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Episode #605 of Hometown Heroes, airing December 5-9, 2019, marks the 78th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor with the memories of four men from four different states who all experienced that “Day of Infamy” first hand. The battleship USS Arizona suffered the greatest loss of life on December 7, 1941, with 1,177 members of her crew killed in action. Today, only three members of the Arizona’s crew remain. 98-year-old Lou Conter is back at Pearl Harbor for the 78th anniversary, participating in the interment of the ashes of his shipmate Lauren Bruner, who died in September of this year.

In addition to Conter, the other remaining survivors from the Arizona are Ken Potts of Utah and Donald Stratton of Colorado. When Stratton shared his story with Hometown Heroes in 2017, he had on display in his home a rusted piece of metal from the battleship. This November, that artifact found a new home at a school in North Carolina, thanks to the friendship that developed between Stratton and a 7-year-old student there named Landon Knestrik. Watch the video below, from FOX46 in Charlotte:

You’ll hear some of Stratton’s Pearl Harbor memories on this episode, and you can read more in his best-selling book, All the Gallant Men. When general quarters sounded on the morning of December 7th, the Nebraska native had to hurry up to his battle station, a port side anti-aircraft gun position sixty feet above the deck on the foremast. He began firing at enemy aircraft, but soon explosions from bombs and torpedoes were rocking the battleship. What he remembers as a “horrendous explosion” sent flames 400 feet into the air. “The bomb that hit on the starboard side behind #2 turret went into a million pounds of ammunition and it blew up,” Stratton explains.

“Just a fireball that engulfed us up there where we were at, and no way to escape or get off.”

Burned over the majority of his body, he knew he was trapped, high above the deck of the soon-to-be-sinking ship. The repair ship USS Vestal was moored alongside the Arizona, and a seaman named Joe George threw a heaving line to the trapped sailors. They were able to secure a line between the two ships, and Stratton was one of six men to escape the burning ship by descending 70 feet, hand over hand.

“My hands were burnt,” he explains. “I don’t even have any fingerprints.”

His already scalded hands lost more flesh with each excruciating reach down the life-saving rope. From the Vestal, Don was taken by motor launch, then open air truck to the US Naval Hospital at Pearl Harbor. After initial treatment there, he was shipped to Mare Island Naval Hospital in California, arriving on Christmas Day. He would spend the next nine months in the hospital, receive a medical discharge, and then re-enlist, spending the rest of World War II on the destroyer USS Stack. For decades, Stratton wished that Joe George, the man who had saved his life by throwing a line to his position, could be decorated for his heroics. In 2017, that moment finally came, when George was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star.

You’ll also hear from Michigan native Delton “Wally” Walling, who experienced the attack on Pearl Harbor from the unique vantage point of an observation tower that still stands. Walling is marking the 78th anniversary in Lodi, CA, where a holiday light display features a larger than life tribute to the 98-year-old. Watch the video below, from FOX40 in Sacramento:

Walling, who first shared his story on Hometown Heroes in 2016, recently published his exhaustive memoirs.

“When the bomb went off on Ford Island, and all the planes are exploding everywhere,” you’ll hear Walling remember. “We knew we were in war.”

After the USS Arizona, the ship that suffered the most casualties on the first day of the war was the USS Oklahoma, which lost 429 members of her crew. George Coburn came close to adding to that number. The California native, like many others that day, didn’t believe at first that the attack was real. He never made it to his battle station that morning.

“The first torpedo hit, and the deck jumped,” you’ll hear Coburn explain. “The lights went out, more torpedoes hit the ship.”

An oil line ruptured, spraying oil all around. The ship was beginning to list, and in the dark, on a slippery floor, George tried to make sense of the chaotic scene. Eventually, someone with a flashlight came, helping the men who were trying to open a hatch which had been dogged down. Listen to this episode of Hometown to Heroes to find out how he escaped the sinking battleship, and you can listen to his original interview from April, 2019 through this link. A month after that interview, Coburn finally received his World War II medals, including the Purple Heart, awarded for injuries he suffered later in the war aboard the cruiser USS Louisville.

