www.thetelegraph.com/news/ship_20988___article.html/harbor_japanese.htmlPearl Harbor survivor remembers
December 6, 2008 - 9:54 PM
By LINDA N. WELLER
The Telegraph
HIGHLAND - A retired U.S. Navy veteran living in Highland still retains the horrifying images in his mind of the surprise attack from Japanese pilots on Pearl Harbor 67 years ago today.
"The water was burning, the oil had spilled out from the ships, and it looked like the whole harbor was on fire," said Dallas Harvey, 89, one of the few survivors of the attack still alive in Southern Illinois.
The harbor was full of black smoke, he said.
Harvey, a 21-year-old corpsman (medic), was on the USS Argonne repair ship docked in Pearl Harbor in what then was the territory of Hawaii when the massive, surprise attack began at 7:55 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941.
There had been a bugle call five minutes before at 8 a.m. revelry. Shortly after that, the first three Japanese planes that he saw arrived.
"I was getting ready for sick call, for anybody on the ship who was bothered by a cold or headache" or other ailment, as the doctor was not there on Sundays, Harvey remembered this week.
"Three planes that I recall came over and dropped bombs on the naval air station on a small island (in the bay) called Ford Island," he said. The planes strafed the Argonne with machine-gun fire.
"The third plane flew over our ship, then I saw the red dots (Japanese sun insignia) on the wings," and he knew the attackers were Japanese.
"I didn't think for awhile," he said about the moments immediately after the shock. "After the initial attack, they called for volunteers to go to the rescue party to one of the battleships, so I volunteered for that. We were on a flat-bottom barge pulled by a little motorboat."
Harvey and the other men were out in the middle of the harbor when the second round of Japanese planes arrived, but they did not fire on the corpsmen in the water.
"We figured we would be strafed, but they were after bigger fish," he said. "I was almost positive we would be prisoners by nightfall."
The crew got to the sinking USS California, but its occupants had abandoned ship.
"There was not much of anything there; the commanding officer had called for abandoning ship," Harvey said about the California's crew. "They had already left. The ship was resting on the bottom of Pearl Harbor" in the shallow water.
"We searched, but we didn't find anybody," he said. "We went back to our ship."
From there, he helped with the awful task of unloading the hundreds of bodies from battered ships to the dock.
"I blocked that part out until 50 years later, when I went to the 50-year reunion," he said about the scenes of carnage. "I had a total blackout."
Among the dead was a friend from his hometown of Kentland, Ind., who had been on the USS Oklahoma.
"It just turned over," he said about the battleship.
He said he did not see the infamous explosion of the USS Arizona, aboard which 1,177 crew members died.
"The biggest explosion I can remember was a destroyer that they bombed directly," he said. "It just disintegrated."
The Imperial Japanese Naval Task Force launched 353 aircraft, which had traveled from Japan on six aircraft carriers, in two waves. The planes sank four U.S. Navy battleships and damaged four others; sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers and one minelayer; and destroyed 188 U.S. aircraft.
The attack killed 2,402 and wounded 1,282 on land and ships.
The Argonne manned its guns "as quickly as possible (about 7:58 a.m.)," with total rounds fired at the Japanese: 3-inch, .23-caliber, 196; and .50-caliber machine gun, 3,885, according to a U.S. Navy report of 1942 by commanding officer F.W. Connor.
The firing from the .50-caliber machine gun shot down one enemy bomber plane "as it came along ‘1010' dock and turned toward Ford Island."
There were no losses to personnel aboard the Argonne, with minor damage to the vessel.
"The entire crew of this vessel performed their duties in accordance with the best traditions of the service, assisting to get wounded from damaged ships, taking bodies from water and assisting with repair facilities to full capacity," the report says at:
www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/...g31-Pearl.htmlDespite witnessing the horrible, historic bombing that prompted the United States' entry into World War II, Harvey stayed in the Navy for 26 more years, retiring after 30 years of service. During that time, he married a Navy woman he met at Great Lakes, Ill.
Dallas and Rita Harvey, who have been married 61 years, have two sons: Ed, of the Highland area, and Steve, of Detroit. A daughter is deceased. They have seven grandchildren and three step-grandchildren.
The couple later was stationed in Taiwan, during which time Harvey said his wife befriended the late Madame Chiang Kai-Shek (Soong Mayling), wife of the leader of the island, where the couple was exiled from mainland China.
"I've had a very interesting life," Harvey said.
While living in Taiwan after the war, the Harveys took trips to Japan, despite Dallas Harvey's experiences at Pearl Harbor.
"I have nothing against the Japanese," he said.
After leaving the Navy, he was a missionary for Campus Crusade for Christ, establishing military chapters in numerous countries' armies around the world.
Harvey said he tries to get together with other Pearl Harbor survivors who meet in Springfield, Ill., a couple times a year. He also speaks to classes in Highland schools about his experiences, is a member of Highland VFW Post 5694 and Faith Baptist Church.
Kate Broadhurst, deputy chief of staff for Post 5694, said Harvey has "a natural knack with kids."
"He's just a great inspiration to the community," Broadhurst said. "He's very active in his church and is always here (at the VFW) for veterans' activities."
Post 5694 is planning to hold a commemoration ceremony at 3 p.m. today, honoring Pearl Harbor victims and survivors, especially Harvey. Broadhurst said she expects both Harvey and the mayor of Highland to speak. The ceremony will conclude with veterans lowering a memorial wreath into the VFW Lake.
The public is welcome.
The Springfield chapter of Pearl Harbor Survivors and Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors plan a ceremony at 2 p.m. today at Lake Springfield. Tammy Duckworth, director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, is they keynote speaker.
There also will be a rifle salute and taps, and veterans will drop a memorial wreath into that lake.
Also in Illinois, the city of Chicago played host Friday to a ceremony, "Chicago Remembers Pearl Harbor," at Navy Pier on Lake Michigan. It honored "all of those who fought in the face of extraordinary odds that Sunday morning," a city announcement said.
The event included a bell-ringing ceremony in remembrance of the seven Illinois Pearl Harbor victims who died and whose remains still are on the submerged U.S.S. Arizona. Representatives from the Illinois and Chicago chapters of Pearl Harbor Survivors were special guests.
