NEW CASTLE Pearl Harbor remains indelible in minds of vets

Eight Lawrence County men are Pearl Harbor survivors.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- It's a small and dwindling group, those who endured the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but Joe Gasper, Glaudino Ialongo, Joe Kapuchuck, Carl Richardson and George Ward gathered to honor it.
All five Lawrence County men are part of the group. They were in the military and at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
Most talk as if it happened yesterday.
"I was eating breakfast when I saw the planes flying over," said Ialongo, 83, of Ellwood City. "I went outside and was looking at a bulletin board when the first plane opened machine gun fire in our area. He started shooting and then it was all chaos after that."
Ialongo, who was in the Army, is still amazed that he wasn't hit by bullets coming from the Japanese airplane's machine gun.
"I could hear the pilot laughing and see him grinning," he said.
The indelible image of a smiling Japanese pilot is forever etched in Ward's mind too.
There about a week: The 78-year-old Union Township man had been on the USS Dobbin, a destroyer tanker, for only about a week when he saw the planes approaching as he waited for the flag to be raised on his ship. The nearby USS Utah was under water in a matter of minutes after the attack started, he said.
His ship was mostly spared because it was surrounded by five other ships that were able to put up enough anti-aircraft fire, he said.
"I was just terrified. One bomb blew up on our ship and it threw me 20 feet in the air," said Ward, who moved to Lawrence County nine years ago with his wife, Dot, from his native New York.
Carl Richardson, another Army veteran, was eating his breakfast when the Japanese attacked.
"We ran outside to see what was going on. All of our rifles were in storage and all we had were handguns," he said.
Said a prayer: Richardson, 79, of New Castle said he ran to his field position and waited in a foxhole.
"I was holding my rifle and trembling and I said, 'Lord, if you get me out of this I will serve you for the rest of my life,'" he said.
Richardson said he made it safely through Pearl Harbor and five other major military campaigns during World War II. He kept the promise he made 60 years ago and has devoted his life to God. He said he has been an elder at the First Assembly of God Church in New Castle for 18 years.
Underage: Joe Kapuchuck was a cocky 15-year-old who had enlisted in the U.S. Marines without his parents' permission. He was just getting off military police duty in the early hours of Dec. 7, 1941, when he heard the planes firing.
"It was just miserable. There was smoke and human bodies burning. You couldn't get the smell out of your nostrils for days. You didn't get a chance to clean up for days," said Kapuchuck, 75, of Neshannock Township.
Military officials learned of Kapuchuck's age after Pearl Harbor when his mother put an announcement in the local paper saying he had survived. Kapuchuck was brought back to the states and put in the brig before being discharged.
He joined up again a few years later when he turned 18 and ended up fighting in several large campaigns, he said.
Joe Gasper had been on maneuvers with his Army unit when the first wave of bombs started. He was injured when his vehicle overturned during the attack.
Gasper, 83, had planned to spend Dec. 7, 2002, in Hawaii, but has to forgo the trip because he is waiting to have surgery on his back -- the area where he sustained injuries 60 years ago. That injury didn't stop him from staying active in the military until 1945, he said.
Honored: The men were given plaques and commendations from Lawrence County officials for their bravery and service to their country at a ceremony Friday afternoon at the county government center.
Three other Lawrence County residents -- Milton Anderson, John Ayers and Isaac George -- were also honored but could not attend because of health reasons.