75th here on our 75th anniversary of the attack on pearl harbor. Next, we look at one of the oral histories produced by the National Park service. As we prepared to get the church,ready to go to we looked up over the sky. There were planes flying around. I did not know what the devil a on the ship, i thought it was just a stunt, and somebody said the japanese are coming. It was bouncing off the still work, and the next thing we know we hear the words all hands, manual battle stations. Boat crew, report to the duty officer. They told us your heavy ammunition would endanger the people of while or the islands around there. So, we were restricted. Your thing could fire is a 20 millimeter and machine guns. Told me that this kid davis, who i had spent all of these schooldays worth was in the navy and was on the arizona. We were parked on the arizona. I went over to the arizona. There was what we call a gang plank. It went down so you could go a short. There, at the deck, and this tradition in the navy you have to salute the flag, salute the officer, state your business, and he would let you aboard or want, and i told him i wanted to see this kid davis from colorado. Him bigger, colorado, and he says ok. He is the only one that could be from there. At that time, i turned around, looked down, and about that time is when i seen there were four planes coming direct, straight at us. And we did not think much of to, kinduse they used practice, for target dropping balloons, balloons full of water on us on a sunday, but this was not that. It was a real fact because as soon as the ship dropped you could not see the torpedoes drop, but when he turned up and went away, like this, you could see him, and you can see torpedoes coming straight at us. I would say it was less than 300 feet from us when you first spotted him. Within less than two minutes, it was all hell that had torn loose. Did you ever find out what happened to your School Friend that you are going to meet on the arizona . Never did find out. He might not have even been there. Usually, they were shipped in one day, and out the next. Now, i never heard from him. You know, aunt it is a small town, a very small town, and she was in her 80s at the time, and i had called her, and contacted to her, and she said she never heard from him, so i guess, maybe, he didnt make it. That is the best thing i can tell you there. Story about the utah that there are 40 old ls into with an infant entombed with an infant child ashes. This navy chief, they had come from the states, and his daughter died. They were going to bury her at comes, andarl harbor a bomb to her because they thought she was a carrier. She sucks,her, and but she is still there. Sunk, but she is still there. So, they hunted, but they could never find her. 40 fellows went down with the ship, so they say there were 40 girls guarding that infant girl. She was only, i think, a month old. Explosions, and decided it had to have been something drastic, and when she found shrapnel that had gone through our refrigerator, then it was really, really frightening, so we just huddled under an overturned city for about three hours, and waited until my father came home, or my sister, who worked at the police station. There was fire all over the water. The whole place was on fire, about 10 feet high. That was the oil from the ship that got damaged. The oil went out, and it caught on fire. It was burning about 10 feet high. Then there were bodies all over the place, smoking. My ship the first thing they did with my ship, they were our planes, looking for a place to land. That the ship had rifleman all around the and theirof the ship, orders were to shoot anything that moves. Dark about getting that time. They fired at all the votes our ship. Come to knew theyr, and they were americans. They fired shot everything, like you said, anything that moved. Topside, and the ships had been firing through the first phase. Thousands of round of ammunition created a lot of smoke, a lot of water vapor. Giant rain. Giant rainbow. A perfect rainbow appeared in the sky right over the harbor. I will always remember that. Very inspiring. You are looking at pictures of survivors of the pearl harbor attack from the 75th anniversary memorial in hawaii. There were about 100 survivors on hand for wednesdays event. By the way, you can watch the. One in its entirety at 6 00 p. M. And 11 00 p. M. Eastern here on American History tv on cspanthree. We continue to take your calls for about another 50 minutes or so. We have three ways to join the conversation. The phone lines this morning we also welcome your comments on twitter. Send us a tweet is paulthis morning travers, the author of eyewitness to infamy an oral history of pearl harbor, which 7, 1941 includes many accounts for more than 200 interviews with pearl harbor veterans. Paul travers, welcome. Thanks for being here. Mr. Travers it is my pleasure to be here today, though, but more important, it is an honor to be here to pay tribute to the men and women of pearl harbor. That is what i did in the book. Host your book it starts with stories youre dead told you when you were growing up your dad told you when you were growing up, but take us back to 1979. You start to broaden that up here you put ads in the newspaper looking for pearl harbor veterans. What prompted that . Here i am in 1979, approaching 30 years old, a College Graduate with an english degree, a minor in history. The dream of every english major is to write a book. I thought you write what you know about. He neverstories referred to himself as an eyewitness, he never went into detail. I thought let me try to expand on it. I took out a small classified ad in the philadelphia inquirer, the new york times, the washington post, and of course, the baltimore sun. It was one of those little typo classifieds buried deep inside the classified ads, and to my response, i got a pretty good response. Inple that were interested being interviewed and documenting the oral history of pearl harbor. Father, who ismy with the 27th entry regiment, he comes home and tells me he met murdo rossen murdo watson is my unsung hero of pearl harbor. She was an army nurse at schofield station hospital. Murdo is willing to tell you her story, and what a compelling story she had. 1979, oralin histories were not