A legacy of valor: Only 16 Pearl Harbor survivors remain. On the 83rd anniversary, they still share stories of heroism

[sarisataka]

A legacy of valor: Only 16 Pearl Harbor survivors remain. On the 83rd anniversary, they still share stories of heroism

As bombs fell on Pearl Harbor during a shocking attack, transforming serene Hawaiian waters into a graveyard of twisted metal, burning wreckage and the roar of destruction, Earl “Chuck” Kohler did not hesitate to fight back.

He was 17 when Japanese bombers descended from the sky, killing 2,403 Americans and catapulting the United States into World War II. It was a brutal, unforgiving assault that left the US Pacific Fleet in ruins and the memory of that day seared into history as, in President Franklin Roosevelt’s words, “a date which will live in infamy.”

Kohler had disobeyed direct orders to shelter in a ditch and remain in place. Instead, he ran to retrieve ammunition. Armed and determined, he and his comrades fought fiercely to repel the second wave of Japanese bombers attacking Ford Island.

“Maybe (I was) a dumb farm boy, but I know this is the beginning of that war that they’d been talking about and waiting for, and I know that if I’m going to lose my life here, I don’t want to lose it in that ditch,” Kohler, a Minnesota farm boy turned sailor, said in an interview recorded by the Library in the Congress. “I’m going to want my family and my country to know I died fighting, not hiding.”

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/07/us/pearl-harbor-anniversary-survivors/index.html

How few remain

[republianmushroom]

1. "The Unselfish Generation", thank you, gentleman for your sacrifice and service.

[Emile]

2. I'm surprised there is that many. That makes them

all over 100 years old.

My dad's brother is still alive. I think it was 1943 when he enlisted. He went on and made a 30 year career in the Air Force and served in WW2, Korea and Vietnam. He turns 100 early next year.