Roy Blick

Oahu possessed several formidable coastal defenses, including Fort Kamehameha, on the coast southeast of Pearl Harbor and Hickam Field. Unfortunately, these installations were designed to repel an enemy attack on the beaches, and they were powerless to stop the Japanese warplanes that bombed the island. This informative eyewitness account of the attack as seen from an unusual vantage is by Roy Blick, then a private stationed at Fort Kamehameha.

Ihad a southern heritage, with both grandparents serving in the Civil War with the Confederacy, an uncle who volunteered and lost his life in the Spanish-American War in Cuba, and other relatives who served in World War I. I was proud of those that had served and realized that we were drawing closer to another war every day.

Ihad joined the Civil Conservation Corps in 1940 and was stationed at Camp William...