Tom Culbertson Hickam Field |
I was selected as an outstanding ROTC officer at the University of Minnesota and was offered a regular Army Commission about 1939. I took the offer and became a 2nd lieutenant in the CA Anti-Aircraft at the University of Minnesota. About the same time the Army asked for volunteers in the Anti-Aircraft, I accepted the regular Army Commission. Then they asked for volunteers to go over seas. I took it and became an officer with the 64th CA AA at Hickam Field, which is close to Pearl Harbor. We were stationed at Hickam and our mission was to protect the Airplanes on that base. About two weeks before the attack, we were told to take out machine-guns and move to Fort Shafter, several miles away. And the day before the attack we were told to put our guns in storage. The morning of the attack, my Anti-Aircraft unit went to Hickam, and when I woke up and found my unit gone, I jumped in a private car and drove as fast as I could to Hickam. As I reached the field, I could see the Japanese Airplanes up high in the sky, but Battery L or M, I forgot which, was firing at a flight of low-flying aircraft. They were our own B-17s which had flown from California. I hollered "cease fire"! They did. Thank God. The high flying Japanese planes flew back to their ships, and our guns had ceased fire. We had arrived there too late to shoot when the Japs made their attack on our airplanes, destroying all of them before they had a chance to intervene in the attack. A few American fighter aircraft did engage the enemy, but I don't know where they came from. We could see the American ships, like the Arizona go under. We felt bad about this, but we were just following orders. It was an awful lesson for a 2nd lieutenant. We knew some high-ups had failed to inform us. Information provided by Tom Culbertson. |
