70 years ago today, Americans responded to Pearl Harbor
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George Priatko (center), 86, of Plum and other World War II veterans visit "Stars & Stripes: An American Story" at the Heinz History Center on Tuesday. The exhibition runs through June.
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He was the son of a man whose hands bore bayonet wounds from the first World War, yet for Tom Wiley, the news he heard over a car radio on Dec. 7, 1941, was inconceivable.
Pearl Harbor, the American naval base in Hawaii, had been attacked by the Japanese and war -- a concept he believed had been ended by his father's generation -- was imminent.
He finished his freshman year at Ohio State University and on Dec. 7, 1942, enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He became a pilot and flew missions in the Mediterranean region of Europe.
Another 16 million Americans served in the armed forces during World War II and more than 400,000 died.
PG VIDEO"Most of us didn't have to make a big decision," said Mr. Wiley, 88, of Ross. "We just knew it was the right thing to do, and we did it."
Today, the country will commemorate the 70th anniversary of the day of infamy that propelled the United States -- and men and women like Mr. Wiley -- into a war that changed the world and defined a generation.
In Pennsylvania and around the country, flags will be flown at half-staff. Memorials will be held for the more than 2,000 people who died during the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Speeches will be made and wreaths laid.
At the Heinz History Center in the Strip District on the day before the anniversary, Mr. Wiley and 40 other men and women from the Pittsburgh-area Veterans Breakfast Club toured the museum's new American flag exhibit and then shared their memories of Pearl Harbor day.
For these veterans of World War II, the passage of time has greyed their hair, slowed their gaits and faded their memories. Yet they could clearly remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Indeed, for many of them, it was the moment they realized their life and the world was about to change.
For George Priatko, the news was being yelled on the street as he walked out of a movie theater on a Sunday night 70 years ago.
His mother took solace in the knowledge that since his father had died four years earlier, George, the oldest male in the household, was not eligible for the draft.
But then a neighbor who had gone to fight in the Pacific came home in a closed casket. Mr. Priatko turned 18 and lied to his mother that the draft rules had changed.
"I left her on the doorstep crying," he said, and in 1944 left for two years of service in the Philippines and then Korea.
His toes became frostbitten during his service and as he walked around the flag exhibit on Tuesday, Mr. Priatko, 85, of Plum, leaned on a cane.
For Ila Cole, now 86, of Scott, the news about Pearl Harbor came over the radio when she was at home. A teenager at the time, she was shocked by the attack, then impressed to watch how quickly people volunteered to go to war.
Four years later and against her parents' wishes, she signed up for the WAVES program, an all-women division of the Navy.
"They weren't too happy," she said. "My dad didn't want to sign. I was, I think, 20 at the time. My mom signed for me, but my dad didn't. He just didn't want to do that."
Her military service lasted for 21/2 years, as she worked as a secretary for a federal office in San Francisco and then as a flight attendant on transport planes between California and Honolulu.
On Tuesday morning, as she made her way through an exhibit that displayed American flags that have played a role in American history, she said she hoped people would remember the chapter of history she and millions of others wrote during World War II.
"You just hope people don't forget how bad things were and how good the response was in our country," she said.
First Published December 7, 2011 12:00 am
