Howard H. Bergold US Army Hickam Field |
I was stationed at Hickam Army Air Force Base on that fateful day. I was on duty in the post operations office because a flight of B-17 bombers were due in that day from the sates. There were explosions coming from the hangar and parking area. Low flying planes strafing the runways. We saw the red circles knew it was Japanese. They were low enough to see the pilots. Some of the planes had two men in them. I don't think we were scared, but were surprised that planes could get that close to us. We had alerts in recent days and now the real thing. We had no guns to shoot back, because they were in supply rooms. We were ordered out of the building except for the radiomen, because the building could be hit by bombs. What we did or where we went, I can't remember. There were bomb hits all over the base, barracks, mess hall, hangars, just a lot of places except in the residential areas. That's where we ate that day and night, in the residence of our chief clerk of our office. We got back in the barracks in a few days and the mess halls were set up in other buildings. Everyone was busy and took things in stride and did all they could to get things going again and back in order. I was proud and happy to be an American after that day because everyone seemed to be stronger, that's why we won the war. |
Information provided by Howard H. Bergold |
