Pearl Harbor, Hawaii — When Bob Fernandez enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a 17-year-old high school student in August 1941, he thought he would dance and see the world.
Four months later, he noticed the explosion and gave ammunition to his artillery so that it could fire back at Japanese planes bombing Pearl Harbor, a naval base in Hawaii.
Fernandez, now 100 years old, said, “I didn’t know what was going on when things were going on like that. I didn’t even know there was a war going on.”
Two survivors of the bombing, each over 100 years old, are scheduled to return to Pearl Harbor on Saturday to celebrate the 83rd anniversary of the bombing that plunged the United States into World War II. They will join active military, veterans and the general public in a memorial service hosted by the Navy and the National Park Service.
Fernandes was originally scheduled to join the team, but had to cancel due to health issues.
Pearl Harbor Navy veteran Bob Fernandez poses for a photo with his military service medal on Tuesday, November 19, 2024 in Lodi, California.
AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vasquez
The bombing killed more than 2,300 U.S. military personnel. Almost half of the 1,177 people on board the USS Arizona, which sank during the battle, were sailors and Marines. The bodies of more than 900 Arizona crew members are still buried in the wreck.
A moment of silence will be observed at 7:54 a.m., the same time the attack began 80 years ago. Aircraft with missing persons in formation are scheduled to fly over the area to break the silence.
Dozens of survivors once attended the annual memorial service, but attendance has declined as the survivors have aged. Only 16 are still alive, according to a list maintained by Kathleen Farley, president of California Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors. Military historian J. Michael Wenger estimates that there were about 87,000 military personnel on Oahu on the day of the attack.
While many people praise Pearl Harbor survivors as heroes, Fernandez doesn’t see himself that way.
“I’m not a hero. I’m just a passer-by of ammunition,” he told The Associated Press in a phone interview from California. He currently lives with his nephew in Lodi.
Fernandez was working as a cook on his ship, the USS Curtis, on the morning of December 7, 1941, and was planning to go dancing that night at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki.
USS Curtiss at sea, 1954.
Naval History and Heritage Command via AP
He brought coffee and food to the sailors waiting at the table during breakfast. Then I heard an alarm. Through the porthole, Fernandez saw a plane flying by, wearing the same red ball insignia on Japanese aircraft.
Fernandez ran down three decks to the magazine room, where he and other sailors unlocked a door where someone kept 5-inch (12.7 centimeter) .38 caliber shells and opened the ship. was waiting to begin delivering shells to the main gun.
He has told interviewers over the years that some of his fellow sailors prayed and cried while hearing gunshots overhead.
“It was a little scary because I didn’t know what the hell was going on,” Fernandez said.
A naval gun hit a Japanese plane, causing it to crash into one of the cranes. Shortly after, a naval gun hit the dive bomber, causing it to crash into the ship and explode below deck, setting the hangar and main deck ablaze, according to the Naval Heritage Command.
Fernandez’s ship, the Curtiss, lost 21 men and nearly 60 of its crew were injured.
“We lost a lot of talented people. It’s not like they did nothing,” Fernandez said. “But in war you never know what will happen.”
In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, the destroyer USS Shaw explodes after being hit by a bomb during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941.
US Navy, via AP, File
After the attack, Fernandez had to clean up the debris. That night he stood guard with a rifle to make sure no one tried to ride. When it was time for him to rest, he fell asleep next to the ship’s dead body. He only realized this when a fellow sailor woke him up and told him.
After the war, Fernandez worked as a forklift driver in a cannery in San Leandro, California. His wife of 65 years, Mary Fernandez, passed away in 2014. My eldest son is now 82 years old and lives in Arizona. He was also survived by two sons and a stepdaughter.
He traveled to Hawaii three times to participate in the Pearl Harbor memorial service. This year would have been his fourth trip.
Fernandez still loves music and goes dancing at a nearby restaurant once a week if possible. His favorite song was Frank Sinatra’s “All of Me,” which his nephew Joe Guthrie said he still knows by heart.
“Women flock to him like moths to a flame,” Guthrie said.
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Associated Press journalist Terry Chia contributed to this report from Lodi, California.
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