US Navy medic who survived Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour dies at 103
1 January 2025, 08:14
Harry Chandler, the third Pearl Harbour survivor to die in recent weeks, helped pull injured sailors from the oily waters after Japan’s 1941 attack.
Harry Chandler, a US Navy medic who helped pull injured sailors from the oily waters of Pearl Harbour after Japan’s attack on the naval base in 1941, has died at the age of 103.
He died at a senior living centre in Tequesta, Florida, on Monday, according to Ron Mahaffee, the husband of his granddaughter, Kelli Fahey.
Mr Chandler, the third Pearl Harbour survivor to die in the past few weeks, had congestive heart failure, but Mr Mahaffee said doctors and nurses noted his advanced age when giving a cause of death.
He was a hospital corpsman 3rd class when, on December 7 1941, waves of Japanese fighter planes dropped bombs and fired machine guns on battleships in the harbour and plunged the US into the Second World War.
He told the Associated Press in 2023 that he saw the planes approach as he was raising the flag that morning at a mobile hospital in Aiea Heights, which is in the hills overlooking the base.
“I thought they were planes coming in from the states until I saw the bombs dropping,” he said, adding his first instinct was to take cover and ”get the hell out of here”.
“I was afraid that they’d start strafing,” he said.
His unit drove trucks down to attend the injured.
He said in a Pacific Historic Parks oral history interview that he boarded a boat to help pluck wounded sailors from the water.
The harbour was covered in oil from exploding ships, so Mr Chandler washed the sailors down after lifting them out. He said he was too focused on his work to be afraid.
“It got so busy you weren’t scared. Weren’t scared at all. We were busy. It was after you got scared,” he said.
He realised later that he could have been killed, “but you didn’t think about that while you were busy taking care of people”.
The attack killed more than 2,300 US servicemen. Nearly half – 1,177 – were sailors and Marines on board the USS Arizona, which sank nine minutes after it was bombed.
Mr Chandler’s memories came flooding back when he visited Pearl Harbour for a 2023 ceremony commemorating the 82nd anniversary of the bombing.
“I look out there, and I can still see what’s going on. I can still see what was happening,” he told AP.
Asked what he wanted Americans to know about Pearl Harbour, he said: “Be prepared.”
“We should have known that was going to happen. The intelligence has to be better.”
After the war, Mr Chandler worked as a painter and wallpaper hanger and bought an upholstery business with his brother. He also joined the Navy reserves, retiring as a senior chief in 1981.
Mr Chandler was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and lived for most of his adult life in nearby South Hadley, Mr Mahaffee said. In recent decades he split his time between Massachusetts and Florida.
An avid golfer, he shot five holes-in-one during his lifetime, his grandson-in-law added.
Mr Chandler had one biological daughter and adopted two 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 has estimated there were some 87,000 military personnel on the island of Oahu the day of the attack.
With Mr Chandler’s death only 15 are still living, according to a tally maintained by Kathleen Farley, the California state chairwoman of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbour Survivors.
Bob Fernandez, who served on the USS Curtiss, also died this month, aged 100, and Warren Upton, who served on the USS Utah, died last week at 105.
