Do you have any relatives that were at Pearl Harbor?

My grandmother's first cousin is still on the USS Arizona. Alvie Charles Fortenberry. My dad has her letters from him postmarked from the Arizona. The last one was in Sept. asking about back home and the rumors of war.

I had a friend that was there. He died two years ago at 101. He flew in the Pacific with my Dad.

We always spoke on December 7th. I miss those calls.

He was on Ford Island when the attack occurred. He told me he could close his eyes and see everything as if it was yesterday.

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Grandfather -passed away 25 years ago
He was a 17 year old merchant marine

I went there on a tour as a young kid with my parents. I knew what had happened. And saw an old man just bawling, and it made me cry for him.

My grandad wasn’t there: he just went and fought after that. But we took him to Hawaii a long time afterwards : God Bless those young men and women.

Eta: we had my grandparents with us. And my pop (grandpa) later fought in Bastogne. He was a paratrooper in 101st. Luckily, he survived, or I wouldn’t be typing. Only time I ever saw a tear come out of his eye was that day also. He would never talk about it. But we have video interview of his time in service. Some crazy stuff. Need to pull that up.

My BIL’s uncle, Ivan Huval, Covington, LA, was on the USS Arizona, and was killed in the ship’s explosion, and he is entombed in the ship’s wreckage.

“ In the final letter, dated Oct. 7, 1941, he wrote, "Believe it or not I have a promise to go home sometimes next month, say around Thanksgiving, oh! I'm so tickle and I hope it really happens that I can get a leave, something I long for a long time. Yes! It's funny but I still get homesick for home and the folks, can you beat it, a big boy like me getting soft and blue, but it's probable the dear Mother and Dad Sisters & Brother I have, don't you agree."

Any hope of that Thanksgiving leave ended the night of Oct. 22 when the Arizona and Oklahoma collided while practicing at sea. The Arizona remained at Pearl Harbor for repairs.

Mr. Huval's body was never recovered from the Arizona after it was bombed and sank. His sister, Ivalow Huval Ballay, saved the letters and her daughter, Carol Ann Marmande, shared them in 1996 with the Covington, Louisiana, branch of the St. Tammany Parish library. Mrs. Ballay died in 2000.”

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We sure do have it easy because of those Great Men

My grandad was there. Was at a bar drinking when the bombing started and ran back to his ship. And yes, I realize what time the raid the started. He died after coming back from the Korean War when my dad was just a few years old, so I never got to meet him. My Grandma told me he was in the water at Pearl for ~24 hours and he had bad pneumonia after getting back on land.

No Pearl Harbor but I had a great uncle that was stationed in the Philippines when the Japanese attacked. He was forced to go through the Bataan Death March and a Japanese POW camp but survived the war. Later in life he had an Asian nurse come in when he was on his death bed and he lost his shite.