Atwater veteran remembers Pearl Harbor 74 years later

Frank Paredes woke up at 4:30 a.m. on Monday. He drank a cup of coffee and stepped outside his Atwater mobile home to lower his flag to half-staff – it’s the same routine every Dec. 7.

Paredes, 95, is one of only a handful of surviving World War II veterans in the Central Valley who lived through the attack on Pearl Harbor. It’s a day Paredes would rather not remember, but he takes the time to honor the friends he lost during that historic day 74 years ago.

He was 21 and waiting for his first assignment in the U.S. Army when the Japanese attacked the Hawaiian naval base on Dec. 7, 1941.

He was on his way to the chapel early that morning when he heard a loud rumble, sirens and then an announcement over the loudspeaker: “This is not a drill.” He remembers using a machine gun to shoot at Japanese planes flying over the barracks. He missed one the first time, he said, but after a second try, a plane started smoking, and he believes it went down.

“I still have nightmares,” he said. “Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, startled.”

He spent about eight hours helping fight fires and collecting the bodies of fallen soldiers from the harbor, he said. Among them were three of his close friends. “I still think about them,” he said. “They helped fight but unfortunately didn’t make it out.”

Two of them are buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The third is buried in New Mexico, he said. Last year, he traveled to Washington, D.C., through the Central Valley Honor Flight. One of the trip’s stops is at the Arlington Cemetery, which gave him the opportunity to visit his friends’ grave sites – an experience he described as emotional.

He returned to Hawaii in 1990, but has not been back since. He said he would rather not make the trip because of the lousy memories it brings back. Paredes, who is originally from Arizona and who identifies as a Mescalero Apache, said that, try as he might, it is hard to escape the thought of what he was doing on this date 74 years ago.

“I try to keep myself busy, not think about it too much,” he said with watery eyes as he sat on his porch.

Meanwhile, many other survivors do choose to return to Hawaii on this date.

A few dozen elderly men who survived the Japanese bombing gathered Monday at the site to remember fellow servicemen who didn’t make it.

The U.S. Navy and National Park Service hosted a ceremony in remembrance of those killed. Adm. Harry Harris, the top U.S. military commander in the Pacific, said the day “must forever remain burned into the American consciousness.”

“For 74 years, we’ve remembered Pearl Harbor. We’ve remained vigilant. And today’s armed forces are ready to answer the alarm bell,” said Harris.

During the attack, roughly 2,400 sailors, Marines and soldiers were killed at Pearl Harbor and other military installations on the island of Oahu.

This story was originally published December 7, 2015 at 7:37 PM with the headline "Atwater veteran remembers Pearl Harbor 74 years later."