The daily monitor. (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1940-1942, 1942-01-07
Hawaii
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bedroom. He put on a pair of
trousers, grabbed q flying cap
and started for the airfield. l
herded the three CHI Dire n,
Marge, 8, Dick z and Mary 10,
2 years old, into the middle bed
room which l thought would be
the safest place.
HAIL OF BULLETS
II found out later Bill had
somewhat of a time getting to
the hangers as the Japanese
planes-there were IS of them
that attacked Wheeler - were
machine-gunning everybody IN
sight. He ducked under the
stone steps of the chapel for a
while, and then made a dash for
the hangers. He made it.
1.-THE attack lasted about q
half hour. There was a continual
roar of bursting bombs and ma
chine gun fire and it grew even
more vicious when our planes
took to the air to meet the Jap
planes.
II had a lovely roast of beef
which I had planned for the
Sunday meal, so when things
had quoted down a bit, ! put
it in the oven. 1t was done about
1890, just when FIR. Edward
Taylor, the chaplain dropped in.
Incidentally, ! had gone to the
tbs o'clock Mass which FIR. Tay-
lor celebrated, and had hardly
returned when the bombs came.
II had put some coffee on as
! thought somebody might drop
in, so when FIR. Taylor asked
for some, it was all ready.
THAT Sunday night, all fam
lilies at the field were evacuated
to Honolulu, as the Japanese
were expected to pay another
visit.
"I'll never forget that Is mile
ride to Honolulu in the dark.
We had just grabbed what we
could and were off. From that
night until Christmas Eve when
I went aboard the ship which
was to take me and the children
to San Francisco, it was most
We were transferred
around, and we had only few
clothes. We had all the food we
wanted, though, as the Army
trucks came around several
times a day, and gave us prac-
tically all we asked for.
"Some of the things that hap
pened! There was a sailors wife
who knew the area around our
field and Honolulu perfectly. So
when a truck convoy or a mes
sage had to get someplace in a
hurry, she mounted a motorcycle
and led the way.
Then that S u n d a y in the
house, waiting. l had fire in
the fire place, and in the late
afternoon, the logs were about
gone. looked out the window,
before starting into the back
yard for some wood. Why, the
place was covered with soldiers,
on roof tops, in trees, every
where, ready for the japanese
landing parties and parachute
troops who never came.
II didn't dare open the back
door for fear someone by mis-
take would take shot at me.
For the next couple of days,
you could walk around and pick
up most anywhere loads of car
fridge shells from the terrific
Notwithstanding the Japs gave
US. Dick got quite a kick from
collecting them.
did I want to leave Hawaii?
No. But we were ordered to. It's
summer, there, you know.
1.-THE morale of the entire per-
sonnet was tops. Naturally, ev-
eryone was surprised, but when
the first alarm had been sound
ed, everyone rushed to his job.
And the Japs didn't come back.
ION the way home, our three
transports had q strong naval
escort which kept only far
e n GU g h away to keep from
humping us. The Navy ships
formed v with our transports
in the middle. We zig-zagged at
full steam all the way, and I
don't think an enemy craft was
sighted. .
"Thc Red Cross, by the way,
was on duty in Hawaii before
the first bomb had hardly stop
ped falling. They had emergency
and canteen corps set
up to take care Of the families
evacuated fro the military
area. And when we locked in
San Francisco. the Red Cross
was there to take care Of Us. And
what q magnificent Job they
did! They saw that we had trans
portation, secured hotel ,ccomo-
helped US through Gus
toms, and aided the care of the
soldiers who were re-
on our ships. There was
practically no end to the help
they gave us.
"Oh. yes. ! finished combinz
Marge's hair before ! herded
fher oil into the bed room"