HONOLULU – Harry Chandler, a Navy medic who helped pull wounded sailors from the oily waters of Pearl Harbor after the 1941 Japanese attack on the naval base, has died. He was 103 years old.
Chandler died Monday at a senior center in Tequesta, Florida, according to Ron Mahaffee, husband of his granddaughter Kelli Fahey. Chandler had congestive heart failure, but Mahaffee said doctors and nurses noted his advanced age when determining the cause of death.
Chandler, the third Pearl Harbor survivor to die in recent weeks, was a hospital corpsman third class on Dec. 7, 1941, when waves of Japanese fighter planes dropped bombs and fired machine guns on battleships in the harbor and They sank the United States in the world. Second War.
He told The Associated Press in 2023 that he saw the planes approaching as he raised the flag that morning at a mobile hospital in Aiea Heights, which sits in the hills overlooking the base.
“I thought they were planes coming from the United States until I saw the bombs fall,” Chandler said. His first instinct was to take cover and “get out of here.”
“I was afraid they were going to start machine-gunning me,” he said.
His unit arrived in trucks to treat the wounded. He said in a Pacific Historic Parks oral history interview that he boarded a ship to help pull injured sailors out of the water.
The harbor was covered in oil from the exploding ships, so Chandler washed the sailors after removing them. He said he was too focused on his work to be afraid.
“I was so busy that you weren’t afraid. We were not afraid at all. We were busy. It was after you got scared,” Chandler said.
He later realized they could have killed him, “but you didn’t think about that while you were busy taking care of people.”
The attack killed more than 2,300 American service members. Nearly half, or 1,177, were sailors and Marines aboard the USS Arizona, which sank nine minutes after being bombed.
Chandler’s memories came flooding back when he visited Pearl Harbor for a ceremony in 2023 to commemorate the 82nd anniversary of the bombing.
“I look out and I can still see what’s going on. “I can still see what was happening,” Chandler told The Associated Press.
When asked what he wanted Americans to know about Pearl Harbor, he said, “Be prepared.”
“We should have known that was going to happen. Intelligence has to be better,” he stated.
After the war, Chandler worked as a painter and wallpaper hanger and bought an upholstery business with his brother. He also joined the Navy reserves and retired as a senior commander in 1981.
Chandler was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and lived most of his adult life in nearby South Hadley, Mahaffee said. In recent decades he divided his time between Massachusetts and Florida.
An avid golfer, he shot five holes-in-one during his lifetime, his grandson-in-law added.
Chandler had one biological daughter and adopted two daughters from his second marriage, to Anna Chandler, who died in 2004. He is survived by two daughters, nine grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren.
Military historian J. Michael Wenger has estimated that there were about 87,000 military personnel on the island of Oahu on the day of the attack. After Chandler’s death, only 15 people are still alive, according to a count by Kathleen Farley, California state president of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors.
Bob Fernandez, who served on the USS Curtiss, also died this month, at age 100, and Warren Upton, 105, who served on the USS Utah, died last week.
