These are Minnesota stories from men who were there. As time passes fewer Pearl Harbor veterans across the country remain, so it's up to us to remember as well...

Memories of Pearl Harbor haunt last remaining Minn. survivor of USS Arizona
December 7, 2012
Curated by Ben Grove

The Star Tribune reports that Edward Wentzlaff, 95, still remembers a fateful decision he made on one of the nation’s most fateful days. As a sailor aboard the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, he chose to rush to his battle station even as his shipmates fled below deck to escape the Japanese air attack, the newspaper says. A Japanese bomb blew up the ship’s ammunition magazine and 1,177 of his fellow sailors perished on the ship.

“I don’t know why or what made me change my mind – I’ve never known,” Wentzlaff told the newspaper.

The Worthington Daily Globe has the story of Worthington’s Eugene Erlandson, who spent the night before Dec. 7, 1941, guarding the gate of Wheeler Field, 20 miles north of Pearl Harbor. He saw the Japanese planes fly over and then attack a fleet of P-40 fighter planes. “We had inspection the day before,” Erlandson told the newspaper. “All the planes were lined up right in a row — perfect targets.”

The Duluth News Tribune has the recollections of Frank Wotring, of Two Harbors, who was in the engine room of the USS Helm 71 years ago today. His words are preserved in files at the Veterans Memorial Hall in Duluth:

“About then, we commenced to hear distant explosions and almost immediately after, the engine room messenger came flying down the ladder from topside, yelling that we were being bombed by planes with big red balls painted on them,” Wotring had said.

The newspaper’s editorial urges readers to take a moment to reflect on Pearl Harbor and Dec. 7, a day President Franklin Roosevelt famously predicted would be “a date which will live in infamy.”

I'm old enough to remember that speech. I heard it but I didn't understand it. It took a long time before I did realize we were at war, but I still didn't know what that meant. I remember the air raid drills and the blackouts. I remember the long lines of cars waiting for gas, and just about every gas station had a "no gas" sign in their driveways. I remember rationing stamps and the empty shelves at the grocery stores. When I was old enough to read, I remember thinking what it would be like not to see the headlines each day talking about things that were happening with the war. I still didn't understand that we were not immune to having the war come onto our shores. I still remember the headlines when they caught some saboteurs with plans to blow up several railway stations. It kind of hit home since one of those stations was in Newark, New Jersey, one I was familiar with since it was just a few miles from our home.

There was no TV, just radio and the newsreels at the local movies. I'd go to the Saturday matinée and see pictures of the war and it all seemed the same until once, for a brief moment, I saw a picture of my uncle on board a ship that was in a battle. He made it through the war, but passed away a few years later. Those that are still with us are dwindling each year on this anniversary, but there are still those that still have vivid memories of this day 71 years ago because they were there. They and all the others are all heroes in the true sense of the word and have every right to be proud of the service they gave to save our country.

I suppose I was fortunate that my age sheltered me from the horrors of that day and the ones that others endured in both Europe and the Pacific and I have to ask myself, why? No one gained anything as a result, and it's still true of what's going on in the world around us today.........

That's my first hand remembrances of went on here at home during those times and my lasting impressions of the results.

Walter Lord wrote a excellent book based on first person memories titled "Day of Infamy .

While several lines sticks out this is my favorite..

"Look! Here comes one of the red team planes".."They even painted red circles on the planes!" :o
--------------------------------------

There was some on battleship row thought it was just another training exercise.

Some Army supply sergeants wouldn't issue ammo without the proper paper work and when they did it may be the wrong ammo..

A range finder stood by his gun waiting for his gun crew-they never showed up.

And on it went in the first few perilous minutes of the attack and those minutes was costly especially on battleship row and the Army airfields.

It was Two Years - Twenty-three days after the attack that I was born. I have no memory of the actual events, but my brother and I were in front of the television, for every episode of "Victory at Sea". We learned what had happened, and saw the film footage of those events, through those episodes.
Guess that's one of the reasons why, I chose to serve in the United States Navy .....
"to defend the Constitution of The United States of America, against all enemies foreign and domestic".....

No, I have no memory of the actual events.
No, I will never forget, the lesson of those events, or the lives lost that day.
God Bless America, and the young Men and Women, who "stand in harm's way" to protect her.

Pete,
We are close to the same age, I was born 2 years and 13 days after the attack. I too have no direct memory of the war.
My dad was a member of the Coast Guard and served on the Great Lakes until he picked up his LST at Ambridge, Pa October 28, 1944 and sailed down the rivers and through the Panama canal. He was a machinist mate.
He never talked about the little action the ship saw other than he mentioned they shot down 3 planes. The ship was in a terrible typhoon just after the war ended.
I know we feel bad because of the memories being pushed back, but just like Fort Sumter,the Maine,and the Lusitania each generation has their own memorable disaster. I think ours was the Kennedy Assassination and of course 911. Time does not diminish the importance of the event, only the memories do not linger directly in the minds of the people that did not live them.

Hope you have a happy birthday December is a good month for them.

Charlie