that common. What did you do write things down record people . Mr. Travers health. What you just said both. What you just said, i am not the pioneer of oral histories for pearl harbor. I did some research. There were not a lot of books on oral histories. I thought maybe i have a good topic. I was the first one to see it through through the end, and compile a book an oral history book with narratives from pearl harbor survivors, and watson contact, myrtle she was actively involved, and she opened the door for me through the chapter. They botched for me with the national association, and that opened the floodgates, allowing me to collect a mountain of oral histories. Host you write in the book you are fascinated as a child by your dads pearl harbor stories. Why do you think that one battle has stayed so important in the minds of the veterans you interviewed . Clearly, many of them went on to other battles and other things during the war. Mr. Travers yes, they did, and in speaking with all the pearl harbor veterans and survivors, their main thing is to remember pearl harbor to keep america other. That is probably the amount you will hear the mantra you will hear. It was a surprise attack. Americaeme is keep vigilant. That is what it is all about to the pearl harbor survivors. Lets not let this happen again, and it did happen again at 911. It is not the same situation, but we also have to keep vigilance to defend our freedoms here. Host and you come to this with some military strength herself, correct . Mr. Travers yes, i do. I was in the marine corps in the mid1970s. I attribute some of my fathers legacy as the son of a pearl harbor survivor. He was a role model. My brother was in the army. I wasnt in the i was in the marine corps. To getere you were, able people to open up to you. Why do you think that was . Mr. Travers i think the main reason why is i told him i wanted to tell a Human Interest story. I am not specifically looking into the relics in the battle. I want to show the human side of the pearl harbor experience her in the battle. Ocis in the battle. I want to show the pearl harbor expense. Why did you make that first one that particular individual . Mr. Travers it set the scene for a while as a tropical paradise a vacationland. When my dad finally enlisted, to him, it was an all expense paid vacation to hawaii. Of course, a year later, it turned into a nightmare for him and the other pearl harbor veterans. Travers, guest is paul author of eyewitness to infamy an oral history of pearl harbor, december 7, 1941. This was originally published in 1991, on the 50th anniversary. After that, did more veterans contact you . Mr. Travers yes, after the book was first for bush in 1991, i had a number of veterans contact me, and i went out and got there narrative. Got their narrative. I said there were no guarantees there would be an update to the book. But good, chlamydia the angels of pearl harbor were looking out for me, but a few years ago but good karma the angels of pearl harbor were looking out ago, the few years book and been out of print, but they said are you interested in an update. Host how main new updates have you added . Is travers i believe there four. There are other people that have been on the National News lately like Lauren Gruner and don stretton. They get bylines in the book for their heroic escapes. Host andrew is in college park, maryland. Paul travers. Go ahead. Caller i saw this documentary other people must have seen it it was evidently a documentary about when they were just inventing radar, and they pointed out they had just created radar and it worked. Ok . They had all the stations of radar out in the pacific, they were watching this, and they saw all these planes coming toward pearl harbor from japan. The people that ran the radar station new exactly what they saw. All the bosses told them to stand down, were not paying attention to this, it is a new technology. It just seems so funny, you know. They say the same things, often times, with these other attacks. People try to let Law Enforcement know they had information. I guess it is a miracle when they foil these attacks because they claim to have foiled many, many attacks, and im sure they have, but it is just so funny how human intelligence, or whatever it is, does not catch up with technology. Host did we miss things on radar that morning . Mr. Travers no joe lockhart and George Elliott were manning the radar station. They saw the points coming in, relayed the message back to headquarters, and it was dismissed as the b17s flying in from california. Historiansome of the made reference to earlier in the week, on various shows, we knew the japanese fleet was on the move, but we did not know where. It took everybody by surprise they were sailing across the northern pacific, and launched the attack, probably about 250 miles north of oahu. The caller mentioned human Intelligence Technology does not fail in these events. It is human intelligence that fails. The same thing with the condo response condor response. The word goes up and sinks the submarine. It is related back, and of course, it is lost in the paperwork. Host and they just recently discovered some of that some burning submarine. Mr. Travers yes, they did. They actually believe a couple of the submarines got inside the at pearl harbor and inflicted damage on the battleship oklahoma. Host lets hear from bill next in muskegon, michigan, on the line for paul travers. Go ahead. Caller yes, the question i have is i was in the navy, and i am retired. I have been to the arizona monument to times, and what surprised me was the number of thewho had last names [indiscernible] the Sullivan Brothers disaster. Particular, bill, what is your question about that . My question is how did many theth so arizona ended up with so many people with the same last name . Was it the sullivan brother incident that change that . Mr. Travers yes, i believe it was the sullivan brother incident. Before that, you had a large contingency of men, 1300, 1500 men aboard these ships, and a lot of times you have brothers and cousins who served aboard the same ship together. To answer your question, there were a lot of relatives aboard the ships, the battleships. That is why you see a lot of the same names on the monuments whether it be the arizona