Pearl Harbor Memories: Retired Master Sergeant Richard Fiske

On April 2, 2004, Richard Fiske, a retired U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant and a Pearl Harbor survivor, passed away at the age of 82. Three years earlier, Fiske was a special guest at the press junket for "Pearl Harbor," the explosive recreation of the events of December 7, 1941 from director Michael Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

During the junket, I was fortunate enough to sit with other journalists on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis and listen as Fiske talked about his experiences. Even in the company of "Pearl Harbor" stars Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale, Fiske was the true star that day.

Fiske Served on the USS West Virginia at the Time of the Attack

Because they sometimes had drills on Sundays, Fiske said that seeing Japanese airplanes in the distance wasn't a big deal. "I was on quarter deck. I was on watch," he said. "I was the bugler on watch. I was the one that woke them up. Of course, there were times that they didn't like me when I woke them up at 5:30 in the morning."

"Nobody told us we were going to be in a war. From a distance, there was no way we could have told or realized that they were Japanese planes. From a distance, you can not tell it," he said.

Prior to December 7, the United States Tried to Remain Neutral About the War Brewing Overseas

After the Pearl Harbor attack, Admiral Yamamoto, leader of the Japanese forces, said all he succeeded in doing was "awaking a sleeping giant and filling him with resolve." "People don't realize that Japan did us one hell of big favor because we were coming out of a Depression Era," Fiske said. "There were so many offshoots of the Communist Party, Fascist Party, Socialist Party, Nationalist Party, Nazi Party. The United States was so divided that anybody could have taken us. And you can look at the newsreels back then, back in the '30's and '40's, the army was training with wooden guns. We had jeeps with signs on them that said 'I'm a tank.' That's how bad we were."