Jay Groff, 89, served in the Army Air Corps Rescue Boat Service at Pearl Harbor, Oahu. Groff was in bed as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor began, which he says probably saved his life. Groff calls the attack the most important day of the 20th century, adding that "the world changed for the United States." He goes on to say, "I grew up overnight.... That morning, I realized that there was somebody out there trying to kill me. That changed my outlook on life." Groff is seen at his home in Springfield, Va. on Nov. 21, 2011. (T.J. Kirkpatrick/ The Washington Times)
This photograph, from a Japanese film later captured by American forces, is taken aboard the Japanese aircraft carrier Zuikaku, just as a Nakajima "Kate" B-5N bomber is launching off deck for the second wave of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. (AP Photo)
This picture, taken by a Japanese photographer, shows how American ships are clustered before the surprise Japanese aerial attack on Pear Harbor, Hawaii, on Sunday morning, Dec. 7, 1941. Minutes later, the full impact of the assault was felt, and Pearl Harbor became a flaming target. (AP Photo)
A Japanese bomber on a run over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii is shown during the surprise attack of Dec. 7, 1941. Black smoke rises from American ships in the harbor. Below is a U.S. Army air field. (AP Photo)
Harris Bircher, 92, was thrown from the U.S.S. West Virginia as it was struck by seven torpedoes and three bombs in the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. In the weeks after the attack, the Navy reported him missing and a funeral was held in his home town of Dubuque, Iowa. Bircher retired from the Navy after 20 years of service, settling down in California before moving several years ago to the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington, D.C., where he is seen on Nov. 17, 2011. (T.J. Kirkpatrick/ The Washington Times)
In this Dec. 7, 1941 file photo provided by the U.S. Navy, a Navy launch pulls up to the blazing USS West Virginia to rescue a sailor during the attack on Pearl Harbor. An excavation crew recently made a startling discovery at the bottom of Pearl Harbor when it unearthed a skull that archeologists suspect is from a Japanese pilot who died in the historic attack. Archaeologist Jeff Fong of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Pacific described the discovery to The Associated Press and the efforts under way to identify the skull. He said the early analysis has made him "75 percent sure" that the skull belongs to a Japanese pilot. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy, file)
Jay Groff, 89, served in the Army Air Corps Rescue Boat Service at Pearl Harbor, Oahu. Groff was in bed as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor began, which he says probably saved his life. Groff calls the attack the most important day of the 20th century, adding that "the world changed for the United States." He goes on to say, "I grew up overnight.... That morning, I realized that there was somebody out there trying to kill me. That changed my outlook on life." Groff is seen at his home in Springfield, Va. on Nov. 21, 2011. (T.J. Kirkpatrick/ The Washington Times)
Sailors stand among wrecked airplanes at Ford Island Naval Air Station as they watch the explosion of the USS Shaw in the background, during the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. (AP Photo)
Steve Krawczyk, 93, enlisted in the Army Air Corps and was stationed at Hickam Field, Oahu for two years prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. He describes those two years as serene, and says the attack "was like going 180-degrees." Once he and his comrades saw the Japanese planes overhead, "we knew immediately that we were at war." Krawczyk retired in 1945 as a Technical Sergeant and didn't talk much about his experience in the attack until much later in his life. Krawczky is seen at his home in Manassas, Va. on Dec. 1, 2011. (T.J. Kirkpatrick/ The Washington Times)
This is one of the first pictures of the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. A P-40 plane which was machine-gunned while on the ground. (AP Photo)
Clarence Davis, 88, enlisted in the Navy at 17 and joined the U.S.S. Medusa repair ship as a Seaman 2nd Class once he arrive at Pearl Harbor. Though he trained to be a radio operator, Davis was working as a mess cook until the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. After the attack he was put on radio work full time, and served on nine ships and worked at three schools over course of his 20 years in the service. Davis retired a Senior Chief and eventually became a president of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association. Davis is seen at his home in Charlotte Hall, Md. on Oct. 18, 2011. (T.J. Kirkpatrick/ The Washington Times)
