60TH ANNIVERSARY

60TH ANNIVERSARY
The memories
Two Youngstown area Pearl Harbor survivors talk about Dec. 7, 1941, on the 60th anniversary of the Japanese attack. Both are members of Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, Mahoning Valley Chapter 5.
Alfred Marion Gaskell, 78, of Howland, enlisted in the Navy in August 1941 when he was 18. He grew up in Anaconda, Mont., and moved to Niles in 1946, where he met his wife, the former LouRene Jones. They were married in April 1947 and have two daughters, Karen Ann Haryu of Castalia, Ohio; and Lesley Renee Miller of Hartford.
After the war, he worked at several places in Trumbull County and out of Sheetmetal Workers Local 5 in Youngstown. He worked many years at Liberty Erection Services, retired in 1982, and for the past 12 years has worked part time for Roberts-Clark Funeral Home in Warren. Gaskell was aboard the sea plane tender USS Curtiss when the attack occurred.
Robert Marion Bishop, 80, of Austintown, enlisted in the Navy Sept. 19, 1940, at 17. He grew up in West Austintown and graduated from Fitch High School in 1939. He worked several places before settling down at U.S. Steel Corp.'s Ohio Works. He retired in 1980 after 27 1/2 years. He has worked 13 years at McDonald Steel, where he is a test engineer. He was aboard the USS Tennessee moored in Pearl Harbor when the attack occurred. After the war, he stayed in the Naval Reserve and was called to active duty during the Korean War.
Bishop and his wife, Doris, who also grew up in west Austintown, will have been married 58 years Jan. 11, 2002. They have three daughters, all nurses: Joyce Baylass in New Jersey, Sue Blake in Florida and Gay Blackann of North Turner Road in Austintown. They also have seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
The Bishops have been to Pearl Harbor five times and are in Hawaii now, with members of their family, for the 60th anniversary. Bishop has a slide presentation on Pearl Harbor that he puts on for schools, church groups and other organizations.