From the March 3, 2021, WPSD 6 NBC "Service & Sacrifice: WW II veteran, Pearl Harbor survivor turns 100" by Jennifer Horbelt and Mason Watkins.
Air Force veteran David Payne turned 100 on Feb. 28. And, he was at Pearl Harbor and has memories of that attack.
In 1939, he was 18 years old and he read in a local paper that he could join the Army Air Corps and then go to Hawaii. He said, "I said, 'I've gotta get to Hawaii.' "
"I weighed 112 pounds and had a hard time getting into the service. First sergeant said, 'Uh, ell, you go home, drink some milkshakes, eat some bananas or something. Come back and see me.' So I went back to see him several weeks later, and put some silver dollars in my pocket. I weighed 112 pounds. He weighed me with my clothes on. I got up to 115 pounds," Payne said with a grin. "That's how I got in to the service."
And, he ended up in Hawaii, which was a huge change from his native Kentucky. He remembers being in a store there, "I was in the drug store. I don't know what I went in for, maybe to get some cigarettes. I did smoke back then. And then, John Wayne walked in."
--GreGen
No comments:
Post a Comment