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Interview of my dad, a Pearl Harbor survivor

ThePennyLadyThePennyLady Posts: 4,439 ✭✭✭✭✭

My dad Ed Waszkiewicz is 95 and a Pearl Harbor survivor. Since this is the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, I thought I'd share an article the local newspaper wrote about my dad and his experiences during the attack. We are very proud of our dad and grateful to still have him with us. Here is a link to the story:

vcstar.com/story/news/local/communities/oxnard/2016/12/06/pearl-harbor-survivor-oxnard-all-hell-broke-loose/94248250/

Also, 25 years ago, right after my parents returned from the 50th anniversary ceremonies in Hawaii, we kids did an amateur video interview of my dad where he goes into great detail about the attack and the aftermath. It's about 45 minutes long (the second half is another ceremony for Pearl Harbor Survivors) and was recently posted on Youtube. https://youtube.com/edit?video_id=dwWBWTpPMrc&video_referrer=watch

Charmy HarkerThe Penny Lady®
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Comments

  • dbtunrdbtunr Posts: 614 ✭✭✭

    they don't make them like that any more. God bless him.

  • ModCrewmanModCrewman Posts: 4,027 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited December 7, 2016 10:03AM

    I'm not able to get to the YouTube video Charmy, did you use the "Share" link from YouTube?

    This is the link I found by going through Charmy's YouTube account - https://youtu.be/dwWBWTpPMrc

  • ashelandasheland Posts: 22,612 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Very cool!

  • dpooledpoole Posts: 5,940 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thanks for this, Charmy. What a story.

  • derrybderryb Posts: 36,118 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Your dad should be on a coin.

    The decline from democracy to tyranny is both a natural and inevitable one.

  • DIMEMANDIMEMAN Posts: 22,403 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thank him for me for his service.

  • CascadeChrisCascadeChris Posts: 2,512 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Very cool Charm. I wish I would have had the forethought to get an interview about it on camera with my gradfather before he passed in 2005 but he didn't like talking about it. It's great that your dad is still around and his first hand account is recorded

    The more you VAM..
  • 1630Boston1630Boston Posts: 13,772 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Very Nice.

    Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb

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  • lkeigwinlkeigwin Posts: 16,885 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Wonderful, Charmy. Ed Waszkiewicz is a hero to all of us!
    Lance.

  • garrynotgarrynot Posts: 1,874 ✭✭✭

    That's quite a story. There are not many WWII survivors much less Pearl Harbor survivors.

  • stevebensteveben Posts: 4,595 ✭✭✭✭✭

    wow. i am stunned. your dad is a bonafide american hero! firefighters are pretty awesome anyway, but this is mind blowing.

  • CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 31,499 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The late John Smies, coin dealer from Kansas and onetime Executive Secretary of the Professional Numismatists Guild, lied about his age to join the Navy in 1935. After a six-year hitch that included time aboard U.S. gunboats in China, and spending his last two years at the seaplane base on Ford Island right behind Battleship Row, he mustered out in November of 1941 and returned to Kansas and missed the attack.

    He immediately reenlisted and, because he had six years experience in the Navy, quickly became a noncom. He later went to Officer Candidate School and by the end of the war was a Commander aboard a minesweeper. I had the honor of working for him when he was Director of ANACS for a year.

    TD

    Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
  • MICHAELDIXONMICHAELDIXON Posts: 6,373 ✭✭✭✭✭

    That is a wonderful story! Thank you for sharing with us!

    Spring National Battlefield Coin Show is April 12-13, 2024 at the Eisenhower Hotel in Gettysburg, PA. WWW.AmericasCoinShows.com
  • epcjimi1epcjimi1 Posts: 3,489 ✭✭✭

    Great pic, thanks for sharing

  • AUandAGAUandAG Posts: 24,515 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thank him for his service from us, will ya?

    My father tried to enlist after 12/7 and was turned down by every branch as he only had vision in one eye. Instead he moved his family to SF to work in the shipyards for the duration of the war.

    Good men, great patriots and wonderful supportive families.

    bob:)

    Registry: CC lowballs (boblindstrom), bobinvegas1989@yahoo.com
  • brg5658brg5658 Posts: 2,384 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thanks so much for sharing this Charmy.

    :star::star::star::star::star:

    -Brandon
    -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
    My sets: [280+ horse coins] :: [France Sowers] :: [Colorful world copper] :: [Beautiful world coins]
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  • DIMEMANDIMEMAN Posts: 22,403 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @metalmeister said:
    Agree, The greatest generation hands down. My Dad was 16 and his buddy 17 tried to enlist in the Navy but were turned away. Later Dad was drafted and was sent to the New Mexico desert to develop top secret weapons. BTW The top reasons Japan attacked us in 1941:
    1. Failure of diplomacy Japan at that time prior to the attack.
    2. Japan received 80% of their oil supply from the USA, which we cut off prior to the invasion.
    3. Against protests from many in the military the US pacific fleet was moved from San Diego to Honolulu.

    In other words , Japan was pissed at the US and many in the higher ups of Gov. knew it too. We were just unprepared and too focused on the war in Europe. Sad day in our history , but the sleeping giant awoke and we came back strong and kicked their a$$ on both fronts and dropped 2 BIG bombs. Which I am very proud of. RIP Dad.

    Sad day.....but as Toby Kieth sang in his song......"We put a BOOT in their A$$"!!!!!!!

  • blu62vetteblu62vette Posts: 11,900 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thanks for sharing! I know how close you are with your dad and it is great you have so much documented of him.

    http://www.bluccphotos.com" target="new">BluCC Photos Shows for onsite imaging: Nov Baltimore, FUN, Long Beach http://www.facebook.com/bluccphotos" target="new">BluCC on Facebook
  • SaorAlbaSaorAlba Posts: 7,466 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Wow, what a wonderful story to share. I appreciate so much your being able to have your dad in your life still - he is a National Treasure. All my WWII era relatives are gone now so all I have are the memories that they shared.

    In memory of my kitty Seryozha 14.2.1996 ~ 13.9.2016 and Shadow 3.4.2015 - 16.4.21
  • TopographicOceansTopographicOceans Posts: 6,535 ✭✭✭✭

    Very, very cool. Give him our thanks and respect.
    Growing up my neighbor (Tom Crane) was a Pearl Harbor survivor.

  • goldengolden Posts: 9,018 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thanks for sharing.

  • thebeavthebeav Posts: 3,744 ✭✭✭✭✭

    How wonderful that you still have him Charmy. What a great man !
    I have to take a try at the pronunciation of your maiden name.
    I'd say Wass-kev-itch.....

  • coinkatcoinkat Posts: 22,721 ✭✭✭✭✭

    A great tribute to a great man-Our sincere thanks for his service

    Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.

  • kazkaz Posts: 9,052 ✭✭✭✭✭

    We all owe a lot to these "ordinary" Americans who accomplished extraordinary things. Great story.

  • CameonutCameonut Posts: 7,250 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thanks for sharing - give your dad my thanks for serving.

    And 75 years later this day is still a day that lives in infamy. May this never change.

    “In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson

    My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!

  • dcarrdcarr Posts: 7,936 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Wow, thanks for posting that.

    I did some image processing on the portrait for you, to clean it up:

  • PocketArtPocketArt Posts: 1,335 ✭✭✭✭✭

    A time when men were truly men, and met their duty for God and country. Thank's Charmy for sharing this, and please let your father know "thank you." He rose to the occasion to serve this country, and helped make Liberty's inheritance proud! May God bless him!

  • GRANDAMGRANDAM Posts: 8,353 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited December 7, 2016 6:42PM

    Charmy,

    Your Father and men like him,,,,, members of "The Greatest Generation" literly SAVED the world.

    Had we not won that war the world would be a very different place today and all of us would be much worse off for it,,,,,

    Your Father and men like him are and were HERO's and deserve the THANKS of everyone for all the sacrafices that they made.

    Our nations Veterans deserve the upmost respect and anyone and everyone should show them the respect that they so rightfully deserve.

