Rogo said students need to hear the stories from survivors. The message has been forgotten too often, he said. Some don’t appreciate what he has to say. It’s important that cameras are there and the media cover the event, Bender said.īender said he can tell some audiences don’t want to hear it anymore. American Airlines is flying Bender and his wife to Pearl Harbor this week so they can be a part of the 75th anniversary commemoration. It evolved into the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors.īender and others kept talking. The organization finally shut down officially in 2011. The members told the Pearl Harbor story to schools and civic clubs, anniversary gatherings and anyone who would listen.Īnd then as the years went on, they started to die. In 1961, the PHSA held its first Pearl Harbor reunion – commemorating the 20th anniversary of the attack – at the Disneyland Hotel, drawing a crowd of 300. In 1958, Bender joined the PHSA, and he believes he is the only one of those early members who is still alive. It took them four years to incorporate, but by 1958, they had become an official group. A group calling itself the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association began in 1954 when 13 veterans who lived through the attack met in Gardena at the Del Camino Room. The survivors have felt the responsibility to talk about it ever since. The shocking attack launched this country into World War II. The Japanese attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor 75 years ago this week. “People need to know what this country stands for.” “People need to remember what the cost of freedom is,” said Paul Kelso, 65. It is echoed by Jack Rogo of North Hollywood, who was a sailor stationed at Ford Island and volunteered to pull men who had jumped off their ships out of the harbor. 7, 1941, and drove his grandfather, a doctor, to the harbor to try to save American soldiers. It is echoed by Long Beach’s Paul Kelso, whose father, Raymond – too frail to be interviewed – was a teenager in Hawaii on Dec. It is echoed by John Ballard of Hemet, who served on the USS Curtiss, a seaplane tender that fired at Japanese planes. His message is echoed by the others who survived. He held death in his hands that day, but he didn’t die. “We were in a death trap,” said Bender, who grew up in Torrance and lives in Laguna Woods. The Maryland was several yards away from the USS Arizona, which lost 1,177 men. 7, 1941? The Maryland, which lost only four men in the surprise attack, was tethered to the USS Oklahoma, which lost 429. Why else would his battleship – the USS Maryland – suffer so little tragedy on that horrific Sunday, Dec. His wife, Geneva, said he’s still alive because he feels a responsibility to tell his story. Howard Bender, who will turn 95 in January, is 100 percent convinced of that.
He was put on this earth to deliver one message.
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