On December 7th, 1941, Pearl Harbor suffered an attack that has stained American History since the day that it happened.

It was a sunny day in Oahu, I was grabbing groceries to bring back home to the kids. Gosh, I thought. Hawaii. It’s a paradise.

Palm trees, beaches, and it’s an American state? Makes my life a lo easier to get off the continent of North America! That’s what I say to myself anyway.

Walking back home I heard noises in the distance. Faint ones. I thought nothing of it. What could possible happen on a perfect day like today?

Anyway so I started strolling back home. Groceries in hand, going home to see the love of my life and our two children, Martha and Phoebe.

As I began to approach the house where we lived, the noise in the distance grew louder.

It was a swell, a dark, spooky, ever growing swell.

It crept in. They crept in.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Crash! Fwang!

Screams filled the air along with big dark clouds of smoke.

The sound shook me and made me fall over, sending my groceries all over the place. Was this really happening right now?

Boom! Boom! Boom! Airplanes came in undetected, and destroyed everything.

The bombing continued for what felt like an eternity. I never thought it was ever going to end, that fateful day, December 7th, 1941.

I thought to myself I have to get home and see my family, make sure they’re okay, tell them what had happened.

But instead I went closer to the smoke, ashes, and ear-shattering screams.

It was a blood bath. Bodies everywhere. Dead. Gone. Lifeless.

Have you ever seen a dead body up close? It’s terrifying. It’s, mortifying.

It shook me to my core. I dropped on my knees and began to cry. I blended in with the pain that was surrounding me, because I didn’t know how else to make sense of this devastating tragedy.

Had I shopped to close to the harbor, I would be dead.

Then I saw him, lying cold and dead in his navy uniform. Chance.

Chance and I were good friends, he was always smiling and always in a good mood. Brought joy and happiness with him, wherever he went, just for the sheer joy of making someone else smile.

But his body lay there, covered in blood, bones exposed.

He said “please baby, bury my bones deep underground.”

I didn’t hear him say it, but I knew. I just knew he was dead.

I returned home that day covered in ashes.

“What happened?” My wife had asked me?

Silence filled the room. A dead and unsettling silence.

I was overjoyed to see her alive. I was this close to losing my everything. Had I shopped to close to the harbor on December 7th, 1941, I would be dead and would’ve lost everything. Lucky me.

-CB