Pearl Harbor survivors honored in Newport Beach recall attack’s ‘living hell’
It started like any other Sunday — warm and peaceful — on the U.S. naval base at Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor seven decades ago. It ended as a day that would live in infamy.
Six weeks shy of the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, 27 survivors from across Southern California were honored Wednesday in a ceremony attended by more than 100 guests at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach.
Swords were drawn and pointed upward to form an arch for the 11 survivors who attended the lunch as they entered the club’s ballroom. Many wore garrison caps adorned with pins and letters stitched on the side to denote their status as Pearl Harbor survivors.
Fifteen of the 27 who were honored — many of them in their late 90s — were not up to traveling to the lunch and did not attend. Another had died two weeks earlier, organizers said.
A slideshow with photos and details about each of the veterans was presented during the event, presented by the Orange County Council of the Navy League of the United States, an organization dedicated to educating people about the Navy and supporting those who serve and their families.
“The model you set was the ability to show character and perseverance through adversity,” Capt. Gregory Keithley, a retired Navy commodore, told the veterans in a speech during Wednesday’s event. “What you revealed that day was something greater than your own character. You revealed the character of America. For me, there was no greater benchmark than you and what you stood for.”
The survivors, whose ages range from 92 to 104, are part of a dwindling group who can recall in detail that morning 75 years ago, which forever altered their lives and launched America into World War II.
Just after 8 a.m., Japanese planes filled the sky over Pearl Harbor. Bullets and bombs rained down on the warships moored in the water as the Navy tried to secure the harbor and save as many men as possible. In all, nearly 2,500 were killed and 1,000 wounded.
Raymond Richmond of San Diego was one of several hundred sailors aboard the battleship USS Oklahoma during the attack. He described the scene in a letter shown during the ceremony as “one that Dante himself couldn’t have dreamed up.”
“Who would think that it could be turned into a living hell in the span of a few seconds,” he wrote. “There is no feeling in the world that compares with the knowledge that guns are ready to thunder straight at you.”
Guests shared conversation with some of the survivors as they dined on butter lettuce salad with passion fruit and coconut-crusted chicken at large round tables adorned with white linen tablecloths and American flags. A band played Hawaiian tunes as a woman hula-danced at the front of the room.
“For us as young men, it was a big thing for us to go through,” said Adam Romero of San Diego, who was aboard the destroyer tender USS Dobbin during the attack. “We lost a lot of friends.”