Troops man a machine gun nest at Wheeler Field, which adjoins Schofield Barracks in Honolulu, after the Japanese attack on the island of Oahu, Dec. 7, 1941. (AP Photo)
A Japanese dive bomber goes into its last dive as it heads toward the ground in flames after it was hit by Naval anti-aircraft fire during surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. (AP Photo)
Officers' wives, investigating explosion and seeing smoke pall in distance on Dec. 7, 1941, heard neighbor Mary Naiden, then an Army hostess who took this picture, exclaim "There are red circles on those planes overhead. They are Japanese!" Realizing war had come, the two women, stunned, start toward quarters. (AP Photo/Mary Naiden)
Edward Davis, 90, enlisted in the Army at 17 and was stationed at Schofield Barracks on Oahu during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Davis spent much of his life in the Army, working up to 1st Sergeant through service in the South Pacific during WWII, in Germany and Korea during the Korean War, and on three tours of Vietnam in the late 1960s. Davis was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder after his WWII service, then known as "shell-shock", and now battles with Parkinson's disease that he says is the result of Agent Orange exposure during his time in Vietnam. Davis lives at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington, D.C., seen on Nov. 17, 2011. (T.J. Kirkpatrick/ The Washington Times)
In this Dec. 7, 1941 file picture, the battleship USS Arizona belches smoke as it topples over into the sea during a Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. (AP Photo)
FILE - In this Dec. 7, 1941 file photo provided by the ... more >Edward Davis still can’t believe he made it out alive.
The 90-year-old Army veteran, who has Parkinson’s disease and lives at D.C.’s Armed Forces Retirement Home, still can recall the attack on Pearl Harbor 70 years ago.
“I saw how easy, how fast, it is to die,” said Mr. Davis, who went on to fight in World War II, the Korean conflict and the Vietnam War.
Mr. Davis is one of an estimated 8,000 U.S. veterans of the attack still living. The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that veterans of World War II are dying at a rate of roughly 1,000 per day. Of the 16 million Americans who served in the war, approximately 2.5 million are still alive.
When Mr. Davis enlisted in 1940 at age 17, he was given the choice of where to serve. He chose Pearl Harbor, having heard glowing reports of the “beautiful girls and nice weather” in Hawaii, a stark contrast to his upbringing in the rugged coal region of Pennsylvania.
That decision led to his first brush with death on Dec. 7, 1941. As a young man, Mr. Davis quickly learned how fragile life can be.
The infamous Japanese sneak attack claimed the lives of nearly 2,400 servicemen and women, some of whom Mr. Davis considered friends.
“It was the first time I’d ever seen death like that. I never realized you could die so easily. It’s something that can haunt you. I never forgot.”
Mr. Davis eventually received a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, commonly known as “shell shock” during his days in the military. He also undergoes speech therapy sessions to blunt his worsening Parkinson’s symptoms.
To this day, he ponders why his fellow soldiers were maimed or killed, yet he returned home without physical injury.
“Three wars. I’ve been bombed, I’ve been shot at by machine guns, by airplanes, I’ve been shelled. I don’t understand why I wasn’t hit,” he said. “I never knew when I was going to go, when it was going to hit me. It could’ve happened in any of the three wars. I lived on the edge, there ain’t no doubt about it.”
Since the 1950s, Mr. Davis and others have kept their legacies alive through the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, but the group will disband at the end of the year. Its members are nearing 90 years older, and many have serious health problems.
“It was just getting to be too much for them. The youngest survivors are 88 years old,” said Carol Gladys, the daughter of a Pearl Harbor survivor and secretary of Sons and Daughters, Pearl Harbor Survivors Inc. It’s been in existence since the 1970s, but now will play a much larger role in ensuring the stories aren’t forgotten.
“I think we have a lot of work ahead of us. You walk up to a lot of younger people and ask them what the USS Arizona was, and they have no idea,” Ms. Gladys said. “The younger generation, they have no idea what happened in Hawaii.”
Harrowing memories
After the USS Arizona was hit by Japanese bombs, it sank within nine minutes. Most other damaged ships were at least partly salvaged, but much of the battleship Arizona remains on the harbor’s floor. Photographs of its destruction became some of the most lasting images of the attack that led the U.S. to enter Word War II.
