Ed Chlapowski Dies; Notified World of Attack on Pearl Harbor

From the Jan. 26, 2011, Billings, Montana Missoulian.

Ed Chlapowski, 88, died a little more than 69 years after he sent the infamous telegram from Pearl Harbor, "This is no drill--Pearl Harbor is being bombed by the Japanese--This is no drill."  A member of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, it was his duty to report deaths of members to the national organization. Now, someone else will have to do it for him.

He was one of 84,000 military personnel at the base that Dec. 7, 1941, and was one of Montana's last survivors of the attack. 

Mr. Chlapowski, a native of Massachusetts, joined the Navy June 18, 1940, and was 19 when the attack took place.  He had been stationed on the USS Arizona, but was reassigned and had been on board the ill-fated ship just the day before visiting with some friends.

That day, he had worked the early watch at the submarine base, had just eaten  and sat down on his bunk when he looked out the window and saw a hangar roof blown away and saw the "meatballs" on the plane (referring to the Rising Sun insignia).  He knew the radio room would be short-staffed on a Sunday and ran to it where the supervisor handed him those famous words, which he sent out in Morse Code.

Whenever he thought of seeing those planes, "The hair on the back of my neck stood up, just as it does today when I think of it."

The bomb that destroyed the Arizona struck at just the spot where his duty station was.

One More of Our Greatest Generation Leaves Us.  --GreGen