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Surviving Infamy
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Gaskell
And then there were four.
Of the 27 who formed the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association Mahoning County Chapter 5, only Robert Bishop of Austintown, Alfred “Al” Gaskell of Howland, Earl Husman Sr. of Braceville and James A. Werner of Farmdale remain active.
Bishop, Gaskell and Husman served in the Navy and Werner in the Army. They were among about 60,000 military personnel in Hawaii when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
“We survived Pearl Harbor, but we can’t escape the “grim reaper,” Werner said, alluding to the dwindling number of Pearl survivors locally and nationally.
Among those recently lost was Phillip C. Corsello of Wellsville, who was president of Chapter 5 when he died June 23, 2011, at 93. He was with the Army Air Corps.
The attack came in two waves, one beginning at 7:53 a.m. and the second at 8:55 a.m. By 9:55 a.m. it was over, leaving dead about 2,400 Navy, Marine and Army personnel, including 1,177 on the USS Arizona alone; nearly 200 destroyed U.S. planes and a crippled U.S. Pacific Fleet.
There are so few active Pearl survivors nationwide — with most in their 90s and the youngest in their late 80s — that the National Pearl Harbor Association, founded in 1958, is disbanding Dec. 31.
The main reason the National Association is closing down is because with only about 2,100 members left, key people cannot be found to fill key national offices, particularly treasurer and secretary, said Bernard Comito of Dalton, director of the organization’s Fourth District, which includes Ohio and 14 other states. He said the association loses about 24 members per month.
Comito, who is a member of Chapter 5 because his own chapter was down to one — him — noted that there are many other Pearl Harbor survivors who don’t belong to the association.
Local Pearl survivors say the memory of Pearl Harbor needs to be kept alive to honor the people, military and civilians who were killed or wounded in the surprise attack and to serve as a warning to the nation to stay alert.
The National Pearl Harbor Survivors Association’s motto is “Remember Pearl Harbor — Keep America Alert — Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty.”
“I hope we remember, but the United States didn’t do a very good job if you look at the terrorist attacks on New York City and the Pentagon on Sept. 1, 2001,” said Gaskell, 88.
“When the terrorist pilots said they didn’t want to learn how to land while taking flying lessons, red flags should have gone up. They should have been caught before they ever got in the air,” he said.
“We have to be alert. We have something great in this country that somebody is always trying to take away. Now we have idiots in the Middle East whose philosophy about life is totally different than ours.” Gaskell said.
“Our social structure is supposed to be open, but who would have expected they would have hit those towers. It’s just hard to understand how little they value human life,” said Werner, 90.
Although the National Pearl Harbor Association is folding, the men of Chapter 5 plan to continue meeting socially to keep their friendship and the motto alive.
Also, said Bishop, the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors has a strong organization to keep the story alive; and the Pacific War Memorial Association is taking over care of the Pearl Harbor Memorial and publishing the “Pearl Harbor-Gram” (the National Association’s news letter) to keep members informed.
It is also important to keep the memory alive because it is a historic date for the United States: Dec. 7, 1941, ushered us into WWII,” said Bishop.
The local Pearl survivors, sad that their organization and friends are dying, still plan keep the memory and the message alive a long as possible.
“Our group will keep together until the grim reaper gets us. In the last Pearl Harbor — Gram, four guys in my outfit who died were listed. It hurt,” Werner said.
“We are going to stay close and continue to check on each other and take care of each other,” said Gaskell.
Whether the memory of Pearl Harbor will stay alive in the future may be a question.
But whether it remains foremost in the minds of the survivors is unquestionable.
“The attack was real sneaky. I’ll never forgive them,” said Gaskell, who says he relives the attack every day.
“I could see one of the Japanese pilots. He had a pet dog with him in the cockpit. You could have hit the planes with a broom, that’s how low they were flying. I’ll never forget,” Gaskell said.