The Sleeping Giant Awakes by Richard Taylor

Richard Taylor’s ‘The Sleeping Giant Awakes’ portrays the scene as the Enterprise slips through the shallow outer channels towards Ford Island and the smoldering ruins that had been the Pacific Fleet. As ships still burn and the stench of destruction hangs in the air, ever alert F4F-3A Wildcats of VF-6 fly an air patrol overhead. Throughout the night the carrier will refuel and re-arm, the fires of the still burning Arizona lighting the night sky. At dawn she will return to sea with a steel resolve and a new mission, to avenge Pearl Harbor.

Signatures of THREE veterans who saw action at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. They remember moments from that terrible day:

Staff Sgt JAMES ANTHONY DONIS USAAC - Enlisting in the Army Air Corp in 1940, James Donis was posted to Oahu in January 1941. Promoted to Air Mechanic he was assigned to Base Engineering at Wheeler Field when the attack took place: “The first plane to start the attack proceeded to dive towards the Base Engineering Hangar (where I was stood), the bomb was released and made a direct hit on a wood frame supply building, about 300 yards from where I was standing! I ran to an adjacent Transportation Building where P-40’s were parked wing tip to wing tip, burning and exploding. The bombing attack had destroyed most aircraft for any counter attack, and after the bombing ended the aerial strafing began, flying low over hangars and Hangar Avenue. As they flew past they were so low I could see the pilots’ faces. There was a strong response from base personnel, myself included, as we fired weapons from the balconies of the 3-storey air-base building that faced Hangar Avenue where Japanese planes passed on their strafing attack”

Sgt LEO PRIEST US Army - After joining the National Guard in 1937, Leo Priest joined the regular US Army in September 1940. He was at the command post at Hickam Field on the morning of the attack: “Coming back from chow with some Army buddies…we noticed anti-aircraft guns firing across the island from us. We could see AA bursts with planes flying through them. All of a sudden, two Zeros came from nowhere not more than 50ft off the ground. The pilots and gunners were about as close to us as we were to each other . . . the gunner in the rear cockpit was swinging his machine gun down on us and beginning to fire, I will never forget the expression on his face . . . he was actually grinning at us.” “I was then ordered to drive the CO . . . first stop Pearl Harbor. As we approached it was almost like night time with choking, heavy black smoke shrouding away the otherwise bright, beautiful Sunday morning sun . . . and as we arrived we were just in time to get right in the middle of the Japanese follow up second attack . . . we could see ships sinking in a sea of fire. The whole harbor, especially near the sea wall at Ford Island was ablaze with thick layers of burning oil and sailors swimming for their lives . . .”

Lt Colonel BERNARD ‘BERNIE’ RUBIEN USAAC - ‘Bernie’ Rubien enlisted in the Army Air Corps in September 1940, and arrived at Pearl Harbor on December 10, 1940: “I arrived in Honolulu on December 10, 1940 and was stationed at Hickham Field assigned first to the 72nd Bomb Squadron and then to Headquarters, where I was on duty on December 7, 1941. I was awakened that morning by horrendous noise and ran outside the barracks where we were being strafed by low-flying Jap Zeros. I remained at Hickam until late 1942 when after Officer training returned to the Pacific and spent the war on a couple of islands called Kwajalein and Saipan where we were visited nightly by our Japanese friends flying down from Iwo Jima and dropping a few friendly bombs! That stopped when the Marines captured the island.”