Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
‘I did not know if I would survive’
Pearl Harbor veteran looks back 75 years to attack that killed 2,400
DEERFIELD BEACH —Over an afternoon beer or two at American Legion Post 162, Edward Hammond is happy to talk about oddities in the news or what’s going on with others’ kids and grandkids.
But it is not quite so easy to get the 92-year-old Navy veteran to open up about one of the defining events of his life: The surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 75 years ago Wednesday.
“I was lucky,” said Hammond, one of South Florida’s last known survivors of the military strike on Dec. 7, 1941, what President Franklin Roosevelt called “a date which will live in infamy.”
“And I feel a little guilty,” he said, his eyes growing misty as he thought of those who did not make it home.
With a little coaxing, Hammond does speak of the Sunday morning in Hawaii he can never forget, when he was just 17 years old and awakened by an explosion out-
side his barracks at the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet Headquarters on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
“It was five minutes to eight, and I looked outside to see airplanes coming in very low,” said Hammond, who had enlisted in the Navy in his hometown of Cleveland less than a year earlier.
“Right then, I knew we were at war,” he said. “I did not know if I would survive, but it did go through my mind that if I do survive, I’ll be a part of history.”
Hammond, spry, thoughtful and turning 93 on Saturday, is among an estimated 620,000 World War II veterans believed to be still alive, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Survivors of Pearl Harbor are thought to number fewer than 2,000.
“We consider him an icon and national treasure,” said Eddie Cruz, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam who often lunches with Hammond at the American Legion.
“He and other World War II veterans really are the greatest generation. We live in a free society because of them.”
One other South Florida survivor is Joseph Iscovitz, a retired Air Force sergeant who was stationed at Fort Shafter, Honolulu, when the attack took place. Now 100 years old, Iscovitz is doing well in Coconut Creek, said his son Douglas Iscovitz.
“He is very proud of his 24 years in the service,” said Douglas Iscovitz. “And I know that the memory of those who died are always on his mind. They are the true heroes.”
Although memories of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and thoughts of those who died, can move Hammond to tears, he said he does feel a responsibility to bear witness. And he knows the ball cap lettered with “Pearl Harbor Survivor” he wears only at this time of year invites inquiries.
“This generation really didn’t talk about the war,” said Colleen Harris, Hammond’s daughter. “But they live with it every day.”
As he sipped a Miller Lite one day earlier this week, Hammond recalled that as waves of Japanese plans swooped in to rain down bombs, he and three other young sailors ran to the armory to get rifles, only to be told by the supply clerk they had to first complete some paperwork. “There’s a war going on, man,” Hammond yelled. “Give us the rifles!”
For the next couple of hours Hammond said he and his mates fired into the sky, realizing only later that they likely had little effect on the attacking Japanese planes.
The toll was immense. Within two hours the Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight battleships, and more than 300 airplanes.
Hammond and his buddies survived, but more than 2,400 American sailors and soldiers did not. Another 1,000 were wounded.
And the U.S. was pulled into World War II.
Hammond spent six years in the Navy, much of it aboard an attack transport shuttling troops around the Pacific theater. After the war he returned to Cleveland, found work in the printing business, got married and had three children.
His wife of 63 years died in 2011.
Soon after Hammond moved to Florida 30 years ago to start a new job, he joined a local chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, which then had about 80 members. The chapter no longer exists, and Hammond, who lives in Deerfield Beach, has no contacts with any other survivors in South Florida.
Hammond does not visit World War II monuments in Washington, and has never returned to Pearl Harbor. He said he twice had tickets to go to Hawaii but decided at the last minute to cancel his plans.
Hammond uses a walker to get around, and is steadily losing vision due to an eye condition called macular degeneration.
But he said he feels good and likes spending time at the American Legion post where he can share combat experiences without actually talking about them.
“To this day, if I hear a prop [propeller] plane, I’m waiting for a bomb to go off,” said Hammond. “I think that will remain in my blood forever.”