By Ashley M. Casey
Staff Writer
Two of Central New York’s last remaining Pearl Harbor survivors visited Hawaii on the 73rd anniversary of the infamous attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy on the United States’ naval base. While it was 91-year-old Syracuse resident Ed Stone’s 10th visit to Pearl Harbor, it was the first time 94-year-old Larry Parry of Baldwinsville had returned to Hawaii since World War II.
Stone and Parry embarked on their trip Dec. 2, sponsored by The Greatest Generations Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting veterans of foreign conflicts and preserving their stories.
“Since 2004, TGGF has offered the opportunity for World War II veterans to return to their battlefields at no cost to them,” TGGF’s website reads. “These voyages back to the battlefields are often emotional, but provide veterans a measure of closure from their war experiences, the chance to share in the gratitude for their service, and a venue to educate others.”
For Parry, who was stationed on Honolulu Harbor in Oahu as an Army motor mechanic, returning to the site of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack was indeed emotional.
“It put a lot of tears up,” Parry recalled of the whirlwind journey, which had the veterans busy with visits to memorials and military operations, school question-and-answer sessions, a parade and a national ceremony to commemorate the attack.
The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor killed 2,403 Americans and wounded 1,178. It damaged all eight of the United States’ battleships and completely destroyed the USS Arizona. The attack was the catalyst for the U.S. entry into World War II.
Parry said he was playing football with his Army friends when the attack began.
“When I looked up in the air, I could see hundreds and hundreds of planes,” Parry remembered. “I said [to my friend], ‘This can’t be right.’”
Parry and his brother, Ernie, ran to the pier, where they saw the Japanese planes pass by, dropping bombs on two inter-island lumber boats.
“As they went by, the last Japanese pilot waved to my brother and I as we were standing there,” Parry said.
Two days after the attack, Parry was sent to move a load of ammunition. His sergeant told him not to stray from the Kamehameha Highway.
“Whatever you do, don’t go over the high road. Stay on Kam Highway,” Parry remembered the sergeant telling him.
Parry defied the instruction, wanting to see the destruction of Pearl Harbor for himself. What he saw made him weep.
“You really couldn’t believe what you were seeing,” he said. “The runways were all bombed, the hangars were afire, the planes were afire, the cars were afire, and every one of our battleships was tipped over.”
Parry said it was the first time during the war that he felt scared.
Ed Stone, a radio operator on the USS Pyro, was even closer to the action on that day. Stone, then 18, said he escaped the war without a scratch, but he had a close call during the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Stone had just relieved radioman Kenneth Hartman when Hartman ran back into the radio room.
“Hey, there are some funny-looking planes,” Hartman said, leading Stone to the window.
“It hit all of us immediately,” Stone said.
The sailors were sent to their gun stations. The Pyro was built in 1918, and its guns couldn’t aim above a 30 degree angle. Stone said they were “no good against aircraft.”
The Pyro lost power and Stone was sent to start the emergency radio power. Luckily, he had tested the emergency power controls only one day before for the captain’s inspection, during which it took him three tries to crank the controls successfully.
“With one crank it started and we had juice in the radio,” Stone said.
He didn’t realize just how close he came to losing his life at Pearl Harbor until a colleague showed him the line of bullet holes that traced Stone’s path from the radio room to the emergency power controls.
“I had no idea I was being shot at,” Stone said. “I was very fortunate to have guardian angels watching over me.”
Stone and Parry both said one thing that struck them about visiting the USS Arizona Memorial was the drops of oil that still rise to the surface, 73 years later. The Arizona had a full load of fuel — 1.5 million gallons — at the time of the attack, and it leaks as many as nine quarts of oil per day into the harbor.
Of the Arizona’s 1,511-member crew, 1,177 men were killed instantly in the attack. Only 107 bodies could be positively identified. Many of the bodies were buried as unknowns in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, but remains in the aft portion of the Arizona were left where they were.
“The number of fellows that are buried in that steel hull — it’s tearjerking,” Stone said.
Stone said the commemorative parade and parties for veterans were impressive. He got to ride in a Corvette as an honorary grand marshal in the parade, which 200,000 people attended.
“We were treated like we were little gods or something,” Stone said. “It’s hard to explain. So many people think I’m a hero. I’m not a hero. I did my duty. The heroes are the ones who died.”
Parry said the anniversary ceremony was touching.
“If you didn’t have tears in your eyes when you left there, there was something wrong with you,” he said.
Parry said he especially enjoyed meeting schoolchildren, signing autographs and answering their questions.
“It was amazing,” he said. “They fired questions to me and I answered. Every one of them wanted to shake hands with me. It was very emotional.”
Parry and Stone said they’ve both been asked to return to next year’s Pearl Harbor events. They haven’t decided if they’ll come back for the 74th or the bigger 75th anniversary in 2016, but they haven’t ruled it out.
Parry said “God willing” he’d be healthy enough for another trip to Pearl Harbor.
Stone said he’d like to bring his great-grandchildren.
“If I’m around and I feel halfway decent, I’ll go,” he said.
