Paul Smith – Pearl Harbor Survivor at Pearl on December 7, 1991 with his Daughter Sandra Simmons – Member of SDPHS – Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors

On this day, December 7 exactly 70 years ago Pearl Harbor was attacked. My Father, Paul Smith, was a Marine stationed at Pearl Harbor and served there on that fateful day. He spent his entire career serving in the military. He is now 90 years old and still a fierce patriot.

In 1991, on the 50th anniversary of the bombing, I was at Pearl Harbor with my Father for the memorial services. The 8 remaining marines from his battalion, including his commanding officer, were with us. As we took a boat across the water very early to arrive at the Arizona Memorial, I was struck by the stories the survivors told me, and I had them write in my copy of the book ”Day Of Infamy” so I could remember their stories.

Upon returning to Dallas, I wrote a story
about my Father and that trip and presented
it to him for Father’s Day the following year.


Here is the story. I hope you will read it, and I know he would be honored if you would leave a comment for him.

MY FATHER, MY HERO

Just behind me, crouching in the dark, I feel the awesome presence of the ancient volcanoes; their craggy faces bearded with mist, their feet firmly rooted in the dark chasms of the deep. Watching here together from the shore, we face the vast silence of the Pacific Ocean and wait for the dawn.

Standing beside me in the dark my father, Paul W. Smith, speaks to me of this day, over 50 years ago, when he stood here as a young Marine Corporal of 19 years and saw the rising sun appear. It had appeared not as a gentle light to warm the faces of the ancients behind us, but on the wings of enemy planes bringing the horrors of death and destruction that December day in 1941. (more…)