Dec. 7, 1941, and His Ship Was Moored Next to the Arizona

The date will never fade from Harley Eppler’s memory: Dec. 7, 1941.

Eppler, then a 19-year-old Navy recruit from Nebraska, had been assigned to the Vestal, a repair ship docked beside the battleship Arizona in Pearl Harbor.

Eppler watched in horror early that Sunday as Japanese warplanes dropped waves of bombs on the Navy fleet stationed there, making a direct hit on the Arizona.

On Monday, the 57th anniversary of the tragedy, Eppler recalled his experience: “We were tied up alongside the Arizona--only 4 feet apart. When it blew up, it was quite jarring.”

The battleship bore the brunt of a torpedo attack and sank with 1,177 sailors and Marines aboard. In all, the early-morning attack claimed more than 2,000 lives.

Eppler, 76, who lives in Orange, joined about 75 others at El Toro Memorial Park to commemorate the Japanese attack that plunged the United States into World War II.

The annual ceremony drew representatives from several local veterans groups. Many wore Hawaiian shirts and white pants--the uniform they have adopted as Pearl Harbor survivors.

Overhead waved a worn flag that once flew over the USS Arizona Memorial. Rex Myles, who with Eppler is a member of the Orange County chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Assn., provided the flag, which he got from a relative in Hawaii.

When the veterans gather each year, they share their memories of the attack and recount their own experiences.

Eppler recalled Monday how his military training kept him alive. “Our training had prepared us so much. We never stopped to think. We knew automatically what we had to do,” he said.

Crew members rapidly cut the lines holding the two ships together, or else “it could have been both of us,” Eppler said.

The survivors group, with 125 members locally, often goes to schools to share the Pearl Harbor story with the students.

Howard Bender, 76, of Mission Viejo said his hope is that his experience will inspire a little patriotism in children who many not appreciate what they have.

“If I can bring to life just a few things that people in my day had gone through, maybe they’ll have the idea that freedom is something they have to fight for and preserve,” he said.

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* ANNUAL RITE

The commemoration in Hawaii adds tribute to minority soldiers. A13