Memories of infamous day remain clear

Local Pearl Harbor survivors attending this year’s Dec. 7 commemoration (and their ships):

• Larry Lydon, USS San Francisco

• Gebhard Galle, USS Nevada

• Paul Johnson, USS Castor

• Harold Lacy, USS Tennessee

• Ralph Laedtke, USS Solace

• Rich Hatton, USS Worden

For one veteran, World War II announced its arrival with a soft tapping.

Others saw the war coming in the form of unexpected airplanes.

Those were some of the perspectives shared Friday by six former sailors who were stationed at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

Along with family members, friends and other military veterans, they met 71 years later in Vancouver to honor the 2,390 American lives lost in the Japanese attack.

All the participating Pearl Harbor survivors were serving on Navy ships anchored in America’s Pacific stronghold. The surprise attack occurred on Sunday morning, just before 8 o’clock, when many of the American soldiers, sailors and Marines were eating breakfast or heading for church services.

Ralph Laedtke demonstrated how he became aware of something unusual. Laedtke, the keynote speaker, drummed his fingers on the side of the lectern near the microphone.

“I looked up and saw five or six aircraft,” Hatton said during the gathering at the Red Lion Hotel Vancouver at The Quay.

Larry Lydon was an ensign aboard the cruiser USS San Francisco. Because the ship was scheduled to go into drydock, it didn’t have any ammunition bigger than .30 caliber, he said.

Paul Johnson was a crewman on the USS Castor. The transport ship, loaded with ammunition, had just arrived at Pearl Harbor two days earlier and wasn’t on the attackers’ target list.

Harold Lacy was a radio operator on the USS Tennessee; berthed on “Battleship Row,” it was one of the primary targets of Japanese bombs and torpedoes.

Lacy wound up serving on two other battleships that were damaged at Pearl Harbor, the USS Maryland and the USS West Virginia.

After the initial shock, “We had a job to do,” Laedtke said.

They treated the wounded, fought fires, manned the guns and tried to get their slumbering ships powered up again. And that was how a crewman on the USS Nevada received our nation’s highest military honor, which was displayed at Friday’s event.

Vancouver’s Penny Ross represented her father, Donald Ross, and she brought along the Congressional Medal of Honor her father received for his heroism aboard that battleship.

Donald Ross was chief engineer aboard the USS Nevada. Badly damaged by bombs and torpedoes, the Nevada tried to run out to sea. When smoke and heat made the forward dynamo room unbearable, Ross ordered his men to leave, and he performed all their duties by himself until he lost consciousness. After he was rescued and resuscitated, Ross went back down to his duty station — even though he was temporarily blinded. But Penny Ross said her father could do the job blindfolded, because he’d practiced it that way.