Many of our veterans have talked about them now. And some are recorded for the latter. Three inhabitants living in Orange County, California, Veterans & Now, in 2010, only two of these three are still with us.
Jim · Pirano: Firing at Pearl Harbor
In 1941, Jim Payano shot a Japanese bomber from the deck of a submarine USS Dolphin during the Pearl Harbor attack. I was afraid that Arizona burned water and burned hundreds of fire and scattered. Jim looked at the face of a young Japanese pilot and searched to drop the bomb. "They had a scarf and everything, as they were flying very low, I really could see them.
Jim was animated through the interview. It is a witness of too much history and I am glad that I managed to suppress his sorrow with a terrible loss. Immediately after Pearl Harbor, Jim's submarine entrusted the war to the Japanese:
"I did not know anything about fighting the war," he said. "I knew how to practice a submarine, but the rest of what I had to learn as a war had advanced"
Jim was in the battle of Midway and Tarawa and saw the service in the Solomon Islands and helped to save 29 missionary nuns and children. He was in the midst of "Battle of Japan", but his submarine submerged many enemy ships. He warned that the US military dropped the booklet to the citizen group and evacuated before the bombing was carried out.
Jim highly decorated the service, appointed the lieutenant's commander, later returned to Australia to introduce a 10 pin bowling sport to the country. As he talked about these stories with veteran videos, Jim's eyes shone. He was back at the moment.
Jim died last year at his home in Laguna Woods.
Julian Erz: his buddy was shot
Once a football player Julien Elts is still alive and now is 90 years old, Laguna Woods in California state also aspired to fight in the European warfare and was trained as a pilot and navigator. In December 1943, Julian and his crew took the "southern" route to the UK via Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Natal in Brazil, then across the Atlantic, Dakar, Marrakech, and finally through the UK. The plane was packed with candies for British children ruled by war, which the crew is expected to encounter
Tragedy for Julian and his crew stalled when his B - 24 J Liberator - "Bachelor & Baby" crashed on takeoff in Wales due to a single state of his crew . As he said in a veteran video, the plane had a 50 caliber shell. Julien suffered from a broken back and walked with some difficulties to date, but still counts himself luckily. He was able to evacuate from the explosive bullet behind the airplane engine that was away. Five of his ten crews, and the sixth man - unlucky hitchhiker - were killed. Dogs of boosters and mascots were also killed by a crash.
On this day he recalled the scream of Sammy Offutt and asked Julian to shoot the misery with bullets. Julian could not comply - he did not have a gun in his hand. I do not know that he thought that he would have had it. Julian returned to the United States with a whole body cast. Later on I studied the law and became a lawyer.
Sandy Ross: "It was not a hero but it was exciting."
Sandy Roth, who is 88 years old living in Lake Forest, California, wanted to be a pilot on the assembling line cockpit since the era of Rockheed's riveter. Before America joined the war, he asked his father to go north to head to Canada. His father refused. He did not have time to wait. Sandy and his brother joined the Army Air Corps and soon both were piloting the P - 47 lightning gun against the European German army.
World War II veteran Sandy Roth proudly wears an attractive brown bomber jacket and officer's cap in a veteran video interview and reviewed over 51 European missions. He was asked about the air medal, the outstanding flying cross, and the dog fight who got promoted to the second lieutenant. "He was not a hero.
Our World War II veterans experienced some of the most dramatic era of the 20th century. It is important that their stories be captured for families and future generations. Most of our veterans in World War II are in the 80's and 90's, there is a real urgency to record their stories.
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