VFW Post honors World War II vets on Pearl Harbor Day
On Saturday, Dec. 7, the Pine Island VFW Post honored World War II veterans at a “Remember Pearl Harbor” day ceremony. World War II Navy veteran Jim Dolph was the guest of honor.
After greetings from Commander Keith Keefer and the pledge of allegiance, Keefer offered some history about Pearl Harbor Day.
“I’d like to give a little history of Pearl Harbor,” Keefer said. “We are gathered here today to remember Pearl Harbor. It was Dec. 7, 1941, that brought us into war with Japan. The Japanese fleet was 230 miles away from Pearl Harbor when the first wave of planes launched at 6 a.m. At 7:55, the Japanese attacked our fleet. If you add the five hours to it on this day 72 years ago almost to the minute we were attacked. The second wave struck about an hour later. When the attack was over 21 of the 96 ships at anchor had been sunk or severely damaged.
“The death toll was 2,403 and included 68 civilians. The largest single casualty was the USS Arizona where 1,177 lives went down with the ship,” Keefer said. “The Japanese lost 29 planes and a handful of midget submarines. Our nation rallied around President Roosevelt and declared war against Japan, Germany and Italy. The attack was devastating but not a devastating blow. We had all but three ships back in service in a short time. This attack gave the servicemen and service women the rallying cry ‘Remember Pearl Harbor.'”
Keefer then intruded Jim Dolph. “Jim was a senior in high school in December of 1941 and lived through it.”
Dolph was too young to join the service when Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941. But immediately after turning 18 in 1943, he joined the Navy. Stationed aboard the USS Lackawanna AO40 (Auxiliary Oiler) he used to fuel ships at sea.
“It’s been a while since I stood at a podium like this,” Dolph said. “I was in high school, on the basketball team at the time. Some years ago we had a parade here on Pine Island and in a convertible at that time we had four Pearl Harbor veterans with us: Carl Williams, Mark Clark, Red was the bar manager, I can’t remember his last name, and a friend of mine from Bellevue, Ohio, Bill Long. Bill was stationed at Pearl Harbor he was in military intelligence and had lots and lots of stories to tell.”
Dolph related numerous stories about his years in the Navy and his time stationed at Pearl Harbor in the years following the attack.
Dolph served in the Navy just under three years and when he returned to the states he married his high school sweetheart.
“I served in the Navy in the Asiatic Pacific,” Dolph said. “I was aboard a fleet oiler known as ‘a floating gas tank.’ We refueled aircraft carriers, battleships, destroyers, submarines and you name it. They would pull along side and with six to eight inch hoses we’d couple them up, and we had all kinds of pumping equipment, we’d pump for hours 100 octane gasoline.
“I joined the Navy because I had an uncle, Uncle John, that was in the Navy. Once in a while he would talk about his experiences and after I had joined the Navy I was in his office one day and Uncle John gets out a picture of him aboard a destroyer. He said joining the Navy was the right decision because they have clean beds and the best food.”
Dolph was the only World War II veteran present. He will turn 90 April 22.
The ceremony concluded with the honor guard firing off three volleys and the sounding of “taps.” Lunch was served in the VFW Hall.