***
On Sunday, December 7, 1941, I was working the night shift in the
Parachute Shop. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had occurred that
morning and was being reported on the radio in continuous news
flashes. About an hour after my work shift began, the shop supervisor
instructed all parachute riggers to go immediately to the aircraft
maintenance main hangar nearby. Several hundred men from aircraft
repair, sheet metal, and instrument repair shops, and other shops on the
base were already there when I arrived. They were milling about; I
joined the crowd and wondered why we had been assembled.
A military officer climbed to the work platform at the top of an aircraft
maintenance stand. Drawing everyone's attention, he announced that the
Army Air Corps needed skilled technicians and supervisors immediately
at Hickam Field in Hawaii. Whoever wanted to go, he said, should raise
his arm and his name and badge number would be entered on a list.
I happened to be single, footloose and fancy-free at the time, and my arm
got caught in the updraft. We were directed to stand by, and the others
instructed to return to their shops.
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