Another ship, the USS West Virginia, was hit by seven torpedoes and three bombs. Harris Bircher recalls being thrown from the ship by the force of the blasts.
Shortly after the attack, the Navy reported Mr. Bircher missing in action. A funeral was held in his hometown of Dubuque, Iowa. He was unaware that his family and friends assumed he had been killed until days later when he was reassigned aboard the USS San Francisco.
“Later on, I got word that I’d been reported missing and that they had a funeral and all of that. I was just glad that it wasn’t for real,” said Mr. Bircher, now 92 and also living in the District’s Armed Forces Retirement Home.
As the West Virginia burned and the Arizona quickly descended into the water, chaos reigned on Oahu Island. The surprise assault destroyed many of the fighter planes stationed at the base, crippling America’s ability to fight back.
That didn’t stop Steve Krawczyk, who had been on his way to church the morning of Dec. 7, and his comrades in the Army Air Corps 22nd Materiel Squadron from grabbing rifles from a storage depot and firing at the Japanese aircraft overhead.
“It gave us the satisfaction of fighting back,” said Mr. Krawczyk, 93. “There were planes just barreling over the field with the identifying rising sun insignias. Immediately, we knew they were Japanese. And immediately we knew that we were at war. We went from peaceful existence to being blasted.”
Like Mr. Davis, Mr. Krawczyk chose Pearl Harbor over other destinations. He arrived in 1939, and his first two years of service were “pleasant,” he said.
“When the attack came, it was like going 180 degrees from a serene setting to being attacked,” Mr. Krawczyk said.
As he watched a Japanese plane heading right for him, he squeezed underneath a raised sidewalk, fearing the worst. The plane ultimately bombed a target behind him, and he escaped unharmed.
“That was as close as I ever came to being terrified,” he said.
“The thing that carried us through that raid was the fact that the service people we had at that time averaged about 19 years of age,” he said. “And it was the resiliency of youth, you might say, that carried us through that trying period.”
Other servicemen had similar experiences on the island. Pearl Harbor, they had been told, was one of the safest places for them to be.
“Maybe we were subject to our own propaganda. We were told Pearl Harbor was impregnable,” said Jay Groff, 89, who served in the Army Air Corps Rescue Boat Service and now lives in Springfield. “You couldn’t get anywhere near it. Nobody could get close to us.”
Opening up
Despite the death and destruction around them, Mr. Krawczyk, Mr. Groff and others fought back. Japanese losses during the attack were light, with the Imperial Navy losing fewer then 70 men. But even with diminished firepower and compromised defenses, the young defenders of Pearl Harbor didn’t give up.
That resiliency helped Mr. Davis, Mr. Krawczyk and the entire nation to regroup to defeat Japan and its allies. Many Pearl Harbor survivors remained largely mum after the attack, often unwilling to recount the trauma they endured.
For many of them, there was simply no time to sit and reflect.
“We never talked much about Pearl Harbor. We just felt that we had to fight a war, to go back and retaliate,” said Clarence Davis, 88, who served as a mess cook in the Navy at the time of the attack but later became a radio operator. He would go on to serve on nine different ships during World War II, and retired after 20 years serving his country.
“Even for the rest of the war, I didn’t think about it,” he said of his experience at Pearl Harbor.
As time has worn on, however, Mr. Davis and others have opened up and shared their experiences.
Such harrowing stories and personal accounts have helped define the Pearl Harbor attack as more than a singular historical event. Within that event are thousands of stories, some which have not been fully told.
“There are others who haven’t talked much about it,” Ms. Gladys said. “Part of the problem is, I knew my dad was there, but I didn’t ask questions, and he didn’t come out freely and talk about it. Mostly, though, they’ve started talking as they’ve gotten older. Maybe it’s because we all kept saying, ‘Please, share with us.’ We don’t want to lose these memories. This is a part of history.”
© Copyright 2013 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
Ben Wolfgang is a national reporter for The Washington Times. Before coming to the Times, he spent four years as a political reporter in Pennsylvania. His focus is on education and science policy. Ben lives in southeast D.C. and has played guitar in several bands while still in Pennsylvania. He can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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