Pearl Harbor memory


To the Editor:

This week we received the Shelter Island Reporter dated December10, 2009. I was shocked to see that paper made no mention of theJapanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.

When President Roosevelt addressed the Congress on December 8,1941 he said and I quote “Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a datewhich will live in infamy – the United States of America wassuddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of theEmpire of Japan.

During the attack there were four servicemen who grew up onShelter Island. They were: Tom Stein, who was in the army; WalterReed, who was in the Navy; Ed Conrad was on the destroyer Monahan,his ship sunk the two-man Japanese submarine that had gottenthrough the barrier into the harbor. T. Bronson O’Reilly [thisletter writer] was at the Kaneohe Naval Air Station that waslocated on the northeast corner of Oahu. It was the first base hitby the bombers, about 8 minutes before the attack hit the ships atPearl Harbor. When it was no longer possible to rescue any of ourlong- range sea planes that had been set on fire by the bombs hewent to the armory and got a Springfield rifle and ammunition, thenwent to the administration building, where he found a radioman andJohn Hartman, a weather man, both standing near the administrationbuilding. The three watched a Japanese plane circle Kaneohe Bay andapproach our building, flying at about 200 feet. They each got asingle shot off and shot down the plane, which then flew into thehillside. Later they learned he was the highest-ranking Japaneseaviation pilot in the attack of Pearl Harbor.

People from around the world visit the memorial site in PearlHarbor where the battleship Arizona rests. It was blown up duringthe attack with a heavy loss of life. It rests on the bottom andbubbles of oil still seep out after all these years. Shelter Islandgave the nation its best of men and women who should be honored onDecember 7th every year.

T. BRONSON O’REILLY

SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA