Dec. 7, 1941 : The...

VIC MIRANDA

Vic Miranda, executive officer of the San Diego County Pearl Harbor Survivors Assn., was stationed at the Naval Air Station at Ford Island on Oahu and was on liberty when the Japanese attacked. Miranda, 70, and a Kearny Mesa resident, was a 20-year-old seaman then. In the chaos that followed the attack , he was put to work in a Navy hospital for three months, caring for burned sailors.

“A nurse and I were walking to breakfast together that morning at the Navy Hospital. I saw the planes, but I thought it was the Army training again. I didn’t think anything of it. As the nurse and I walked under a huge American flagpole, a Japanese plane strafed us.

“The Japs were probably aiming at the flag. They made one pass and then another. I saw one plane crash into the water behind the hospital.”

Miranda, a Louisiana native, hopped aboard a liberty boat and attempted to return to his base at Ford Island. Japanese pilots, however, strafed the boat, forcing it to return to Pearl Harbor. In a situation like that, military regulations require a serviceman to report to the nearest commanding officer.

“I reported to the C.O. at the Navy hospital. He kept me for three months, working as a corpsman. I only knew first aid, but they were looking for anybody. A Marine and I worked together for three months in the burn unit.”

“One of my jobs was to cut tattoos from burn victims with a scalpel. Tattoos got infected. . . . I remember a sailor named Lightfoot. He was from the (battleships) Arizona or Oklahoma. He was burned 100%, to a crisp. But he was still alive when I left the hospital. . . . Christ, we had them (burn victims) in hallways, aisles, wherever we could put them. It was awful. You never forget the smell.”

After his three-month stint at the hospital, Miranda returned to his duty station at Ford Island. The boat ride to the island gave him his first view of the damaged and sunken ships on Battleship Row.

“That was the first time I saw the whole works. I was glad I wasn’t on the Oklahoma. I had been off of her for a year and a day when the Japanese attacked. . . . God, what a sight! Everyone knew we were in for a tough road ahead.”

A few weeks after the attack, Miranda met his wife, Regina, now 70, who lived in Honolulu and worked for the Navy. The two celebrated their 47th anniversary last July. He went on to serve 21 years in the Navy.