off a rifle volley and a bugler played “Taps” before the gathering was moved across the street and into the council chambers at Lakeport City Hall.
In attendance were most of the county's Pearl Harbor survivors: Bill Slater, USS Pennsylvania; Walter Urmann, USS Blue; Clarence “Bud” Boner, USS Tennessee; Chuck Bower, US Sub Base, Pearl Harbor; Alice Darrow, whose husband Dean served aboard the USS West Virginia; and Vanya Leighton, whose late husband Fred was aboard the USS Ramsay.
Not attending Monday were Henry Anderson, USS Tennessee; Floyd Eddy, mine sweeper USS Trever; and Jim Harris, destroyer tender USS Dobbin, who is recovering from a recent surgery.
Ronnie Bogner, an honorary member of the local Pearl Harbor Survivors chapter, once again served as master of ceremonies.
The event's guest speaker was District 1 Supervisor Jim Comstock, a Vietnam veteran.
“It's a privilege to speak to you – for what you did, what you stand for,” he told the survivors.
Comstock called the two-hour attack on Pearl Harbor “one of the most tragic and memorable events in the history of America,” and an event that “awakened America to the horrible realities of war.”
The day after the attack, the US declared war on Japan; on Dec. 11, 1941, Germany and Italy declared war on the US.
Comstock told the survivors that they've served as an example for others. “We are striving to be what you are.”
Having visited Pearl Harbor – and the “hallowed ground” of the USS Arizona – for the first time this past summer, Comstock said he didn't know of a time when he was more touched by the actions of Americans.
He said the Japanese were right when they worried about awakening a sleeping giant. Comstock said there were many giants – ordinary people acting in extraordinary ways to defend God and country.
During the ceremony the late Fred Leighton's son, Mark, performed a song he wrote about his father, titled, “Don't call me a hero.”
“My dad is a hero, at least in my eyes,” Leighton sang. The song's lyrics also included the passage, “Son, I wasn't perfect, and neither were the rest.”
Randy Ridgel, US Navy retired, read the names of the local men who had survived the attack but had died over the years. Young Desmond O'Connor, a former Sea Scout who is now in his first year of the US Navy's nuclear program, tolled a bell for the dead.
During the “ships and station” portion of the ceremony, survivors recounted where they were during the attack.
Boner was in the USS Tennessee's No. 3 turret when it was hit by a bomb. He had closed a fireproof door before the bomb hit and so was safe; he waited there until 3:30 p.m. that day. The bomb, he noted, “wiped out most of my division.”
Alice Darrow recounted how her husband, Dean, was aboard the USS West Virginia, which was tied to the USS Arizona. When the Arizona exploded, Dean Darrow was blown off his ship and into the water.
As he was being picked up by a rescue boat, a Japanese plane flew overhead, strafing the water, and he was hit by a bullet which lodged in his heart. It was removed in an April 1942 surgery at Mare Island, where his future wife was a Navy nurse. They were married several months later.
Walter Urmann, who first heard an explosion on Ford Island and then saw the Japanese plane fly over his ship, the USS Blue, noted, “I thank God for every day I've got.”
In order to return fire, they had to cut down awnings over their guns and cut the locks off because their captain, who was away, had the keys.
Urmann also heard the USS Arizona blow up. “It was the biggest thing I ever heard in my life.”
During the attack, a warhead dropped on the USS Blue's deck and rolled around as they were trying to leave the harbor. Urmann said they were able to remove the ship's lifelines to let the warhead roll off into the water. Had it exploded, it could have killed them all.
His ship later joined the rest of the fleet; when they returned to Pearl Harbor, “I couldn't believe the destruction we saw,” he recalled, explaining that the memories are still fresh in his mind.
Chuck Bower, stationed on the US Sub Base, recalled getting calls the day before the attack from the Pearl Harbor duty officer, who said something was hitting the nets and trying to get into the harbor. When Bower passed the information to his duty officer, the man simply said, “Very well, log it.” The attack came the next day.
He humorously recalled volunteering to drive a truck to pick up a load of warheads on the island when he had never driven a truck before.
Vanya Leighton recalled how her husband had bullets whiz by him as he stood on the deck of the USS Ramsay. Later in the war, the ship was sent to the Aleutian Islands near Alaska, but the men weren't outfitted with warm clothing, and so they spent a lot of time huddling in the engine room.
What Dec. 7 means may best have been summed up by Bill Slater, who was aboard the USS Pennsylvania on that fateful morning.
“I like to think of all the guys who didn't make it,” he said, “and that's what this day is all about.”
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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