^{Leon Webster}

^{December 7, 1941  7:55 am Hickam Field}

^{I arrived in Hawaii - then a virtual paradise - Dec. 1, 1939, aboard the troop ship USS Grant after seven days at sea. I was immediately transported to Hickam Field, a new Army Air Corps bomber base still under construction. The Army Air Corps had recently moved to this location from Ford Island, in the center of Pearl Harbor. This new location was on government property adjacent to Pearl Harbor. I was assigned to the 50th Squadron of the 11th Bomb Group (H), and by December 1941 had advanced to Sergeant with experience as crew chief and flight engineer on the Douglas B-18 twin engine planes and Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress four engine planes.} 

^{Devastation at Hickam Field Parade grounds}

^{On the “Day of Infamy,” at 7:55 a.m. my friend Walter “Cotton” Thompson and I awoke to sounds of exploding bombs and strafing aircraft overhead. We rushed outside our quarters with first thoughts of a mock attack by pursuit planes from Wheeler Field, but very soon recognized the Rising Sun emblem on the wings of the circling planes.  In a state of shock and utter disbelief, we quickly took refuge under a temporary wood-frame building across the street from our barracks. We dove under the building from the street to avoid a plane diving at us with guns blazing.}

This is how I remember our flight line

^{As I recall that instant, I can almost feel the sting of concrete chips on my face, and hear the chatter of machine-gun fire as bullets ripped into the street. I lay under that building - constructed a few feet off the ground to prevent humidity rot - as bombs exploded directly in front of my eyes as they fell on our barracks, and the mess hall where many men were having breakfast. Some fell short and exploded at ground level directly across the street.}

^{Half of the burned out B-17 on our flight line}

^{The bombs took the lives of some friends in my squadron who ran outside, just as I had, when all hell broke loose. When those bombs exploded right in front of me at ground level, the concussion literally lifted me up, as if the ground under me had sharply risen beneath my stomach with tremendous force, knocking the breath out of me, making me temporarily deaf. The horror I witnessed from this refuge was traumatic. I recognized two close friends from my squadron who ran from our barracks and were immediately blown to bits by shrapnel; strafing aircraft shot another down.} 

Remains of our hanger and a B-18

^{During the lull between the two waves of the attack, and after, I helped with wounded and dead as the street ran ankle deep with red water due to ruptured water mains and the blood from so many victims. Long after darkness I helped fight fires at the hangar area, but could not sleep that night thinking of possible invasion of Japanese forces. To make matters worse, and to confirm my thought of possible invasion, a loud salvo of gunfire went up from Pearl Harbor. I later learned it was “friendly fire” which shot down five Navy planes attempting to land at Ford Island during radio silence, killing four pilots. War was already Hell for me!}

      A B-17 I flew in as Flight Engineer  

                                                  B-17 arriving from California took this picture

B-18 wreckage on Hickam flight line  

Remain                                                 Broken water line flooded the area

^{I’m still saddened by memory of events leading up to and since that “Day of Infamy.” I look at a black-and-white snapshot of me with two friends taken outside our barracks at Hickam Field, the day we celebrated our advancement to sergeant, and reality hits me; Shortly after the photograph was taken they both voluntarily transferred to Clark Field in the Philippine Islands, and on their “Day of Infamy” were taken prisoner by the Japanese.}

^{They spent the remaining years of the war in a Japanese prison camp, suffering inhuman treatment and malnutrition. I talked with both shortly after their release, following the unconditional surrender by Japan, and their account of humiliating, savage treatment, including suffering from malnutrition, is something I cannot yet forgive, or will ever forget.} 

^{One friend was so badly treated he spent the rest of his painful few years in a wheelchair. The other (Since I first wrote this has died) explained how he survived starvation by pulling his socks up over the bottom of his pant legs to form pockets, and sneaking rice through his open fly while in the chow line, to be removed and eaten after lights out. I was shocked and angered by these accounts, and can believe the stories of even more savage treatment suffered by many more of my friends who did not survive, those 
killed during the attack on Clark Field, or during the Bataan Death March, murdered by their captors along the way.}

Flag pole at Hickam Field

^{My belief that Americans subjected to inhuman treatment by the Japanese is corroborated by reading books written by other prisoners of war: “The Chow Line,” by Ken Towery, and “Prisoners of the Japanese,” by Gavin Daws. I strongly recommend both books be required reading by all students of American history. As I read these books and recall accounts of horrible treatment my friends suffered while prisoners of the Japanese. It causes me to shudder with revulsion at the lack of compassion and reward shown our prisoners of war by our government, in comparison to the acts of forgiveness, and remuneration given Japanese persons placed in internment camps here in America after the attack on Pearl Harbor - an attack which killed more than 2,000 U.S. military personnel and marked entry into World War II.} 

I recently attended the 61st Anniversary of the Attack on Hickam Field on 7 December 2002. I hope this report of it is enjoyed by all. Of course your comments are welcome.

Due to my not being able to edit in these bits of interesting news, I am taking the liberty of posting them here for your persual. "In the paragraph on page four of this report, where it explains how Lieutenants Welch and Taylor managed to takeoff and shoot down some Japanese planes, I would like to make note that these two pilots were my first WW II heroes, as was chronicled in my Autobiography regarding my experiences during the attack. Check web site www.reecefamilies.com  Also interesting is that the part of these two were played in the movie "Pearl Harbor" by Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett respectively. Also on the last paragraph of page five,

I would like to mention that I was/am a Life Member of the 11th Bomb Group Assn. and was at the 1991 dedication of the large Bronze Plaque that stands at the foot of the Flagpole at Hickam AFB and I will attach a photo of Olive and I taken at this 2002 Ceremony. Aloha and God bless. Leon Webster