Before Pearl Harbor

As the sun rose on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Carl Dry was ready to sleep.

Dry, a 21-year-old aviation machinist mate at Kaneohe Bay Naval Base in Hawaii, had spent all night installing fuel tanks in the flying boats used to patrol the Pacific Ocean. After a quick breakfast at the mess hall, he headed to bed around 7:45 a.m.

But as he drifted off to sleep, there was a loud noise. Minutes later, he heard people screaming that the Japanese were attacking the base.

Dry thought it was a joke at first. But then one of the officers came to his bunk, confirmed the attack and ordered him to head to the hangar.

He looked out his window and saw
the Japanese planes.

The Japanese attacked Kaneohe Bay just minutes before attacking Pearl Harbor, which killed more than 2,300 people and led to the United States' involvement in World War II.

Prior to the attack, Dry, a Spokane native, lived the peacetime naval life. The first few years in the Navy were practically a vacation, the 87-year-old jokes. The worst thing he dealt with was serving as coffee boy for the officers.

His days were spent repairing and maintaining the planes on the naval base. Once he was done, he was free to enjoy his afternoon. He usually spent it riding the boat he bought with other colleagues.

While the war was raging in Europe, Dry didn't believe the United States would be involved. He remembers President Franklin Roosevelt promising mothers that the country would not send their sons to war.

A month before the attack, officers at his base reduced the number of planes patrolling the waters.

"I didn't know we would get into the war," he said. "No one did."

But that would all change after the Japanese attack that morning.

The attack lasted about 15 minutes. But it felt much longer to Dry. After hearing about the attack, Dry headed to the hangars at the naval base. The Japanese shot and bombed the hangars, but the bombs turned out to be duds, leaving the buildings with only slight damage.

Not everyone was so lucky. Eleven of Dry's colleagues, who were reporting for duty that morning, died in the attack at Kaneohe Bay. The planes outside all burned to ashes -- only the machine guns inside them stayed intact.

Dry was alive but shaken up.

"We were all pretty scared," he said.

They couldn't remain scared for long. The relaxed schedule ended. All the squadrons on Kaneohe Bay were on duty for 24 hours at a time to allow for constant patrol of the Japanese.

The vigilance worked. In June 1942, one of the squadrons on Dry's naval base detected Japanese aircraft. That led to American forces gearing up for what became the Battle of Midway.

During that battle, American forces heavily damaged much of the Japanese fleet. It was considered one of the major turning points of the Pacific side of the war, which ended Aug. 15, 1945.

Meanwhile, Dry moved on from Hawaii to Guadalcanal, an island farther west in the Pacific, to help the United States keep the Japanese from taking over the island.

He came back to the United States in 1943 to attend flight school to become a naval aviation cadet, but by the time he was finished, the war was nearly over. He was honorably discharged Sept. 29, 1945.

But when he remembers the war and looks through his war memorabilia in his Yakima home, he remembers the first surprise attack by the Japanese and everyone's determination to overcome it.

"You knew you were fighting for the absolute defeat of the enemy," he said.

* Mai Hoang can be reached at 577-7685 or mhoang@yakimaherald.com.