Pearl Harbor Day: Survivors tell their stories

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called it a "date which will live in infamy" and the memories of that sunny Sunday morning are still fresh for one Yuma man and a winter visitor, who both survived the bombing of Pearl Harbor 68 years ago.

"I was pretty young. It took a long time to get over that day," said Virgil Hengl, a former Yuma High School teacher who retired in 1983 after 23 years of teaching. "I still remember everything that happened."

Hengl and winter visitor Joseph Brumbach were among several World War II veterans who attended a Pearl Harbor Day ceremony on Monday, which was held at American Legion Post No. 19.

Post Commander Pat Patterson said the breakfast ceremony was intended to honor and pay respect to those who answered the country's call and stepped up to defeat its enemies.

"They are getting fewer and fewer every day," Patterson said. "We feel we owe them this and want to show them we aren't ever going to forget what they have done and endured for us."

On Dec. 7, 1941, at approximately 8 a.m., Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, which drew the United States into World War II.

During the hour and a half long attack, the Japanese sank or damaged 21 American warships, killed 2,390 people and destroyed or damaged 320 planes in the attack. The USS Arizona still sits at the bottom of Pearl Harbor today.

Hengl, who was 19 at time and serving aboard the USS Tennessee, said he was cleaning out his locker that morning when all the sudden a General Quarters alert sounded.

"It never happened in port before, or on a Sunday, so I knew something was happening," Hengl said.

Like everyone else, Hengl raced topside, only to see the USS Utah slowly capsizing in the water nearby, masts nearly down.

"I saw two (Japanese) airplanes about 200 feet above the water, flying through the channel making a strafing run. I knew then what it was," Hengl said.

A machinist mate, Hengl was responsible for aircraft maintenance for the ship's planes, which were on nearby Ford Island that morning.

Hengl explained that while the USS Tennessee was in port, its planes were sent to Ford Field, so with no planes on board for him to prepare, he had little to do.

He said at first he tried to to help out with the gun crews, but they were well trained and didn't need his help. A short time later, a loudspeaker announcement came out telling the aviation personnel to go man their planes.

They gave Hengl an ammunition box to take with him, which weighed 110 pounds. He had to shimmy down the side of the ship, cross along an 18-inch-wide blister strip and then walk across a six inch-wide diesel pipe to make it to shore.

Just after a second wave of assaults began Hengl was ordered to transport a load of 30 caliber ammunition to waiting aircraft on Ford Island. But by the time he did they had all been destroyed.

"The planes were nothing but junk," Hengl said.

He then returned to the USS Tennessee, which had been damaged from the fires aboard the USS Arizona next to it. The fires were so hot they warped the hull of the Tennessee.

The ship was sent back to the United States for repairs and then Hengl spent 18 months on board, cruising the Aleutian Islands.

Brumbach, from Roseburg, Ore., was at the Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay, and had just come off watch a few minutes before the attack began.

Kanoehe Bay, on the east coast of Oahu, was the site of a major Navy patrol seaplane base. A new facility with some of its buildings still under construction, the Naval Air Station was home to three Patrol Squadrons.

"We had been told about the possibility of an attack by a foreign nation, but we thought it would be sabotage," said Brumbach, who was also 19 at the time. "The powers that be decided we should line up our airplanes so we could guard them all."

Brumbach said he was on his way to the mess hall when the attack began, but ran back to the hangar to warn others.

"I ran through the barracks yelling that we were under attack," Brumbach said. "At that time the planes, which were along the seawall, started blowing up. They were all full of gas so they blew up pretty quick."

As one of the attacking planes flew by, Brumbach said it tilted. He saw the insignia on its wing and knew it was Japanese.

During the attack Brumbach and a fellow sailor got into a sea plane that had been parked between two hangars for repairs, and began firing at attacking Japanese planes.

"It was a stupid place to be," Brumbach said. "I saw a bomb being dropped. Instead of hitting the plane, it landed on a hangar about 75 feet away."

During the attack, Brumbach said he was firing a 30-caliber gun in the plane's bow while the fellow sailor fired a 50-caliber machine gun.

"The planes were coming right down hangar row," Brumbach said. "We shot one down. It did a 180 and crashed right there on base."

Brumbach said later that afternoon there were rumors that a ground force would be coming ashore, so they dug foxholes and mounted machines guns on a hill next to the base to fend off any attack.

Since the sailors were all wearing white uniforms, Brumbach said they were also all ordered to go soak them in coffee so they wouldn't be so visible.

"The attack never came, of course," Brumbach said.

Brumbach, who also served in Korea, retired from the U.S. Navy in 1960 at the rank of lieutenant commander.

James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@yumasun.com or 539-6854.