‘God, please don’t let me die’

Michael Ganitch was on the USS Pennsylvania wearing his football uniform and getting ready to play the USS Arizona team for the championship on Dec. 7, 1941.

But Ganitch, a member of American Legion Post 649 in California, received a phone call, alerting him that Pearl Harbor was under attack. He didn’t believe it at first.

“Wow! We’re at war,” Ganitch recalled thinking, running to his battle station in his football gear. “We knew about this, we had talked about it. But we didn’t really think it would be happening. We didn’t think anyone would dare attack us.”

Elsewhere in the harbor that morning flight engineer Jack Holder had just fallen in for a muster.

“We heard the screaming aircraft and saw a terrible explosion,” said Holder, a member of American Legion Post 35 in Arizona. “It was disbelief, fear and anger.”

Holder and others dove into a ditch behind their hangar to avoid a Japanese plane that was in pursuit.

“I guess my most vivid memory is thinking, ‘God, please don’t let me die.’”

After Pearl Harbor, Holder went on to fly missions at the Battle of Midway and Guadalcanal. Holder was a flight engineer in the second PB-Y Catalina that spotted the Japanese and helped the United States turn the tide and win the Battle of Midway.

Now, Holder looks forward to reuniting with other Pearl Harbor survivors. “It is a relief, a healing action. It’s a revelation to me to meet all these fellow shipmates.”

Stuart Hedley, a self-described “20-year-old brat who grew up overnight,” was aboard the USS West Virginia. He recalled seeing Japanese “planes diving in every direction.”

Hedley regularly thinks of those who made the ultimate sacrifice that day.

“The thing that comes to my mind is the 2,000-some odd sailors who gave their lives that morning so that you and I can have the freedom that we have right now,” said Hedley, a member of American Legion Post 303 in California. “I think of the thousands of families who lost loved ones. It broke up husbands and wives. Children grew up never knowing their dads. It’s sort of a sad situation. The whole idea is that we are here to keep up the remembrance so that it does not happen again.”

As part of the 75th anniversary commemorations this week in Pearl Harbor, the three survivors spoke during a meet-and-greet with visitors at the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center, overlooking the harbor.

Joe Amorese, commander of American Legion Post 1501 in Rochester, N.Y., made the 4,700-mile trip to honor the survivors.

“I came out to honor those who survived Pearl Harbor,” said Amorese, an Air Force veteran. “It’s the 75th anniversary, and I am honored to have several World War II vets in my post. And I figure that this is the last time I am going to be able to honor the vets here. They call it the Greatest Generation, and I couldn’t agree more.”

Like many of the visitors, Amorese patiently waited to meet the veterans, personally express his gratitude and ask for an autograph.

“I’m trying to imagine what it was like in 1941 — the peacefulness, the tranquility, and then the attack,” he said. “I consider it hallowed ground. The men and women who fought back as best as they could. I’m just humbled to be here.

“I’m proud to be here and represent The American Legion.”