Robert Coles was finishing breakfast on the deck of the destroyer USS Bagley at the U.S. Navy pier at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, when he saw the first planes with red dots.
Just 17, Coles at first thought the planes were on maneuvers and he would soon see other planes following with blue dots.
The Machias resident then saw the bomb doors open.
“I saw — what I call the sand falling out of the bucket — and hangars blowing up on Ford Island,” Coles told reporters recently at Boston’s Logan Airport. “I said this is not maneuvers. This is a Sunday morning, and it is a crowded harbor. Somebody is out to hurt my Navy.”
Because he was on deck at the time of the attack, Coles said he was one of the first to reach his ship’s .50-caliber guns and fire at the attacking planes. When the trained gunners soon arrived, Coles assisted them as a plane spotter.
Coles survived the devastating attack by the Japanese, but 2,403 Americans did not.
Coles, 92, is one of the few Pearl Harbor survivors still alive in Maine. With the help of friends, more than $13,000 was raised to send Coles to Hawaii to attend Wednesday’s remembrance ceremony on the 75th anniversary of the attack.
Ceremonies are also scheduled Wednesday in Maine to honor the Americans who fought and died that day. The AMVETS is hosting a statewide commemoration in Portland at Fort Allen Park at the base of the mast of the USS Portland on the Eastern Promenade beginning at 11 a.m.
Laurie Sidelinger of Maine Honor Flight said a ceremony will be held at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in the Hall of Flags at the State House in Augusta. She expects at least one Pearl Harbor survivor to be in attendance.
A smaller ceremony is scheduled Wednesday in Jay at the POW/MIA Remembrance Bridge beginning at 10 a.m.
At least two servicemen from Maine died in the attack. Merton Staples of Biddeford and Willard Orr of Bangor were among the 191 who died at nearby Hickam Field. Japanese dive bombers attacked and strafed the airfield during the first wave to eliminate any American counterattack.
It is unclear whether any other Mainers died that day.
Records are also unclear as to how many Maine servicemen were stationed at Pearl Harbor on the day of the attack or even how many survivors from Maine are still alive.
The Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles has issued a vanity licence plate for Pearl Harbor survivors since 1988. According to its records, four of those plates are still active in the communities of Machias, Hollis, Brunswick and Portland.
The number of Pearl Harbor vanity plates issued stood at a high of 62 in 1999 and 19 were still active in 2009.
With those veterans now in their 90s, others are likely alive who no longer drive. Sidelinger said she knew of another Pearl Harbor survivor still alive in the Portland area and one living near Camden.
The biggest blow to U.S. forces during the attack came with the sinking of the battleship USS Arizona where 1,177 died — nearly half of the day’s fatalities. The sunken wreckage still lies in the harbor.
A piece of that wreckage has found a home in Maine.
The Maine Veterans’ Home in Paris has a 32- by 14-inch piece of metal mounted in one of its hallways. The home acquired the relic in 2012 from the Department of the Navy. The relic, with welded rivets still visible, came from the aft deckhouse superstructure of the battleship.
The public is welcome to visit the home to see the relic, said Pat Paar, activity supervisor of the facility.
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