The Day that Lives in Infamy: Tales From Three Pearl Harbor Survivors

With the 65th anniversary of Pearl Harbor occurring this month, aging military veterans have planned a reunion that may be their “last hurrah.” It will take place in Honolulu, Hawaii, in December to commemorate Japan’s Dec. 7, 1941, surprise attack that drew the United States into World War II.

According to the Pearl Harbor Survivors Project, in 1941, the youngest Pearl Harbor survivors were in their teens and early 20s. Now, they are approaching their early-to-mid 80s, and frailties associated with advanced age may make this year’s 65th anniversary gathering and survivors summit the last official gathering.

On Dec. 7, 1941, the sneak attack began at 7.55 a.m. For almost two hours, the Japanese aerial attack sunk or damaged 21 American ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. America lost 188 aircraft and 159 were damaged on that unforgettable day. A total of 2,403 military personnel lost their lives, and the number of wounded reached 1,178. In addition, 68 civilians were killed. The Japanese lost only 29 planes - less than 10 percent of their attacking force.

Gary Hylander, a professor at Stonehill College says, “With 30,000 World War II veterans dying each month, it’s time to capture their stories.” To commemorate “the day that lives in infamy,” Senior Digest talked with three local veterans who share their eye witness accounts of the Japanese attack and reflect on Pearl Harbor,

At Schofield Barracks

At age 84, Lincoln resident Leo Lebrun remembers Pearl Harbor just like it was yesterday. In 1941, unemployment forced the then 19-year-old Lebrun to enlist at a United States Army recruiting office located at the main post office in Woonsocket.

After basic training at Fort Slocum in New York, the largest training facility east of the Mississippi River during World War II, Lebrun was stationed in Hawaii at the Schofield Barracks, assigned to C Battery, part of the 8th Field Artillery Hawaiian Division. (Japanese planes flew over Schofield Barracks on their way to bomb Wheeler Field and Pearl Harbor.)

Lebrun, a private, arrived at the Schofield Barracks complex six months before the Pearl Harbor attack. “It was really a beautiful place, just like a college campus,” remembers Lebrun.

When the Japanese attacked, Lebrun said he was on his way to Mass in a theater at Schofield. He saw low flying aircraft over the building. “We thought those planes were ours because it was not unusual to see planes flying overhead,” he told “Senior Digest.” “Strafing and dropping bombs” forced the soldier to run for safety inside the theater. By seeing the “red zeros” painted on the planes “we knew that they were Japanese,” he said.

After the attack, Lebrun went outside to help the wounded and found his best friend, 19-year-old George Roberts of Los Angeles, killed by strafing. “We were shocked, scared, and mad, but we were trained to handle it,” he said. It took more than two weeks for the military to notify Lebrun’s parents that he was not wounded in the attack.

According to Lebrun, the planes were flying so close to the buildings that some of his friends actually saw the faces of the pilots. If the Japanese planes came back in a second wave, he and the others who took shelter in the theater were ready. “We went to a supply room and grabbed 50-caliber machine guns. It was really difficult to hit [or damage a plane] with a 45 pistol,” he recalled.

After the sneak attack, Lebrun’s artillery unit was assigned to defend the Punch Bowl, a site overlooking Pearl Harbor. In that position, large howitzers protected the island from invading troops.

“The first night we shot at anything that moved. We killed a few mongooses,” he said, noting that even a few days after the attack, fire and heavy black smoke from the damaged ships about two miles away in the harbor was still visible.

Lebrun participated in five major campaigns against the Japanese, earning five battle stars. Once discharged as a corporal in August 1945, he married Irene Froment from Woonsocket. The couple recently celebrated 61 years of marriage. The Pearl Harbor veteran worked as a meat cutter. He was employed by Star Market for 39 years.

Serving on the USS Bagley

Eighty-four-year-old Carl Otto, a former police officer, now lives at Attleboro-based Christopher Heights, an assisted living facility. He remembers “seeing Japanese torpedo planes from the stern of the USS Bagley fire torpedoes at his ship and others at Pearl Harbor”.

