He stayed on Oahu helping building gun emplacements and railroads until 1943, when he shipped out for the invasion of Saipan. He came home to Trinity in May 1945, and he and his wife live in the farmhouse he grew up in. Seaman James Harbin was transferred from his supply ship to an old oil tanker converted to ferry airplanes to Australia. On the way back, his ship was attacked by a Japanese submarine but escaped without being sunk. He soon transferred to an American sub, the USS Plaice, figuring that he would be better off underwater.
Sound travels a long ways underwater.
After witnessing firsthand the beginning and end of America's involvement in World War II, he was discharged and now lives in Mocksville with his wife. These men's lives were irreparably changed by the events of Dec. 7., as was the nation. For decades, most of them didn't talk much about Pearl Harbor, even to family. Several said they are talking now because it is the duty of those who were there that day to educate younger generations about the attack and pass on the values it taught them. Gray said that the central lesson of Pearl is that the nation's interests don't stop at its shores.