My Uncle George Begany was in the Navy stationed at Pearl Harbor, during that historic time.

He never talked about it except saying one thing: "All we could do was stack the bodies."

My uncle went on serving in the Pacific during the war, almost dying of a head wound. He ended up with a metal plate in his skull.

My uncle never complained or expected to be treated any differently than any other servicemen.

I met a couple of Bataan survivors. Pretty impressive that they held no animosity.

My parents' next door neighbor is a Pearl Harbor survivor. He attends these events each year. I got to interview him for my 4th grade state report project, since I had Hawaii.

One of my high school classmate's grandfather was British soldier held prisoner by the Japanese. Apparently he didn't starve completely due to be adept at catching little lizards and eating them.

On the morning of 11 May 1945, while supporting the invasion of Okinawa, the Bunker Hill was crashed and severely damaged by two Japanese kamikaze planes. An A6M Zero fighter plane emerged from low cloud cover, dove toward the flight deck and dropped a 550-pound (250 kilogram) bomb that went all the way through the aircraft carrier and then exploded in the ocean. The Zero next crashed onto the carrier's flight deck, destroying parked warplanes full of aviation fuel and ammunition, causing a huge fire. The remains of the Zero went over the deck and dropped into the sea. Then, a short 30 seconds later, a second Zero, piloted by Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, plunged into its suicide dive. The Zero went through the antiaircraft fire, dropped a 550-pound bomb, and then crashed into the flight deck near the carrie's "island", as kamikazes were trained to aim for the island superstructure. The bomb penetrated the Bunker Hill's flight deck and exploded. Gasoline fires flamed up and several explosions took place. The crew of the Bunker Hill suffered from the loss of 346 sailors and airmen killed, 43 more missing (and never found), and 264 wounded.

I had a relative who saw those two kamikaze planes on his radar scope. He told his superior officer more than once there were two planes approaching. No other operator saw them.

It turned out his scope was out of sync with everyone else's display.

Baz the Spaz: Thanks for putting up the reference to the USS Bunker Hill. My dad served on it, but after the attack and after she was repaired.

There is an excellent book that came out a year ago or so about the Bunker Hill attack.

Dangers Hour: The Story of the USS Bunker Hill and the Kamikazi Pilot Who Crippled Her (new window)

Thanks for the title. I'll have to have a read.

Not having read the book, my relative said the two planes came from the north and the reason why no-one else saw them on their screens was his screen was about 2 or 3 degrees out of sync. I wonder if his story will jibe with the book.

I do know he told his officer he was going to go out on the fan deck of the Oakland--she was a little ways in front of the Bunker Hill--and watch the kamikazes come in.

Darth_Lukecash: My Uncle George Begany was in the Navy stationed at Pearl Harbor, during that historic time.

He never talked about it except saying one thing: "All we could do was stack the bodies."

My uncle went on serving in the Pacific during the war, almost dying of a head wound. He ended up with a metal plate in his skull.

My uncle never complained or expected to be treated any differently than any other servicemen.
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At least now, he has a place to put that magnetic St. Christopher statue.
All the dashboards now are plastic.

The Pearl Harbor Survivors Association is turning over their assets and education mission to The Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors, just as the successor-in-interest to the Grand Army of the Republic (the massive, and politically powerful association of U.S. (not C.S.) veterans of the American Civil War) is the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. The GAR was disbanded in 1956 when its last member died; two years later, the PHSA was founded.

We now think of veterans' organisations as perpetually-existing, like the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Marine Corps League, et al., and see the PHSA with its eventual extinction a foregone conclusion as a curious anomaly, but that used to be the norm. After a war, campaign, or significant battle, the veterans would form clubs or organisations to commiserate with each other, spend time with people who (unlike their families and other friends) understand, and remember their dead comrades. The American Legion was originally just for veterans of the World War. Well into WWII, they saw the once-mighty GAR's death eminent, and contrasted that with the VWF's perpetual existence model; so the Legion amended their bylaws to admit WWII veterans (and later, others).