Remembering Pearl Harbor

At 7:48 am, Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time, on December 7, 1941, the stillness of Sunday morning was disrupted when the first wave of 183 Japanese torpedo bombers, dive bombers, and escorting fighters attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. A second wave of 171 aircraft struck the naval base and airfields shortly before 9 am. Devastation was total. Americans killed in the attack numbered 2,403, with 1,143 wounded. All eight of the U.S. Navy battleships at Pearl Harbor were damaged and four were sunk including the USS Arizona. Numerous other ships were sunk or damaged. On December 8, the United States declared war on Japan. The United States had entered World War II.

December 7, 2021, is the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Each year the news mentions the attack that took place on December 7, and each year we have fewer eyewitnesses who survived that attack. This ‘day of infamy’ became personal for me through a chance encounter many years after the attack.

On December 14, 2007, my wife Cheryl and I were at the San Francisco airport to pick up our nephew. After meeting him outside of security, we were at a baggage claim carousel watching as bags appeared from multiple flights when my attention was drawn away by what I saw on the back of a jacket in front of me: ‘USS Arizona Survivor.’ I leaned over to Cheryl and said, “that is something you don’t see every day.”  Quickly my curiosity got the better of me and I approached the gentleman wearing the jacket to ask him about it. He was returning from a reunion event at Pearl Harbor, on his way to his home in the Puget Sound area near Seattle. He then proceeded to enthrall the three of us with a remarkable account of the day of the attack.

His name was Glenn Lane. Lane was a radioman stationed on the USS Arizona, with the task of operating the radio for the seaplane that many World War II battleships carried on their stern to aid in reconnaissance air support. He was below deck when the bombs began to fall that morning, and only with great effort did he reach the main deck. He was assisting in putting out fires when the deck beneath him rose up following a massive explosion, throwing him into the oil-filled waters of the harbor. Afraid of becoming trapped by the burning oil fires scattered around the ship, he swam toward the harbor channel. He then saw another battleship slowly moving down the channel, and he swam toward it.

The moving battleship was the USS Nevada, the only battleship to get underway during the attack. Crewmembers on the Nevada helped Glenn aboard and took him to one of the casemates where ammunition was stored close to the guns that used it. Glenn was covered in oil from head to foot, so the crew at the casemate would not let him in. Instead, other nearby crew members helped him wash off much of the oil using water connections available on the deck. A short time later, the Nevada came under intense attack by the second wave of Japanese planes that were attempting to sink the ship and block the channel. One of the bombs during this attack landed directly on the casemate that Glenn had been taken to but had not entered, killing everyone inside it. The battleship was severely damaged but still moving, and the captain ordered the Nevada to be beached. Glenn was then transferred to another ship to be treated for his wounds. As he shared this dramatic account with my family, he concluded by saying that, to his knowledge, he is the only person in the Navy to have had two battleships bombed out from under him in less than one hour.

While telling his story, Glenn did not use overly dramatic language; he simply stated the facts as he experienced them. I got the impression that he had told his story many times, confirmed by later news accounts of his talks to school children and adults. I feel fortunate to have heard the story from him directly, and to have shared the experience with our nephew, someone from the next generation. Glenn graciously allowed my wife to take a photo of my nephew and myself standing next to him outside of the San Francisco International Airport terminal:

As radio personality Paul Harvey used to say, now for the rest of the story: Glenn participated in an equally-significant Pacific battle several months after Pearl Harbor. After recuperating from the wounds he received at Pearl Harbor, he was reassigned as a radio operator flying in the second seat of a Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber on the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown.  The Yorktown was severely damaged during the battle of the Coral Sea, but Herculean efforts by the Navy got it repaired and seaworthy in time for it to join two other US carriers off the small atoll named Midway. Glenn participated in the combat sorties being flown from the Yorktown. When the Battle of Midway concluded, US carrier planes had sunk four of the Japanese aircraft carriers that participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor, with the loss of only one US carrier – the Yorktown – and the destroyer USS Hammann.   

Glenn Lane passed away in his sleep on December 10, 2011, at his home on Whidbey Island. In September 2012, his ashes were interred with his shipmates on the Arizona. As the number of Arizona survivors steadily decreases, it is important that stories like Glenn’s be preserved and shared with later generations. May Glenn and his shipmates rest in peace.

James Zimbelman is Senior Geologist Emeritus in the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the National Air and Space Museum, where his research interests focus on aeolian (wind-related) and volcanic features on Earth and Mars. He was the lead curator on the upcoming Kenneth C. Griffin Exploring the Planets Gallery from 2016 to 2020.

Special thanks to Tom Paone, Curator of World War II Naval Aviation, for finding the photo of Glenn Lane, and Russ Lee, acting chair and curator in the Museum’s Aeronautics Department.