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 Expert
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Location: SE Louisiana | ... Stop and take time to remember All our veterans, alive and dead, past and present. Let me tell you a little bit about one of those people.
At the ripe age of 92, my father must be one of the very last living survivors that was actually on Ford Island out in Pearl Harbor when it was attacked on another Sunday morning with this same date... 73 years ago today.
Now, Ford Island sits IN the harbor at Pearl and it was the foundation for the docks where Battleship Row was anchored at. Just a short distance across this tiny island were the docks that the seaplanes (PBYs) were tied up. Dad was a 2nd Mech on a PBY. (VP-22) His first job of every day was to make sure all the engines on the aircraft he was assigned to would start on demand. He had just finished doing that job and was walking up the steps to the barracks when he heard an explosion. He stopped and turned around to see water spraying up from the PBY docks and he looked up to see the 2nd bomb of the day falling toward the same place. Those planes and the ones at Hickam Airfield were the 1st targets that day.. After the attack was over he spent the next 3 days on firefighting crews with very little rest.
He can and has told our family many stories about the war in the South Pacific. Mostly the job of VP-22 was anti-submarine warfare and flying along behind bombing missions so they could swing down and fish pilots out of the water after they had been shot down. They also did a lot of aerial reconnaissance.
After the war he rejoined civilian life until 1954 when he joined the Air Force. In the very late 50s the AF set about testing all it's people with a single goal in mind. They needed to locate the best people they could find to operate something new being installed in the Pentagon. It was called a computer. After the testing was done, they selected the people with the top 11 test scores. Dad was in that group of 11 people that were then sent off to be schooled by a company called IBM. After IBM taught them everything they could, they were then tested again. The results were to determine who would do the actual work on repairs that would be needed, and who those people would go to when they hit a snag. From that group would be chosen the 10 technicians to do the work, and the annalist that would point them to the hidden problems when they hit snags. This is how dad became the first computer annalist on the first Command And Control computers installed in the Pentagon. Now, these were vacuum tube computers. To put it into perspective, a computer that would do what the average laptop today will, would take up all the floorspace in the average Wal-Mart super center in your town.
There is a saying to be found on the internet today, and it goes like this. " There are two kinds of people in this world. Those that can extrapolate from incomplete data........" I wanna tell you folks something. It SUCKED having him for a dad. You could not get away with ANYTHING!! He could draw amazing conclusions from a very limited number of facts.
He held that job until March 1970 when he got the promotion he was waiting for from Staff Sargent to Tech Sargent, at which point he retired with a total of 20 years in the Armed Forces. We then moved to Missouri where he passed the Civil Service test with flying colors and put 20 more years in the USPS.
Dad quit school after the 8th grade and took to bumming around the western part of the USA. He was riding the rods one day when the train he was on took him through Southwestern Colorado. Something about that landscape fixated on his heart and he decided that was where he wanted to live out his life. All the time he was busy raising a family and loving my mother, he never forgot about that lonely part of the country. So when his duties as a husband and a father were done, that's where he moved. He now lives in Canyon City Co. surviving on two pensions and SS.. I called him on the phone the other day. His wonderful mind has begun to fade somewhat but he's still pretty sharp for his age of 92!! I never really loved my father but I respected him more than I can ever put into words. He raised us kids with a strict moral code that you don't often find today. I'm more proud of him than I can say... As dads go, I think he did a pretty darn good job.
Happy Holidays everybody!!!
Edited by komet. 2014-12-07 3:12 AM
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Expert
Posts: 1409
Location: Oklahoma | what a story! thanks for sharing! |
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Location: Friendswood, Texas | Thank you for sharing that incredible experience. My dad is 83 and forgets from time to time that my birthday is December 6th but he NEVER forgets December 7th is Pearl Harbor Day. Doesn't hurt my feelings a bit because that event was a major impact in his life long before I came around. The greatest generation....
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 As Good As I Once Was
Posts: 1211
Location: frozen tundra of pa | AWESOME story thank you for sharing a piece of history and they truly are the GREATEST generation! |
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  Angel in a Sorrel Coat
Posts: 16030
Location: In a happy place | Thank you for sharing your father's story with us. To use someone else's words they were just the greatest generation. Thank you to Komet's father and the many other men who selflessly saved our country and allowed us to live in this great country.
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 JMHO
Posts: 1869
Location: Oklahoma | Thank you for sharing! My Dad is a Vietnam Vet and retired from the Marines. I tell people that the man he is today isn't the man that raised me. Like you, I never really loved him either, but I respect him more than I can put into words too. |
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 Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11493
Location: 31 lengths farms | Bless him!!! |
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"Heck's Coming With Me"
Posts: 10794
Location: Kansas | My Uncle Alvin was at Pearl Harbor the day it was attacked at Hickam Field. He told me about a flight of B-17's coming from the mainland that were fired on by our own (after dark I believe). Because there was no radio communication they thought they were the enemy. I can't imagine the fear and confusion these guys must have been going through. Droplets of oil still surface from the Arizona everyday. |
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Expert
Posts: 4121
Location: SE Louisiana | Frodo - 2014-12-07 3:58 PM
My Uncle Alvin was at Pearl Harbor the day it was attacked at Hickam Field. He told me about a flight of B-17's coming from the mainland that were fired on by our own (after dark I believe). Because there was no radio communication they thought they were the enemy. I can't imagine the fear and confusion these guys must have been going through. Droplets of oil still surface from the Arizona everyday.
Oh yes.... This is one of the stories my dad tells... The whole world opened fire on those planes!!!! .. I had forgotten what kind they were and yes, it was after dark so identification was impossible without any radios.. |
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