Pearl Harbor Survivor: 'God, Please Don’t Let Me Die in This Ditch'
By Lisa Ferdinando DoD News, Defense Media Activity
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WHEELER ARMY AIRFIELD, Hawaii, Dec. 9, 2016 — Clutching onto each other for their lives, Jack Holder and his shipmates huddled in a ditch on Hawaii’s Ford Island as a Japanese pilot overhead tried to kill them.
Jack Holder survived the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Dec. 7, 1941, and attended the 75th anniversary commemoration at Wheeler Army Airfield, Dec. 5, 2016, that honored the more than 30 people killed there in the Japanese attack. DoD photo by Lisa Ferdinando
Jack Holder survived the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Dec. 7, 1941, and attended the 75th anniversary commemoration at Wheeler Army Airfield, Dec. 5, 2016, that honored the more than 30 people killed there in the Japanese attack. DoD photo by Lisa Ferdinando
Holder, of Phoenix, Arizona, recalls hearing a "screaming aircraft [and] moments later, a terrible explosion" on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, just as a section leader had started roll call.
"I remember everything vividly," Holder said.
A 19-year-old Navy aviation machinist’s mate second class the time of the attack, he and his shipmates raced outside. "We all [ran] and jumped in the ditch, [and sat] there clinging to each other," he said.
Then a bomb hit the hangar next to them.
http://www.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/1026523/pearl-harbor-survivor-god-please-dont-let-me-die-in-this-ditch
