70 years later, they'll always remember Pearl Harbor

Local residents and those with ties to the area shared their memories of the attack on Pearl Harbor, which took place 70 years ago today, with the Democrat’s Latisha Koetting.

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William Richards, of Sedalia

On Dec. 7, 1941, William Richards was on the USS Pennsylvania in Drydock No. 1 in the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard in Hawaii for repairs.

He ate breakfast at 5 a.m., and the first wave of attack came about 8 a.m.

“You didn’t have time to think. As soon as they sounded the bugler on the big speaker, that’s when we knew we were in trouble,” Richards said. “I ran on the topside to my station, which was to get ready to fire.”

The Pennsylvania was one of the first ships to open fire on the enemy. “I jumped down and started handling the shells myself. I was supposed to have been killed, there’s no doubt about it,” Richards said.

The destroyers Cassin and Downes were in front of the Pennsylvania. When the Japanese dive bombers were attempting to hit the Pennsylvania, their incendiary bombs hit the destroyers instead. A massive fire developed, and eventually the Cassin tipped over against the Downes.

Richards remembers one bomb landed on the Pennsylvania. Several men were killed and a 3-inch armory was blown up close to Richards. He said the Japanese planes came so close to the ship, he could see the machine gun operator in the rear of the aircraft. The crew of the Pennsylvania received credit for shooting down five Japanese planes.

John E. Vannoy, formerly of Cole Camp

“I was standing on deck of the USS Phoenix when one of my shipmates spotted planes flying low and preparing to bomb battleship row at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7.

“Before the attack on the harbor, the USS Phoenix, a CL-46 Brooklyn class cruiser, had just finished convoying two ships to the Philippines, which took about a month. We arrived back at Pearl on Dec. 6 and anchored. We had liberty on Saturday night and all returned early the next morning.

“I could see the planes repeatedly hitting the USS Arizona and other battleships with bombs. The Japanese focused their efforts on the Arizona, one plane after another. I also saw them attack the dry docks and sub-base repeatedly. We remained at anchor for the first 30 minutes of the attack. During this time, I briefly saw a small submarine in shallow water near battleship row.

“Next, I was ordered below with several other seamen to the powder magazine. We were told to move the 6-inch powder charges away from the hull to the center of the ship. This was to reduce the chance of the magazine detonating should a torpedo or bomb hit us. While I was below deck, the ship took up steam and headed out to harbor.

“The Phoenix avoided another full-sized Japanese submarine on the way out of the harbor, and we continued to the West Coast. The USS Phoenix was not hit during the attack on Pearl Harbor. In fact, it was called the Lucky Lady because it was never hit during the war.”

Harold O’Connor, formerly of Sedalia

Harold B. O’Connor didn’t want to die without at least wearing a T-shirt when Pearl Harbor was attacked.

“We went from, you might say, paradise to hell in one morning. Of course, the morning of December 7, there were bombs dropping everywhere, torpedoes exploding,” O’Connor said. He was getting dressed when the bombs started falling. He was forced to defend the attack shirtless.

During and after the attack, workdays became long, with no one to relieve him and his fellow sailors from their duties, said O’Connor, who spent almost four years stationed in Hawaii.

Although the attack at Pearl Harbor was unexpected, O’Connor said, it wasn’t a complete surprise that Japan had lashed out against the United States.

“It was a day we had let our defenses down. The Army and the Navy. And we were not prepared for the attack,” he said. “I realized — maybe some in the upper echelons didn’t — but we knew diplomatic relations with Japan were going downhill all the time. We knew the Japanese were on the verge of getting into the war against us. Why we never prepared for the unexpected at Pearl, I’ll never know.”

Wilbur Dice, of Warrensburg

“My brother William Eugene ‘Gene’ Dice joined the Navy to see the world soon after graduation from Cameron High School in 1940. After boot camp at Great Lakes, Illinois, he was assigned sea duty aboard the USS West Virginia battleship.

“On the afternoon of Dec. 7, my father who was a road district supervisor and I were driving the roads in his district to see what road maintenance needed to be done the following week. We stopped for gas and the proprietor, who knew my brother was on the West Virginia, called us in to hear the news.

“We learned that the West Virginia had gone down, and needless to say, our family was in a state of shock for several days till we got a short note from Gene saying he was OK and was being reassigned to a confidential location.

“Gene never talked about what happened at Pearl Harbor and when they came out with the Pearl Harbor Survivor’s Medal, he wouldn’t submit the paperwork for it, so I submitted it.

“On that morning, he was getting ready to go on daily shore leave. He had gone to the communal latrine wearing only underclothing and clogs and was actually sitting on the john when the first bomb struck. Later, a bomb struck blowing him out into the water. After he regained his senses, he decided to try to swim to Ford Island, which is there in the harbor.

“He sometimes had to swim underwater to avoid surface fires. He said he was highly embarrassed that when he got to Ford Island, he had lost his underclothing and had to seek help getting out of the water while being completely naked. The only injury he received was a tiny piece of shrapnel in his lower leg, which he never had removed until the 1990s. He said the worst part of the ordeal was helping to clean up the mess after the attack and he was glad to be reassigned.”

Gene died in 2001.

Jack Baker, of La Monte

“I was 13 years old when the Japs attacked Pearl Harbor. I was familiar with the place as a schoolmate had a brother stationed there. He went down on the Oklahoma but was always a fast thinker and swam out of a porthole and up into fire and oil. He kept resurfacing and made his way to open water and was picked up by a rescue boat.

