John A. Martin Schofield Barracks and Kaneohe Bay |
Detached from Schofield Barracks to build Marine barracks on the other side of the island, living in tents along the beach. John was up early that Sunday morning trying to fill a truck with fellows to go over to Baratonia Street in Honolulu to Sunday school and church. He heard the news crackle on the radio to man their stations. The island was under attack. It being approximately 8:00 am, he ran through the tent getting the sleeping fellows up an awake. The planes came over close enough to see the pilots. One was shot down, while others continued to their target, Pearl Harbor. There were three waves of these planes. Sometime after this bombing, he loaded trucks and got ready to return to Schofield barracks that night. There was a complete black out that lasted for months on the islands. They were assigned duty that night walking around the barracks using shooting orders they learned in boot camp, to shoot at planes if they came back. By day, they were divided into squads and dispatched to various places to defend the island. John's station was in the pineapple filed. They moved on from this position to various other assignments of defense. John's squadron was assigned to help bury the dead on about the third day. At that time, John was in the 34th Combat Engineers. Later, he transferred to the Air Force. Being n the reserves, he was called into the Korean War. John is now retired from the Air Force. |
Information provided by John and Terry Martin. |
