Harry P. Kilpatrick US Army Air Corp. Wheeler Field |
When I was 15 years old and on July 4th, my mother died of cancer. My older brother and I were very close to mom and could not believe she had left us to join God in Heaven. I finished and graduated from high school as did my brother (21 months older than myself) and he enlisted in the Army Air Corp in September 1939. I graduated in June 1940 and started to work for the Easy Washing Machine Co. in Syracuse. Would you believe for $11.25 cents a week and managed to take care of myself. On returning home from work on January 19, 1940, I had a letter from the Draft Board that I was to report and register for the draft. My brother had told me to never let myself be drafted but to enlist in the Army Air Corp where I could learn more. I talked to my dad and he agreed that I should enlist and that he would sign my papers as I was only 19. The next morning I went to the recruiting office in downtown Syracuse. I had to take a series of written tests, then a physical. I didn't weight enough to enlist, so the recruiter advised me to drink a couple quarts of milk and eat a big bunch of bananas. I did it and made it in. Dad signed the papers and at 7:00 p.m. that same evening I was on a train headed for Ft. Slocum near New Rochelle, NY. My life changed from that of a country boy to living in a huge one room in a barracks with rough drafted and enlisted people from New York City, Brooklyn, Bronx and New Jersey, and I was scared. I was to take Basic Training here, but that never came about as on February 16, 1941, I went by river barge to Brooklyn Army Base where I boarded a troop transport ship, the USAT Republic. It was an old ship captured from the German's in World War I and made into a troop transport. I had orders to go to the Philippines, to Clark Field. This also fell through as one must have 6 months service, have completed Basic Training and have also graduated from a technical school. I had none of the 3 requirements, so I was put off the ship in Honolulu Harbor on March 2, 1941. I was starting to get accustomed to this military way of life and what tomorrow would bring. I was assigned to the Army Air Corp at Wheeler Field, Territory of Hawaii and even received some pay which was $21.00 a month. I slept and lived in a 4 man squad tent for a couple of months and later moved to the tent area. 16-man tents with wooden floors. I was assigned to the 696th Aviation Ordnance Squadron. I finally found a home. I was sent to a long weapons school to learn about every military small arms and weapons in service at that time. We got the new P40B aircraft assigned to Wheeler and a thrill to work on. The "P" before the number meant Pursuit and after 1947 the Army Air Corp became known as the USAF (United States Air Force) and the "P" for Pursuit changed to "F" for Fighters. The island was on alert about a week prior to the blitz. We were preparing munitions for the 619th Fighter Squadron. They called them pursuit squadrons. They were supposed to ship out and go to Clark Air Base in the Phillipines. We worked long, long hours, and we finally got done. We thought we had belted three million rounds of .30 and .50 caliber ammo. We had stacked it in hangar three. That night our commander said, "We've got it all done. The mess hall's open. Go over and have a big chow. Go to bed and sleep as long as you want." We went to bed about two or three in the morning. Sunday morning, sometime between seven and eight, there was a hell of a racket, a concussion. Boom! Part of the wall of our barracks crashed in. A lot of times on a Sunday morning the Navy would come over and give us buzz jobs. Sometimes they'd drop bags of flour and say, "Okay, we got ya." We in turn would get bags of horse manure and hang it on the airplanes and go over to the Navy and drop it on them. It was a game. We went outside, and we looked up and saw these airplanes. What we had over Wheeler was fighters, the Zeke or Zero, and Nakajima, a dive bomber. I saw this plane coming down, and he released two bombs. I didn't know what they were. And all of a sudden you can see the corrugated sheet metal from one of the hangars just lifted up tremendously. And then another one did it. Then all of a sudden someone says, "Japs!" You could see the red circles on the wings. They were so low you could see the pilots right in the airplane. You were scared. You were wondering, "What am I gonna do?" We had no guns. We run back in, get some clothes on and head out. I was an armorer, and the only thing I could think of was that there were guns in the armament shop. We went down there. It was locked. We ran across the street and got a crowbar and broke the lock off. And we had to break another lock to get in this wire cage. We started handing out all these guns. We still had no ammunition to go with them. We got a .50 caliber gun out, got it set up. We found a box of ammo for that, and we fired it. This was when the second wave of the attack came over. They'd come in and strafe. They come in at such an angle and so fast, by the time you swing around to get them, they're gone. They guy who was with me, I heard him say, "Ouch." He had a bullet wound in his arm. He pulled it out right there. Somebody said they needed the P-40s (fighter planes) to be loaded with ammo. I was one of the people that knew how to do it, so we went down to the flight line. There were a few there that were still able to fly. We went into the hangar when the fire had settled down a little. You could hear the ammo going off. Pow, pow, pow. It was the only ammo we had. So we went in and got it. We loaded a couple airplanes, but they never got off the ground. There were people running this way, and people running that way. Shooting and screaming. Medics driving around. I was bleeding. I just put my hankie around it. I don't even remember how it happened. You can get yourself hurt, but you're so intent at the mission at hand you don't know it. I had just passed my 19th birthday. Per official reports, my field, Wheeler Field, which had the 1st line P-40 B Plane was attacked at 7:51 by the 1st wave of Japanese fighters and dive bombers. Pearl Harbor attacked 4 minutes later at 7:55. The Japanese wanted to wipe out the Pursuit P-40s, which they completely did and have clear sailing over Pearl Harbor. The second wave attacked Wheeler at 9:10 am. We were completely devastated. I still shudder when I think of that horrible morning. In the afternoon of December 7th, I and another soldier in my outfit were given a truck and told to go to Bellows Field on the other side of the island to get ammunition as ours at Wheeler was all destroyed. We took the short way over Pali Pali pass, got to Bellows and loaded on the ammunition. Because it was now getting quite dark, we decided the Pali was too dangerous for a return trip, so we followed the coast road, which led us by Pearl Harbor. Oh, Dear Lord, what a mess. Ships were on fire, the water itself was on fire from the thousands of gallons of fuel oils seeping from the damaged ships. Even to this day, I find it impossible to explain such death and destruction. The rumors were unbelievable. They said landing forces were coming in. There was Japanese in the cane fields, that paratroopers had landed in the cane fields. That night the sky lit up with barrages like fireworks. We shot down two airplanes, and they were our Navy. All night long you'd hear guns go off, you'd hear machine guns fire. You were touchy. I rmember someone come in and yelled, "Gas", so we had to wear gas masks for a couple hours until we could hardly breathe. We really got caught with our pants down. We were told the aircraft carriers were intact. The infantry moved out for perimeter defense. We started to get a lot of confidence. We were going through these airplanes that were badly damaged and getting the parts off of them. We had fantastic confidence in the airplanes we had left. We were allowed to send two telegrams (to family back home). We were allowed to have two words in them. All I said was, "Am safe." After a week or two we could write letters, but they were pretty heavily censored. I never thought I would have been in a war. I never realized we were that close to a problem with Japan. We lost a lot of lives. We were fighting a war that never should have been fought. World War I was supposed to have been the war to end wars. |
Information provided by Harry Kilpatrick |
Medals/Awards Good Conduct Medal of Army of United States Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal w/2 Bronze Stars American Defense Service Medal w/1 Bronze Star AFLSA 17 January 1945 Peral Harbor Commemorative Medal Outstanding Airman of the Year Ribbon (Was ANG Airman of the Year in 1958 for entire US, Puerto Rico and Alaska) ADF Expedition Medal American Defense Service Medal Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon ADF Reserve Medal Air Reserve Forces Meritorous Service Ribbon w/3 Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters AF Longivity Service Ribbon WWII Victory Medal National Defense Service Medal Recruiting Medal |
