Memorial Day, this Monday, is a day to mourn and honor those who have died in U.S. military service.
One of the deadliest attacks on our nation’s military came in 1941, when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Military survivors of the attack are now more than 100 years old, and one of them, Freeman K. Johnson, lives in Centerville.
Johnson, 105, spoke recently to 4th and 5th graders at Cape Cod Academy.
“Almost every kid asks, was I scared?” he said. “No. I was too busy. When they started … 7:56 a.m., on December 7, 1941, we went to our battle stations.”
His post was the Number 7 boiler. He had to reassemble it after repairs.
An official Navy account says his ship, the USS St. Louis, shot down three aircraft before steaming out of the harbor, where it would search for Japanese ships.
Congress declared war on Japan the following day, marking the U.S. entry into World War II.
Johnson told the students how the sense of urgency aboard the ship changed immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
“Before, it was peacetime,” he said. “We were in no hurry to get anywhere. If you stopped in a port, everybody went ashore. But after the war [started], oh, it was a whole different ball game.”
For one thing, if personnel went ashore, “they took our cameras away, and we couldn't take any pictures,” he said. “Security. The phrase was, ‘Loose lips sink ships.’”
Johnson served in the Navy as a Machinist’s Mate, First Class.
His ship was later dubbed “Lucky Lou” because it fared well during the attack. But many did not.
The barrage of bombs and torpedoes struck eight battleships, 13 other vessels, and nearby airfields.
The Department of Defense says 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 wounded. Among the dead were 2,008 Navy personnel, 218 Army personnel (including from the Army Air Forces, which would become the Air Force in 1947), 109 Marines, and 68 civilians.
