At Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941

From the Dec. 8, 2008 San Francisco Chronicle.

ED SILVEIRA, 86, was on the USS San Francisco and thought, "Good mock battle until I saw a plane drop a torpedo at the West Virginia. Then I said, 'Goddamn, this is the real thing.'" His second scariest time was at the Battle of Guadalcanal.

MICHAEL STECZ, 87, was in his bunk on the USS Oklahoma, "All of a sudden,the ship lurched like we were firing our guns. My first thought was, 'Why are we firing our guns in port?'

He barely crawled out of a porthole as the ship was rolling over. He got into boat and picked up others and took them to the infirmary.

"In fact, I keep dreaming about how I got out of that 12-inch porthole. Of course, I only weighed 130 pounds and was as fit as a fiddle."


From KIVI, Boise, Idaho. BON CHOATES was on overnight liberty and returned to see his ship, the USS Nevada, under attack. His local chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association is disbanding.

That Day of Infamy. --GreGen