    GrandAm :)
  • Charmy, please let your Dad know that I am very proud of him and that I would be honored to have been able just to shake his hand because of what he gave us in return. Any individual who is in the service or has already served we owe so much to because they put themselves on the line so we can live and enjoy our freedom here in America. A true hero that deserves the ultimate respect!

    Persuing choice countermarked coinage on 2 reales.

    Enjoyed numismatic conversations with Eric P. Newman, Dave Akers, Jules Reiver, David Davis, Russ Logan, John McCloskey, Kirk Gorman, W. David Perkins...
  • joeykoinsjoeykoins Posts: 14,787 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thank Dad for all of us, will ya? :'(

    "Jesus died for you and for me, Thank you,Jesus"!!!

    --- If it should happen I die and leave this world and you want to remember me. Please only remember my opening Sig Line.
  • ThePennyLadyThePennyLady Posts: 4,439 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thank you everyone! I am overwhelmed by all the wonderful comments and appreciation. We found out that this article not only was the front page featured article in the Ventura County Star but it also was posted in USA Today!

    We know what a treasure we have in our Dad and am so grateful to still have him with us.

    Also, as an added bonus, I just became a grandma and my dad is a great grandpa (for the 4th time). We are truly blessed in more ways than one!

    Again, thank you all!

    Charmy HarkerThe Penny Lady®
  • LakesammmanLakesammman Posts: 17,282 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Wow - thanks for sharing! :+1:

    "My friends who see my collection sometimes ask what something costs. I tell them and they are in awe at my stupidity." (Baccaruda, 12/03).I find it hard to believe that he (Trump) rushed to some hotel to meet girls of loose morals, although ours are undoubtedly the best in the world. (Putin 1/17) Gone but not forgotten. IGWT, Speedy, Bear, BigE, HokieFore, John Burns, Russ, TahoeDale, Dahlonega, Astrorat, Stewart Blay, Oldhoopster, Broadstruck, Ricko.
  • OldIndianNutKaseOldIndianNutKase Posts: 2,700 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Charmy, I thank you the most for sharing your father' s heroic sercice. And then I thank and respect your father who defended our country, against all odds. And if I do the math, your father survived........to become your father. Thank you so much for sharing your father's service to our country.

    OINK

  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thank you Charmy for the article and the video. Being former Navy myself, and a war baby, they are very meaningful to me. Please thank your father for me too.... Cheers, RickO

  • EagleEyeEagleEye Posts: 7,676 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thanks for posting this. He is a true hero.

    Rick Snow, Eagle Eye Rare Coins, Inc.Check out my new web site:
  • northcoinnorthcoin Posts: 4,987 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited December 8, 2016 12:57PM

    Thanks Charmy for posting and thanks to your Dad, as a member of "The Greatest Generation" for his service. Here are some relevant photos and added commentary from one of my prior posts:

    Pictured is my granddaughter at the memorial at Pearl Harbor where the names of those who lost their lives on the U.S.S. Arizona are listed on a wall within the memorial which sits over the sunken ship there in the harbor. Among the names within that memorial is an E.A. W_____, FCsc. Sharing the name of W_____ I wanted to know more about this person. After returning from a visit to the memorial I posted an inquiry on the geneology forum, “Gen Forum” asking if anyone knew more about him whom I had been able to further identify as Edward Alfred W_____ Some time later I received a responsive posting from a Robert W_____ who advised that Edward was his uncle who was killed at the age of 19 and had been born in Covington, Kentucky. I further learned that Robert had a younger brother who was named after Edward in honor of him. In November of 2008 I responded back by posting: “Thank you for the information. It is certainly an honor to share the W_____ name with one who served his country and gave his life in that service. Ironically, I just got your message as Veterans Day is starting.”

    Earlier, in 2004 I had the opportunity to along with my wife attend the commencement of our third oldest son at his graduation from Northwestern University just outside of Chicago. Speaking at the Commencement was Tom Brokaw, the NBC news anchor, who had just completed his book, “The Greatest Generation” in which he wrote of those who served in World War II. In his remarks he paid tribute to the young men and women who had 60 years earlier fought for freedom in that war and challenged the graduates before him to become the next “greatest generation.” He told those of us there assembled that these veterans of World War II offered a “priceless legacy for your own unique and profound set of challenges.” To the graduates in particular he challenged, “Remember them as you leave here to change the world and the circumstances you have inherited. Share their excitement in the opportunities before you, however taxing they may be. And most of all, anticipate the satisfaction of history’s judgment that you did not fail.”

    My own father and four of his brothers were among those members of “The Greatest Generation” that Tom Brokaw referenced as having served their country in World War II. Years ago I was invited to go through some materials in the attic of what was by then the abandoned ranch house in which my father had lived growing up in Nevada. One of the items I came across was a hanging upon which were placed upwards of five cloth stars. I later learned that each of those stars represented a son of my grandparents who was serving in the military during World War II. Somewhere in my things I still have that momento.

    The five brothers served in the following branches of the United States military during World War II: Harold _____, my father, in the Navy; Paul W_____ in the Air Force; William (“Bill’) W_____ in the infantry to include the Alaska National Guard and the Army; Gerald W_____, the Coast Guard; and Roy W_____ in the Army artillery. As one of them stated, they “all came home in one piece. Even though several did receive wounds of varying degrees, all were able to return, raise families, contribute to society, and enjoy eventful lives."

    My father's decision to serve his country was, like many others, precipitated by the events that occurred on Pearl Harbor Day 75 years ago today.

    He wrote, “After Pearl Harbor Day, I decided that I would prefer to serve my country in the Navy, and enlisted in the Navy in Salt Lake City.” At the time he lived on a ranch near Elko, Nevada.

    My father went into the Navy as an apprentice Seaman and completed his service as a Chief Petty Officer which is the highest rank for a non-commissioned officer. He went to San Diego for six weeks boot camp and then traveled to Chicago where he spent nine months in aviation metalsmith school there on Chicago’s Navy Pier which had housed the training schools. During that time he attended church in Chicago where he met my mother who was a student at the University of Chicago. He then went on to Providence Rhode Island and eventually overseas to Peurto Rico where he spent his final two years in the Navy until the war ended.

    So indirectly, my own existence was also a consequence of Pearl Harbor Day.

    Northcoin

  • northcoinnorthcoin Posts: 4,987 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Just caught the Smithsonian Pearl Harbor Special titled, "The Lost Tapes" that includes footage that has not been seen since 1941. Interestingly, the original of the reprinted Honolulu newspaper posted above was included in the footage:

    The original:

    The reprint from yesterday's (December 7, 2016) Honolulu paper:

  • northcoinnorthcoin Posts: 4,987 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited December 11, 2016 7:27PM

    @dcarr said:
    Wow, thanks for posting that.

    I did some image processing on the portrait for you, to clean it up:
    "")

    Nice touch up.

    Prior to seeing the Smithsonian special that contained footage that had not been seen since December of 1941 i had heard a touching story about a number of civillians who where killed by friendly fire. The story referenced a group of young adult boxers who had come to Honolulu for a boxing competition and were in proximity to the noodle shop when the U.S. Artillery shell exploded. Also a number of the Japanese American family members associated with the noodle shop were also killed including several small children.

    When seeing the Smithsonian Pearl Harbor special there was a fleeting glimpse of a demolished noodle shop. After doing some follow up investigation I was able to determine that the shown "Cherry Blossom Saimin Noodles" demolished shop was in fact that same location.

    Of course in the Smithsonian TV Special it was erroneously implied that the destruction came from a Japanese bomb rather than a U.S. Artillery shell that had been improperly loaded. (Properly assembled they explode in the sky, not on the ground.)

    Here is a link to the confirming account i was able to locate tying the pictured noodle shop in the Smithsonian piece to the story i had previously heard:

    ejmas.com/jcs/jcsart_svinth1_1200.htm

  • JustacommemanJustacommeman Posts: 22,847 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @CaptHenway said:
    The Greatest Generation!

    Agree. I always have thought so.

