December 7, 1941

When I think of December 7, 1941, I think of two men. One was my father, who decided to enlist in the navy the next day. He was 19 years old. The other was my wife's late uncle. He had been a machinist on a battleship in the late 1930's as a sailor. When his enlistment was up, he was invited to take a job as a civilian machinist at Pearl Harbor. In December 1941, he worked as an aviation machinist at Ford Island. On December 7, he and his neighbor both went on the base after the attack to help with the recovery.