or the oklahoma. Host another question about the utah. If you want to send us a question, posted at facebook. Com cspanhistory. This is a comment about the utah from david. He says i recently found something about december 7, 1941, that kind of disturbs me. Er but it is being allowed to rest and deteriorate, unrecognizable as any ship of any kind, let alone a battleship. To me this is david writing to me this is a travesty. Those men need to be brought to the surface and honored for the burial site. Mr. Travers to a certain extent, i agree with him. To a certain extent, not. With the utah, you have a similar situation with the arizona. So many men were trapped inside. There was no chance of getting men out of the arizona or utah without, you know, casualties, and the jarred workers or the navy rescue personnel. Virginia, the west which lost a large number of men, and had men trapped inside they could raise that ship, but the value of the utah was basically nil because it was an outdated battleship, mainly used as a target ship. All the guns were covered over on deck. It was probably best to leave it as is as a memorial to those men. The situation with the oklahoma, when they raised the ship a year later, they could not identify the things. It is a different situation. With the technology and forensics, they are, through dna, started to identify the sailors that were aboard the oklahoma, bringing them back home for proper burials and closure for the family. Host you started the project in 1979. Your First Edition is published in 1991. When did you first get to pearl harbor when did you first see it coming what was your reaction when you saw for the first time . Mr. Travers i was in pearl harbor back in 19741975. That visit that probably, because i went back and did all the Historic Sites because i have a connection with my father that was probably a catalyst that said look into this a little further and see what you can do. That is probably, you know, where the seed for the book was germinated, back on that trip to hawaii in 1974. Host what year did your dad passed away . Mr. Travers my dad passed away in 2009. I, kind of, refer to him as the poster boy of the pearl harbor survivors and the greatest generation. If you read his narrative, it doesnt tell the whole story because that is one of the part of the deals i had to do with some of these pearl harbor survivors to it could not tell the whole story to them was what they did after pearl harbor. Host sure. Mr. Travers they deferred recognition to other people bunk mates, shipmates, soldiers, sailors, especially those that paid a higher price than they did, whether they made the supreme sacrifice, or actually wounded. My father was actually wounded. That ended his military career. He spent a couple of years in veterans hospitals, finally discharged from valley for hospital in 1947. Married a girl of his dreams that he met when he was on leave during nonwork, and turned the war, and turn this into an economic engine. Host we want to show you next some of the oral histories that have been gathered by the National Park service. We saw the arizona when it hit in, and it lifted the ship clear out of the water. Then it took about seven minutes 42 sink, completely sink for it to sink, completely sink, but the worst part of it was all the crewmen on the ship were trying to get off because they were all burning, but they were hesitant about jumping in the burning sea also. Everything was a fire in the sea, to. The poor fellas that jumped off in that burning water most of them never did make it to shore. The ones that did make it to shore, we personally witnessed it. They were burnt so bad that the skin was falling off their face, and their botox, buttocks, falling off their whole body, like you had dipped them in a vat of greece, or something. You never heard such screening in all your life. It was just like hell on earth, i guess. During the second wave, the fellows they did a marvelous job. Actually, it was a miracle the way they got everything together, because we had no guns. They were locked up in the cellar over there. But those fellows on those ships god bless them they stood them until they all got killed. On the port side, out by the half deck as i got out there, i looked. The smoke,believe the rumbling, the machine guns going, the explosions, and here comes the fire in the water in the oil coming from the West Virginia and the arizona, which was right behind us. Cow, you are a kid, 17 years old i was scared to death. Standing there, watching that oklahoma rollover a battleship rolling over, and all the guys that are on their, you know, scared to death. Oil, theseeing all the water and the fire, and now and then we could see the west at thea, down looking california. She was sitting at the bottom. I dont know. Worst day of my life. Came and dropped a torpedo. Pearl harbor is not some great, big harbor, so i can see the torpedo land, and the airplane, instead of going up and getting aircraft, turned around and hold the surface of the water, and it came straight for me. I looked, and looked, and i said wow that must be a japanese airplane. It has round circles on the wings. Was very angry after i realized that was a japanese airplane, i said what are my ancestors doing here they are killing our american soldiers. I am an american, too. They are killing my fellow citizens. Seeingill recall torpedoes hitting the geysers , and every time a torpedo would hit, a geyser, 300 or 400 feet high would spring up. I still cannot put it out of my mind. What i had seen happened that day. Description in many respects. Plain playing hell. Host paul travers, it is difficult to listen to some of those men hard to watch them. How hard for was it for you to sit there and interview some of them . Mr. Travers some of it was very, very difficult. I have goosebumps on my arm listening to some of the stories. The real impact was when i got home, started transcribing the stories, and put them down on paper. Then you have an opportunity to not only read the lines, read between the lines, and then you realize what an emotional roller coaster these men and women were on. Once the book is published, you get your book, you sit down and read it again, these are some Amazing Stories ordinary people you and are times that did e