Monday, December 7, 2020

The Day of Infamy 79 Years Ago: Remembering Pearl Harbor Survivor Wayne Rader

From the December 6, 2020, LimaOhio.com "Jim Krumel:  Remembering a Pearl Harbor survivor" by Jim Krumel.

Wayne Rader died twelve years ago.  He was just a regular guy who worked for the city of Lima  A dad, who with his wife Elsie, raised eight children in Lima.

He was also a Pearl Harbor survivor.  

For the longest time, he wouldn't talk about it.  It wasn't until a few years before his death in 2008, that he started talking about it.  When he did, his children wrote what he said down for posterity.

He was still a teenager when he entered the Army in March 1940.  Three months later he was assigned to  the 27th Infantry Regiment at Schofield Barracks on Oahu, Hawaii.  It was heaven to be stationed there until December 7, 1941, when it turned to hell.

Wayne Rader was on the second floor porch of the barracks listening for then bugler to sound church call when he saw the first two planes fly through the pass near Schofield Barracks.  He thought this to be an odd time for a training mission until he heard explosions coming from the area near Pearl Harbor.

Planes strafed Schofield Barracks on their way to Wheeler Field.

He remembered seeing rows and rows of body bags.

--Pearl Harbor


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