On December 7 each year, the United States and its military remember the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, which, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt foreshadowed in his speech, was a “day of infamy” that formally drew the United States into World War II. According to André Sobocinski, Pearl Harbor was the biggest mass medical emergency for the Navy medical corps in more than a generation.
“The attacks on Pearl Harbor opened up a new era of surgical therapy and provided the first exposure to the wartime issues of flash burns, compound fractures, and shock,” noted Sobocinski. On the 80th anniversary of the Japanese attack, we pay tribute to the members of the medical corps, who were among the hundreds of injured and burned casualties that day that they selflessly aided.
Even from the first realization of an enemy attack, the doctors, dentists, nurses, and corpsmen showed unmatched courage, resolve, and ingenuity. “There was an overwhelming need to go into immediate action, retrieve the casualties, and provide medical services – to do what we were trained to do,” Sobocinski said. They did this not knowing if a third attack was imminent.
The surprise attack started at 7:55 a.m. in Hawaii and ended in one hour and 15 minutes. A total of 2,403 U.S. personnel lost their lives, including 68 civilians; another 1,178 personnel were wounded. The medical crews worked around the clock to treat second and third-degree burns, shock, shrapnel, and machinegun wounds. They operated in various places of activity, ranging from battle dressing stations to the sick bays of warships, the hospital ship Solace, and general field hospitals.
Although most were confused, the medical personnel stepped up, and many would receive valor decorations for their acts of personal bravery and courage. Hugh Alexander, a senior dentist with the rank of Navy Lt. Cmdr., serving on the battleship USS Oklahoma, soon found himself trapped below deck as the battleship began its roll to its port side. He began bringing the ship’s thinnest men who had been trapped below with him through the portholes in the ship up to the surface. He laid down his life to save theirs. Alexander was awarded a posthumous Silver Star for his valor in combat.
In a similar story of remarkable recovery, a testament to American grit, the USS Nevada was found 72 years after it was scuttled in 1948 by the U.S. Navy, after being reportedly bombed many times by Japanese planes, tormented by torpedoes, struck by a kamikaze fighter, and even hit by one of its artillery shells. It was one of the battleships engaged in the major battles of World War II and was the only battleship to get underway, despite its heavy damage by Japanese attacks at Pearl Harbor.
The service record of the Nevada is nothing less than legendary. It escorted convoys during World War I, was present at the start of World War II, and, after a series of extensive repairs, it gave fire support for the Attu landings in 1943, shelling Normandy during the D-Day invasion and support for the invasion of France’s Mediterranean coast. It also laid down fire support at the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa in 1945.
While judged to be too old for retention in the postwar fleet, Nevada participated as a target in the 1946 atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. Damaged and radioactive, it sank from all weapons fire in 1948. The actual resting spot of Nevada until just weeks ago was unknown until it was rediscovered by Ocean Infinity, mapping a hundred square mile area of the Pacific in incredibly fine detail with their advanced technology.
“Nevada is an iconic ship that speaks to American resilience and stubbornness,” remarked Dr. James Delgado, lead maritime archaeologist on the mission to discover the battleship. It is such a great rediscovery in the face of the U.S. Navy; it still tells stories of resilience and fighting spirit against all odds.