More Pearl Harbor Stories

From the Dec. 6, 2009, News Telegram (NH).

WILLIAM LEFABVRE, 89, was on the USS West Virginia getting ready for church service when the attack came. When the ship was hit by a torpedo, Lefabvre was knocked overboard into the oily water. There are only about twenty Pearl Harbor survivors alive in New Hampshire.

There is a sign reading "Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge" on the bridge over the Merrimack River between Bedford and Manchester which was completed in 2002.

WILLIAM HALLAHAN, 88, of Plastow, was at Schofield Barracks in the base hospital recovering from a concussion from football. While standing on the hospital's porch, he saw the planes and thought they were on a bombing practice mission. To him, the bombs looked like they were dropping sacks of flour.

"Of course, those sacks of flour started exploding and they blew the hangar and a lot of planes that were on the ground. One plane attacked the hospital and a bullet hit a patient's leg cast. It knocked him flat but luckily the bullet came out of the cast and didn't actually hit the leg," said Hallahan.

The Day of Infamy. --Cooter