The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.

Friday, October 24, 2014

One of Maine's Last Pearl Harbor Survivors Dies-- Part 2

Bernard H. Hall was stationed at Schofield Barracks that fateful day and had just gone to the mess hall for coffee.  Asa he stepped outside it, he overheard another soldier say "a pretend emergency" was on.  He looked into the sky and knew it was not a false alarm.

"The plane went right over my head.  He was flying so low I saw the red circle and I could see his goggles."

He and some others shot at the plane with rifles, only to have their bullets ricochet off the plane.  Most of his fellow soldiers were scared to death.  Some ran away and hid.

That night there were no lights anywhere, not even a lit cigarette.  He and others loaded trucks with ammunition and supplies all day and night.

"Communication was bad.  We didn't even know the Japanese were coming.  They wiped out everything--all radio contact, even the water tower."

--GreGen

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