    Great post Charmy

    mark

    Walker Proof Digital Album
    Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
  • SeattleSlammerSeattleSlammer Posts: 9,953 ✭✭✭✭✭

    This is so cool thank you for sharing. Your dad is amazing. :star:

    Speaking of amazing WWII Vets...this is my 10 month old son meeting his 94 year old great-grandpa last month!

    Cheers.

  • MarkMark Posts: 3,520 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Charmy:

    No matter how much I like your coin show reports--and I like them a lot--they are dwarfed by what you posted about your Dad. That is an incredible story.

    Mark


  • oldgoldloveroldgoldlover Posts: 429 ✭✭✭

    Great post about a great dad. My dad was on the way to the Pacific theater as he was trained in the new bomb sight. On 11/15/2015 while in route to get on a ship and sail to the pacific his troop train was side tracked for hours. At some point a GI came through the cars and announced the war was over. He was to be a bombardier on a B 24.

    Like you I am proud of their generation and somewhat ashamed of the baby boomers as I do not think we measure up to those 17 and 18 year old men. They were a very special people. Truly the greatest generation. Your dad and mine suffered through the terrible depression and the day it ended went straight into the military to protect not only the U.S. but the rest of the free world. These men did not have a chance to grow up. They had to and grow up young and quick and they did. Can you imagine what the world would be like without people like your dad and the other GIs that served. Imagine what this world would be like without the U.S. and the U.S. with people like your dad. Thank god your dad and mine made it through. What is a real tragedy it is now known the J. Edgar Hoover was informed by a spy in early 1945 that Pearl Harbor was going to be attacked. Hoover threw him out of his office because he was from Yugoslavia. He despised foreigners.

    God bless your dad and those that volunteered to service and exterminate the world of the most despicable people alive at that time. It seems your dad was destine to save lives for most of his life.

  • northcoinnorthcoin Posts: 4,987 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited December 14, 2016 2:41AM

    Thanks for that add oldgoldlover. As to whether the U.S. knew there was going to be an attack on Pearl Harbor there have been various theories proposed over the years with the more sinister claiming that the government allowed the attack as an excuse to get into the war given the isolationist sentiment of much of the country. Of course there is a distinction between knowing that there would be an attack to knowing when the attack would occur.

    Charles Lindberg was one of the primary opponents to the U.S. getting into the war. In recent years we have now learned that he lived a double life with a separate family in Europe and had some opinions about Arian supremacy that paralleled those being advocated in Germany. Some have even theorized that he was behind the kidnapping of his own child due to the child being impaired in some manner.

  • chiefbobchiefbob Posts: 1,077 ✭✭✭

    My Dad and his buddy were running the streets on Staten Island, NY in the 1930s. A Lutheran minister called them over one day and said they were either going to end up in jail or should join the service. They told him they couldn't, as they were 16. He took them inside the rectory and forged birth certs for both of them. They joined the Navy in 1936.

    My Dad's ship, the USS Selfridge, arrived in Pearl Harbor on 6 Dec 1941. Bad timing. They were one of the first ships to fire against the Jap planes. And they made it out of Pearl with just minor damage.

    A few years later they were torpedoed twice in the South Pacific, tearing off the bow of the ship and killing 33 men. My Dad was in the engine room when it happened. He lived to serve 20 years in the Navy, including the duration of WWII and a tour in Korean waters. He died of cancer at age 63 in 1981. I kick myself in the a$$ for not discussing his service time, etc. We always think we have forever to do it - but find out too late.

    Thank your Dad, Charmy, and pls give him a virtual handshake. Great story and I'll watch the vids later.

    Happy Holidays...
    Bob

    Retired Air Force 1965-2000
    Vietnam Vet 1968-1969
  • ElcontadorElcontador Posts: 7,412 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thank you so much for this, Charmy. I've known many vets over the years, and I've noticed that in whichever war / conflict they fought, they rarely discuss the details of the actual fighting. We need to hear from people like your father.

    "Vou invadir o Nordeste,
    "Seu cabra da peste,
    "Sou Mangueira......."

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