For those of us who have lived in Hawaii, this date is marked in our minds every year. As it happens, my grandfather was assigned to the USS Honolulu, based at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. My grandfather rushed to join the crew of the USS Honolulu to save the ship while my grandmother took their two boys to safety at a relative's house on Mt. Tantalus. From there my dad and my uncle watched the attack on Pearl Harbor.
4 comments:
Thank you for remembering. I used to sit by my swimming pool, which was on the edge of Pearl harbor and just gaze out at the peacefulness and reflect on the day. When I visited my friend's house on Ford Island, you could still put your finger in the bullet holes in the house (this was 1974). The football field at Radford High is built atop a pit which was dug to dump a lot of the debris from the attack.
wm.
I didn't know that about the Radford Football Field. I do know that it's now named for Mr. V. I bet that house is still there on Ford Island, though! My house dated back - I thought it was built in the 30s but now I am not so sure. When was Makalapa built, I wonder?
bb
I think those are also pre-WWII, I know the CINPACFLT HQ is from pre-WWII. I seem to remember that Adm. Kimmel was living in quarters there and watched the attack - that's where a weak bullet bounced off his chest.
Did you live in Makalapa? I was in some new buildings which were built in the late 60's and torn down in the 90s.
I'm glad the field is named the Velasco field - it's fitting.
Oh, and I heard the story about the field being built on top of a dump from Coach V himself - he was talking with Ron Honda, the swim coach and Al Bader, the track coach.
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