Running for cover

Thurman Lewis

“It was a quiet Sunday morning” until shortly before 8 a.m. “I was lying in bed, debating whether to get up or sleep.”

“When the noise first started, we thought it was the Navy practicing their big guns. Then several bombs hit out among the hangars, and somebody yelled the (Japanese) are bombing the mat. I grabbed some clothes and looked outside toward the hangars where everything seemed to be going up in smoke,” Lewis said.

“Scared? Yes, I was, and had sort of an incredulous feeling that the (Japanese) should be doing such a thing to us. They were doing it, though, and I must say it was a pretty good job from their standpoint.”

“During a lull in the bomb bursts, some of us went over to the hangar and drew our .45 automatic pistols. Had to go through smoke and dodge fires to get there. A firetruck and several cars were burning just outside of the firehouse,” Lewis said. “After getting the pistols we came back to the barracks. Planes were circling and diving on Pearl Harbor. I watched one in particular and saw him let loose a bomb about 2,000 feet up while he was diving almost straight down.”

Shortly thereafter, Lewis and others were piling up debris blown off the hangars when some low-flying bombers hit the hangar just across the street, prompting the work crew to run for cover.

“It’s an awful sound and feeling, trying to outrun those damn things.”

At one point, Lewis said, “We were all huddled around the barracks door and made a surge for the inside. Some didn’t make it. … The bombs were aimed at us now and at the barracks. … A hail of bombs hit all around us.” During a brief pause in the raid, “those of us who were able crawled out from under the fallen bricks and mortar — and men.”

Later, “we began to hunt for something to make stretchers. I tore up a bunk and got the springs,” which the wounded could lie on while being carried about 200 yards to Hickam’s hospital, which had not been hit in the attack.

“This is how we fared in our wing of the barracks, and since there are nine wings and the big mess hall, what happened there was about the same. Several days after the raid, one of my buddies and I climbed out on the roof and counted 38 direct bomb hits. The near misses caused almost as much death and damage.”

We’re being attacked!

Lloyd Frederick Harner

“At 6:30 a.m., having eaten a light breakfast, I went upstairs to the squad room to get a little sleep,” after an overnight corporal of the guard duty. “I lay on my bed, loosened my pistol belt and tried to settle down. Heard a plane come screaming down, and I jumped up and went to the window screen.”

“A buddy of mine said, ‘‘The damned Navy is mad … because they have to fly and we sleep in.’ We two watched this one plane coming down, and as it made a pass over Pearl Harbor, we saw a long object shoot away from the undercarriage,” Harner said.

”A terrific explosion followed. The plane turned toward Hickam Field, and there was a burp of machine gun fire — with bullets coming into the barracks.”

As the plane fishtailed, Harner saw the rising sun emblem and yelled, “Navy, hell. The (Japanese) are here!” He then pulled a whistle from my shirt pocket and “blew till I thought my ears were blown out — telling the men to clear the barracks, we were under attack by the Japanese.” In response, he said, “They all thought I was drunk, until a first sergeant came in yelling I was right and to get the hell out.”

Soon, “some of the hangars were on fire from bombs from other planes coming over, and the flight line was a raging hell of burning planes.”

“All of my guards were dead except one, and he had his leg blown off,” Harner said. “Such was the day that I don’t think any of us … will ever forget.”