Fresh out of boot camp in Newport, Seaman Second Class Otto chose to be assigned to the USS Bagley rather than being placed on a larger vessel such as an aircraft carrier or battleship. A five-day trip on a troop train got the young sailor to the West Coast. From Long Beach, Calif., the destroyer, manned by 150 sailors, sailed to Pearl Harbor, the ship’s home port.

The USS Bagley was moored at the Navy yard in Pearl Harbor for repairs when the Japanese sneak attack began. That early morning, Otto, working as a mess cook, finished his duties and went to the rear of the ship to eat a plain egg sandwich and drink coffee, sitting on the gun mount by his friends.

“At first we thought an approaching plane was Chinese. We just didn’t recognize the rising sun emblem,” he said.

“We actually saw the pilot waving to us with his plane only being about 100 feet away from our ship,” Otto noted, saying that the pilot “shot a fish [torpedo] at us.” A loud explosion a few minutes later confirmed to Otto that he indeed saw the torpedo that he believes hit the battle ship USS Tennessee.

General quarters called the sailors to their battle stations. Otto, serving as a powder man, quickly primed a 5-inch 38-caliber gun before a projectile was placed in it for firing. Otto recalls that more than 300 rounds of ammunition were fired from the ship’s four gun batteries that morning.

“The battle went by so fast,” Otto said, stressing that his gunnery training allowed him to go into “automatic” mode” when preparing the powder charges at his battle station. He clearly remembers looking toward battleship row and seeing the heavy smoke, intense fire and oil drenched water with some spots on fire.

During the aerial battle, “we were credited with downing the first Japanese plane that day,” Otto proudly notes. Crew members armed with 50-caliber machine guns also were credited with destroying the second and third plane that approached the USS Bagley. Only four sailors were “nicked” by shrapnel, and the ship received no direct hits. (The ship was later credited with downing five torpedo planes, one dive bomber and a high altitude bomber).

Before being discharged, Otto participated in eight major battles in the South Pacific. He returned to North Attleboro and married the former Pauline Dailey. Otto and his late wife raised five children.

From the Rooftop of Naval Hospital

Eighty-seven-year-old Eugene Marchand credits appendicitis with keeping him off the USS Cassin, which was in dry dock at the Navy yard the day of Pearl Harbor. During the Japanese attack, bombs and fire caused the 1,500 ton destroyer to roll off the blocks and capsize against the destroyer USS Downes, severely damaging both ships.
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Recuperating from surgery, the then 21-year-old Marchand watched the attack from the third floor roof top of the naval hospital. At first, the young sailor thought the flying aircraft were part of a “sham battle” between the Army and Navy. Seeing the “big red fire ball” emblems on the low flying planes and watching fire and smoke caused by dropped bombs and strafing, however, dispelled that notion.

“The Japanese planes flew so close to us we could have hit the planes with rifle fire,” Marchand claims. Nurses and fellow patients urged him to go back inside by warning him to watch out for deadly shrapnel. He noted that no bombs were dropped on the hospital.

While watching the battle, the former first class carpenter claims to have seen the first torpedo to hit Fort Island, a nearby amphibious base. After the attack, he was reassigned to the USS Whitney, a destroyer tender.

Marchand was discharged from service after fighting in two South Pacific battles. He married the former Elaine Degina from North Attleboro, and they raised six children. He was employed by local manufacturing companies and the city, retiring as a truck driver for the Highway Department.

With each passing year, thousands of Pearl Harbor survivors are dying. Through the Pearl Harbor Survivors Project, military and civilian survivors or their family members can share stories and play a vital role in rebuilding crew rosters of the ships docked in the harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Please call 1-866-PHStory or go to www.pearlharborstories.org.

Herb Weiss is a Pawtucket-based writer. His articles have been published in local, state-wide and national publications. He can be reached at hweissri@aol.com.