“We had no operating radio and our hired man had installed a radio in his car and told of us the attack.

“We lived in eastern Nebraska on a farm and I was on my way to do the milking of our cows. I could think of nothing else while milking.”

Mary Frances Herndon, of Sedalia

“December 7, 1941. Yes, I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing. We lived with my grandparents on a farm near Hughesville. We had just returned from attending church at First Christian in Sedalia. I was 11 years old. Grandpa was sitting in his chair reading the newspaper. He had the radio on, which was beside his chair. I was standing behind him.

“Suddenly, a special report came on and that was the terrible news about Pearl Harbor. I couldn’t understand why the family was so upset. I had never heard of Pearl Harbor. They explained it to me and I guess because everyone else was crying, I cried, too. Little did I know what that news would mean for our country and the entire world.

“Not long after that, my brother, John McCurdy, joined the Army. He later transferred to the Air Force where he attained the rank of captain and was a communications officer. My brother-in-law, Leon Wells, and my cousin, Robert McCurdy, both joined the Marines. All three of them returned home safe and sound. We all worried about them and prayed for them.

“I remember the gas rationing, sugar and other things too. Life seemed to change for everyone.”

Lucille K. Arnst, of Tipton

“On December 7, 1941, I was less than a month away from my 18th birthday. My soon-to-be husband and I had enjoyed Sunday dinner with his folks on their farm southwest of Tipton. After dinner we decided to head on over to my house, which was north of town because we figured there would be more going on in a household with my six siblings and their friends.

“We started up the mile long country lane that led to the main county road. The cattle guards had not yet been installed, so therefore we had to open and close several gates along the way. He had gotten out to open the final gate, when I decided to switch on the car radio.

“We sat in stunned silence as the news broadcast about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor came across the airways. We were not even sure where Pearl Harbor was located. This could not be happening. The initial shock was unbelievable. At that point we had no idea how this act of aggression would affect the lives of millions of people, including ours.

“Shortly thereafter, both of my older brothers joined the Navy. We were married in January, but my husband had a severely damaged heart from childhood rheumatic fever and was declared 4F. In order to assist the war effort, we both worked in the defense plants, building planes. We decided to go to San Diego, where we worked at Consolidated and then returned to Kansas City, Kansas, to work at North American Aviation — two naive country kids suddenly in a large city half way across the country, which was nothing compared to all the boys serving halfway around the world in hostile territory. Everyone did their part for the war effort from the rationing coupons to buying war bonds.   

Lois Lewis, of Sedalia

“Oh my God, I remember that,” Lois Lewis said. She was working for a radio company that made walkie-talkies in Kansas City at the time of the attack. She was 17. She heard the news over the radio and immediately called her boss in to hear it. She doesn’t remember the attack as much as she remembers the ones who left to go to war afterward.

Helen Seifert, of Sedalia

When the Japanese attacked, Helen Seifert was stationed in Texas.

“That was a real surprise to hear about all of that going on and thank goodness they got rid of them. That was audacity, wasn’t it? To think they could come in and just do that?” asked Helen Seifert.

She was in her early 20s when she joined the Navy. “I had a great need to see the world and I also needed to do something that would be proper for such a time. I was a patriotic person. I loved my country, I do to this day. I thought, ‘Well I’ll do something,’ so I got in like that.”

Her family was made up of women mostly, but she was the only one who served. Her mother felt that every girl who went to school should become a teacher. “Well, that wasn’t my cup of tea. I went to school all right, but I didn’t want to get involved in teaching.”
She was eventually sent to Pearl Harbor. At that time, it was more rural than it is now.

“I was glad to be a part of all of that, because that was history in the making,” she said.

Catherine Edwards, of Sedalia

On Nov. 27, 1941, Catherine Edwards married Paul Edwards. Less than two weeks later, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

“He wanted to join the Navy, because he didn’t want to be working here while having people fighting for him over there,” she said. “It bothered him so much that he wanted to go right away.” When he heard the Navy was forming a new branch that sought men who specialized in construction trades, he decided to enlist. He joined the service in December 1942, at age 29.

Dorothy Huddleston, of Sedalia

Dorothy Huddleston, of Sedalia, was at work when she heard about the attack. She was a beautician.

“Everything just stopped. I was stunned, I didn’t know what to think. We got a radio and turned it on to hear what it was and none of us could do anything. We were just frozen. We knew it was war,” she said.

She wondered why the Japanese wanted to bother us, because we did nothing to them. They searched every place they could to get more information about the bombing.

‘We just worried to death because we were afraid the Japanese would attack again and we wouldn’t be ready,” she said.

She had brothers who served in the military. One was a full colonel and he was sent over to fight immediately.

“My mother was just worried to death that her sons wouldn’t come back,” she said.

Dorothy’s husband, Charles, served in England for 24 months. She was glad to see he was alive. He repaired the planes. He originally wanted to be a bombardier, but his eyesight wasn’t good enough to qualify.

Dorothy was also friends with Susan Whiteman, the sister of George A. Whiteman.

“We’re a such a good and giving nation and to have them bomb us, it just seems so silly.”

James Wishard, of Sedalia

James Wishard, of Sedalia, was about 12 years old and was riding in a 1937 Ford pickup truck. He was between Clinton and Windsor, when he heard it the news the radio. “I thought, ‘Uh-oh, here we go!’ ”

His friend, Squirrel, was in the truck with him.

He knew a lot of people who were serving in the military, so he was familiar with Pearl Harbor. He was too young to help in World War II, but he was drafted to serve in the Korean War.