Harry Chandler, a Navy doctor who helped rescue wounded sailors from the oily waters of Pearl Harbor after the Japanese attack on the Naval base in 1941, has died. He was 103 years old.
Chandler died Monday at a senior living center in Tequesta, Florida, according to Ron Mahaffey, the husband of his granddaughter Kelly Fahey. Chandler had congestive heart failure, but Mahaffey said doctors and nurses took his advanced age into account when determining the cause of death.
The third Pearl Harbor survivor to die in the past few weeks, Chandler was a 3rd Division hospital corpsman on December 7, 1941, when waves of Japanese fighter planes dropped bombs and machine-gun fire on the battleships in the harbor and sank America into the world Gave. Second war.
He told The Associated Press in 2023 that he saw planes approaching as he was raising the flag that morning at a mobile hospital in Aiea Heights, which is in the hills overlooking the base.
Chandler said, “Until I saw the bombs falling, I thought they were planes coming from the States.” His first instinct was to hide and “get out of here.”
“I was afraid they would start firing,” he said.
His unit rode in trucks to care for the wounded. He said in a Pacific Historic Parks oral history interview that he boarded a boat to help pull injured sailors from the water.
The harbor was covered in oil due to ship explosions, so Chandler washed the sailors out after getting them out. He said that he was so focused on his work that he did not feel afraid.
“It got so busy that you didn’t feel scared. Wasn’t scared at all. We were busy. It happened after you got scared,” Chandler said.
He later realized that he could have been killed, “but you didn’t think about it when you were busy taking care of people.”
More than 2,300 American soldiers were killed in this attack. About half, or 1,177, were sailors and marines on board. USS ArizonaWhich sank nine minutes after the bombing.
Chandler’s memories were refreshed when he visited Pearl Harbor for a 2023 ceremony commemorating the 82nd anniversary of the bombing.
“I look over there, and I can still see what’s happening. I can still see what was happening,” Chandler told The Associated Press.
Asked what he wanted Americans to know about Pearl Harbor, he said: “Be prepared.”
“We should have known this was going to happen. Intelligence has to be better,” he said.
After the war Chandler worked as a painter and wallpaper hanger and bought an upholstery business with his brother. He also joined the Naval Reserve, retiring as a senior major in 1981.
Chandler was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and lived most of his adult life in nearby South Hadley, Mahaffey said. In recent decades he divided his time between Massachusetts and Florida.
He was an avid golfer, hitting five hole-in-one shots in his lifetime, his grandson-in-law said.
Chandler had one biological daughter and two adopted daughters from his second marriage to Anna Chandler, who died in 2004. He is survived by two daughters, nine grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren.
Military historian J. Michael Wenger estimated that there were approximately 87,000 military personnel on the island of Oahu on the day of the attack. After Chandler’s death, only 15 survived, according to statistics maintained by Kathleen Farley, California state president of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors.
Bob Fernandez, who served uss curtisalso died this month at the age of 100, and Warren Upton, 105, who served USS UtahJ, passed away last week.