Robert Fernandez was 17 when his U.S. Navy ship was attacked by the Japanese forces at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, when more than 2,300 servicemen were killed. The California man, 100, is one of about 20 survivors still alive. | AP Video/Terry Chea
By AUDREY McAVOY | Associated Press
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) — Bob Fernandez thought he’d go dancing and see the world when he joined the U.S. Navy as a 17-year-old high school student in August 1941.
Four months later he found himself shaking from explosions and passing ammunition to artillery crews so his ship’s guns could return fire on Japanese planes bombing Pearl Harbor, a Navy base in Hawaii.
“When those things go off like that, we didn’t know what’s what,” said Fernandez, who is now 100. “We didn’t even know we were in a war.”
Two survivors of the bombing — each 100 or older — are planning to return to Pearl Harbor on Saturday to observe the 83rd anniversary of the attack that thrust the U.S. into World War II. They will join active-duty troops, veterans and members of the public for a remembrance ceremony hosted by the Navy and the National Park Service.
Fernandez was initially planning to join them but had to cancel because of health issues.
The bombing killed more than 2,300 U.S. servicemen. Nearly half, or 1,177, were sailors and Marines on board the USS Arizona, which sank during the battle. The remains of more than 900 Arizona crew members are still entombed on the submerged vessel.
Dozens of survivors once joined the annual remembrance but attendance has declined as survivors have aged. Today there are only 16 still living, according to a list maintained by Kathleen Farley, the California state chair of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors. Military historian J. Michael Wenger has estimated there were some 87,000 military personnel on Oahu on the day of the attack.
Many laud Pearl Harbor survivors as heroes, but Fernandez doesn’t view himself that way.
“I’m not a hero. I’m just nothing but an ammunition passer,” he told The Associated Press in a phone interview from California, where he now lives with his nephew in Lodi.
His story continues here.
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