Connecticut’s Oldest Pearl Harbor Survivor To Ride In Parade

By Nancy K. Crevier

When Newtown Labor Day Parade Committee member Robin Buchanan laid eyes on Walter Mallin in the Trumbull Memorial Day Parade, she knew she had stumbled upon the perfect addition to Newtown’s annual event. Mr Mallin, a resident of Trumbull, is Connecticut’s oldest Pearl Harbor survivor.

“My blood runs red, white, and blue,” said Ms Buchanan. “I’m very patriotic.”

She tracked him down through the Trumbull VFW and when Mr Mallin told her that he believed he had survived the devastating bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, in order that he could keep alive the memory of his comrades who had fallen, she asked him to do the honors of riding in the September 7 parade this year.

After a raucous youth that landed him in the National Guard at the age of 16, at his school principal’s suggestion, Mr Mallin had served just four months there before he begged his mother for permission to join the army. “I needed direction, and I found that I kind of liked it,” recalled Mr Mallin recently. President Roosevelt had declared a national emergency and was looking to build up the US armed forces at that point, he said, and he wanted to be a part of it. “It was peace time, then, in 1940, but Hitler had already invaded Poland and other European countries. We knew something was coming,” Mr Mallin said.

The country was still recovering from the Depression, reminded Mr Mallin, and many people, including his family, had next to nothing. “I was still getting into plenty of trouble, so when my mother found out the family would get a financial allotment if I joined, she said yes. From the first day, I loved the Army,” he said.

He traveled through 40 states with his unit for the first 18 months of enrollment as part of a program to show Americans that the country was prepared for any upcoming troubles. Then from Fort Logan in Colorado he was stationed in California and then in Washington State.

It was August 1941 when he, and the rest of Company C of 804th Battalion, was sent overseas to Hawaii. He was 18 years old. “We had been trained to build airfields,” explained Mr Mallin, who at the time was the company’s bugler and a crack shot, as well. “Our company was picked to go to Hickam Field, about a quarter mile from Pearl Harbor on Oahu. Our job was to extend the airfield between Hickam Field and Pearl Harbor,” said Mr Mallin.

On the evening of December 6, 1941, remembered Mr Mallin, “I had $42 in my pocket and a leave from the base. I was with my little Japanese girlfriend — remember, the US was still involved in trade at this point with Japan — on Waikiki Beach, dancing all night. After her mother picked her up, I went to an all-night bar. It was 7:15 am, and I could hear planes flying overhead.”

The bombing of the United States by Japan had begun, but the corporal did not know that. “I bummed a quarter from the bartender and about 7:45 am, I got back to the field,” he said.

As he approached his tent, there was a tremendous explosion and a squadron of airplanes came flying over. “They were so low, I could see they were Japanese. I could have hit them with a .45 if I’d had it,” he said, but he and his unsuspecting tentmates were unarmed. The young men had just left the tent when another explosion sent a chunk of cement up in the air and onto their tent.

“The planes were strafing us. I could only think, ‘Get under a truck.’ The bullets were peppering all around me, ‘Ping, ping, ping.’ And then it got quiet for a moment,” Mr Mallin said.

Between Hickam Field and Pearl Harbor were eight to ten huge fuel tanks and diesel tanks, said Mr Mallin, and they ran between them, praying that none of the tanks would be hit.

“Pearl Harbor was still quiet at this point. The Japanese were smart. They knew the only way we could stop them was with our fighter jets. They strafed all of the jets on the fields first,” he said.

The men continued running toward Pearl Harbor, not realizing that the harbor was the main target. As they ran, they saw the mess tent at Hickam Field go up in an explosion. “Every man eating there, and there were a lot at that time of day, died right there,” he added somberly.

As he approached Pearl Harbor, battleship row was to his right across the harbor. To his left lay the Navy hospital.

Now the planes thickened in the sky. Taking cover under a nearby truck with other servicemen, Mr Mallin watched as the Nevada tried to make a run for it out of the narrow harbor and ran aground near the hospital. “We saw the Pennsylvania, on my side of the harbor in dry dock along with some destroyers, take a bomb. Then they took out battleship row. The Arizona had a bomb go into the hatchway and it exploded in the belly of the ship. I saw the ship go up into the air; 1,105 sailors were all killed,” he recounted. As first one wave of nearly 200 Japanese bombers attacked and then a second wave just as big, the servicemen huddled beneath the truck, angry and helpless, without even their helmets to protect them from the flying debris.

When the bombing subsided, he assisted moving the injured to the hospital. “I’ll never forget the red blood coming through the white sheets covering the boys laid out on the stretchers. The grass was so green. It was close to Christmas….”

He arrived back at Hickam Field to find chaos. “That night was the worst,” Mr Mallin said. “We were trying to rebuild the railroad. The US fighter planes that had been on aircraft carriers out to sea when the attack occurred were trying to come back.” Mistaken by the ground forces for more Japanese, they were knocked out of the skies by friendly fire.

There were a few lucky spots in the dismal scene, though, said Mr Mallin. While many died at Hickam Field, Company C suffered only four casualties, not one of the fuel tanks was hit by fire, and several of the US aircraft carriers had been out to sea, leaving the US with some military strength. “The Japanese didn’t really know how much damage they had done. We were lucky they didn’t attack again, though,” he said.

After Pearl Harbor, it was one battle after another for the US armed forces, with war declared by President Roosevelt on December 8, 1941. Mr Mallin was sent to the Christmas Islands, and served the rest of his time in the Pacific Theater.

“The army taught me discipline. I had nothing to come back to after I got out of the service, but I became a bus driver for Connecticut Rail and Lighting Company in Bridgeport, and went to business school on the GI Bill.” He started out his business career working for F.W. Woolworth Company in Stamford for two and a half years, and ended up with the Goodyear Rubber and Tire Company.

The army taught him to respect other people, too, said Mr Mallin, and he harbors no ill will toward those of Japanese descent, despite what he witnessed at Pearl Harbor. “It was war,” he said.

“Pearl Harbor is important still in everybody’s lives,” stressed Mr Mallin. “It shocked us out of our doldrums, and changed everybody’s lives in the world. September 11, 2001, was the second catalyst to shock us again. That brought back memories. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw those planes on television strike those buildings.”

It is vital, he believes, that young people especially remember the attack on Pearl Harbor and the service people who died there.

“The idea that you live 86 years, 14 years beyond the norm, is pretty good. You feel like you’re something special, but why? Not because I was at Pearl Harbor, not because I did some heroic deeds. Who knows?” asked Mr Mallin.

Walter Mallin will ride in the military division of the Annual Newtown Labor Day Parade, Monday, September 7. A member of VFW Post 10059 in Trumbull and American Legion Post 141 in Trumbull, he will be wearing a blue blazer and VFW cap, waving to all.

 “I’m going to try to live to be 100,” said Mr Mallin. “But I’ll always remember Pearl Harbor.”