The final Pearl Harbor survivor you’ll hear from on this episode is Stu Hedley, who was on the battleship USS West Virginia on that fateful Sunday morning. Thanks to the Best Defense Foundation, Hedley returned to Pearl Harbor for the 78th Anniversary Commemoration, which you can watch below:

Hedley shared his story on Hometown Heroes in 2017, and shares it with school, church, and service groups frequently. Listen to this episode to find out how Stu’s father taught him the proper way to sit in a chair, and what that has to do with the first of countless close calls the sailor survived during World War II. You’ll also hear what allowed him to witness the explosion that rocked the USS Arizona, as well as the gruesome sight of bodies flying through the air. 106 members of the West Virginia’s crew were killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Hedley came extremely close to adding to that number. You’ll hear him explain how just above his left gun sat the ship’s catapult, loaded with two airplanes. When an armor-piercing shell was dropped in the direction of Stu’s position, it hit a scout plane and ignited the gasoline in its wing, burning the plane to a crisp. The shell split the catapult in half, and penetrated down through five more inches of steel, right into the left gun.

“The reason I’m here today,” you’ll hear Stu declare. “Is that shell did not explode.”

The bomb did not detonate, but the impact set off other explosions, one of which sent Stu and a friend flying through the air an estimated eight feet. The stunned sailors knew they needed to try to find a way out of that battle station. Listen to Hometown Heroes for the freeing feat of strength Stu chalks up to adrenaline, allowing them to get up to the deck of the listing ship, where they witnessed death and destruction all around. “If I don’t get killed today,” Hedley remembers telling his friend. “I’ll live to see the end of this war.” While watching the USS Oklahoma capsize, the sailors were ordered to climb across a line strung from the West Virginia to the USS Tennessee. Before they could do so, they watched in horror as a Japanese plane flew between the two ships and mowed down the five men who were already on that line with machine gun fire. Hedley decided he wouldn’t be crossing over on any lines, and you’ll hear him describe the alternative method of escape from the sinking ship that came to his mind in the moment. Once the aboard the Tennessee, Hedley instinctively headed toward the same battle station he manned on the West Virginia, only to be rerouted by a Marine who encouraged him to get to Ford Island’s beach. Underwater swimming was not his forte, but with oil burning on the surface, the 20-year-old had no choice. Twice he had to come up for air before making it ashore.

“I thrashed like mad to keep that oil and fire away,” Hedley explains. “Hottest breath I ever took in my life. It’s a wonder it didn’t scorch my lungs.”

No, those lungs are still pumping air, his heart still beating strong, and his commitment to remember Pearl Harbor and keep America alert has never wavered. To explore full-length interviews with other Pearl Harbor survivors, follow the links below:

Episode #605: Charles “Chuck” Keen, USS Honolulu
Episode #571: George Coburn, Part II
Episode #570: George Coburn, USS Oklahoma
Episode #552: George Vandersluis, USS Honolulu
Episode #476: Stu Hedley, USS West Virginia
Episode #457: Don Stratton, USS Arizona
Episode #448: David “Russ” Russell, USS Oklahoma
Episode #441: Chester “Ski” Biernacki, USS Helena
Episode #440: Ed Hall, Hickam Field
Episode #439: Delton “Wally” Walling Part II
Episode #438: Delton “Wally” Walling, observation tower
Episode #420: Bob Dodds, USS Pelias
Episode #396: Pearl Harbor 74th Anniversary
Episode #389: Eugene Leonard, Marine Corps Air Station Ewa
Episode #359: Sam Fryefield, USS Detroit
Episode #344: Russel Winsett, USS Pennsylvania
Episode #328: Francisco Paredes, Schofield Barracks
Episode #292: Elmer Wright, USMC guard
Episode #287: Robert Thacker, flying B-17 into Hickam Field
Episode #242: Pearl Harbor 71st Anniversary
Episode #241: Leon Webster, Hickam Field
Episode #201: Clarence Suzuki, civilian on Oahu
Episode #181: Richard “Swede” Artley, USS Oklahoma
Episode #142: Marion Kesler, USS Hulbert
Episode #73: Al Rodrigues & Herb Weatherwax at USS Arizona Memorial
Episode #61: Roy Molder, USS Rigel
Episode #53: Pearl Harbor 67th Anniversary
Episode #41: Guy Hardin, USS Medusa
Episode #32: Bob McNutt, USS Monaghan
Episode #7: Chuck Lishman, USS Perry