100-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor recalls chaos during 1941 Japanese bombing

Bob Fernandez thought he would go dancing and see the world when he joined the United States Navy at age 17 in August 1941.

Four months later, he found himself buffeted by explosions and passing ammunition to artillery crews so that his ship's guns could return fire on bombing Japanese planes. Pearl Harbora naval base in Hawaii.

“When these things happened like that, we didn’t know what was happening,” said Fernandez, now 100 years old. “We didn’t even know we were at war.”

Two survivors of the attack – each aged 100 or older – plan to return to Pearl Harbor on Saturday to mark 83 years since the attack that plunged the United States 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 National Park Service.

Fernandez had originally planned to join them, but had to cancel due to health concerns.

The bombing killed more than 2,300 American service members. Nearly half, or 1,177, were sailors and Marines aboard the USS Arizona, which sank during the battle. The remains of more than 900 Arizona crew members are still buried on the submerged ship.

A minute's silence will be observed at 7:54 a.m., the same time the attack began eight decades ago. Planes in formation of missing men must fly over the scene to break the silence.

Dozens of survivors joined the annual commemoration, but attendance declined as survivors aged. Today, there are only 16 alive, according to a list maintained by Kathleen Farley, California state president of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors. Military historian J. Michael Wenger estimated that there were some 87,000 military personnel on Oahu on the day of the attack.

Many consider the Pearl Harbor survivors heroes, but Fernandez doesn't see himself that way.

“I'm not a hero. I'm just an ammunition smuggler,” he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from California, where he now lives with his nephew in Lodi.

Fernandez was working as a cook on his ship, the USS Curtiss, on the morning of December 7, 1941, and planned to go dancing that evening at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki.

He brought coffee and food to the sailors while he waited tables during breakfast. Then they heard an alarm sounding. Through a porthole, Fernandez saw a plane pass with the red ball insignia painted on Japanese planes.

Fernandez rushed three decks to a storage room where he and other sailors waited for someone to open a door storing 5-inch (12.7-centimeter) .38-caliber shells so they could begin to pass them to the ship's guns.

He told interviewers over the years that some of his fellow sailors prayed and cried when they heard gunshots above.

“I was a little scared because I didn’t know what was happening,” Fernandez said.

The ship's guns hit a Japanese plane which crashed into one of its cranes. Shortly after, its guns hit a dive bomber which then rammed the ship and exploded below deck, setting fire to the hangar and main decks, according to the Navy History and Heritage Command.

Fernandez's ship, the Curtiss, lost 21 men and nearly 60 of its sailors were injured.

“We lost a lot of good people, you know. They didn't do anything,” Fernandez said. “But you never know what will happen in the event of war.”

After the attack, Fernandez had to sweep up the debris. That night he stood guard with a rifle to make sure no one tried to board. When it came time to rest, he fell asleep next to where the ship's dead lay. He only realized it when a fellow sailor woke him up and told him.

After the war, Fernandez worked as a forklift driver at a cannery in San Leandro, California. His wife of 65 years, Mary Fernandez, died in 2014. His eldest son is now 82 and lives in Arizona. Two other sons and a daughter-in-law died.

He traveled to Hawaii three times to participate in the Pearl Harbor commemoration. This year would have been his fourth trip.

Fernandez still loves music and goes dancing at a nearby restaurant once a week if he can. His favorite song is Frank Sinatra's rendition of “All of Me,” a song that his nephew Joe Guthrie says he still knows by heart.

“Ladies flock to him like moths to a flame,” Guthrie said.