It was Sunday, December 7, 1941. I arose about 7:00 A.M., went outside and began to hoe in our garden. It was a beautiful day, typical of the Islands, warm, balmy air, cloudless and the sky light blue.
While working away, I heard the drone of many airplanes and soon they were all around. Everywhere I looked, they were to be seen. They were circling around and darting in and out over the hangars of Hickam Field which was about a mile or so south of our house and also over Pearl Harbor which lay about a mile and a half to the west. The sound of machine gun fire and other explosions began to mingle with the noise of the airplanes.
The noise got Isolene up and she came out to watch. After a few minutes, she said, "Ronald would certainly enjoy this", and went in the house and got him out of bed. She was right; he certainly did. I did myself, and remarked, "This sure beats any Fourth of July celebration I have ever seen."
Airplanes were coming and going, some were diving. The noise was tremendous. It was quite exciting. They were flying rather recklessly, I thought, and more than once appeared to be in danger of colliding. One airplane went down trailing fire and smoke; another appeared to be in difficulty and coming down at top speed. The scene became more exciting as time passed, not only were many airplanes flying around, but fast ones roared by only a few hundred feet over our heads, shaking the house with their noise. War in Hawaii
It was a beautiful Sunday morning and I was dressing to go ashore. Me and my buddies planned to go to Aiea Landing to swim and play on the beach. It was 7:40 AM and I was anxiously waiting for 8:00 for the presentation of colors. http://www.ibiblio.org/phha/Elmer.html
Thank God for those who fought and survived and God bless those who never made it back.
Long may she wave
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