Henry Ellerbrock of Ladd was on the deck of the USS West Virginia at Pearl Harbor, waiting for the chaplain to start a church service, when Japanese Zeroes first appeared on the horizon on Dec. 7, 1941.
“General quarters sounded, so I went to my battle station along with everybody else,” he recalled. “I was in the powder room, loading the big guns. The planes were strafing the ships and bombs were falling everywhere. It was hell.”
Ellerbrock was one of six survivors honored last week during the Aurora Navy League’s 34th annual memorial luncheon. More than 200 other Navy veterans, local dignitaries, ROTC students and others paid homage to those who experienced the attack that catapulted the U.S. into World War II.
“This group of people sitting here made such a significant sacrifice that part of the fiber of our nation is composed of what they are,” said guest speaker, Capt. Kathryn Hobbs of Great Lakes Naval Station near Waukegan.
Gordon Seastrom of Batavia was aboard the USS Reid, which was undergoing repairs, when the attack began. He knows how lucky he is, not only to have survived the attack, but also to be telling the tale 62 years later. The luncheon at Aurora University also honored three surviving members of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet, which was scattered over the Pacific prior to the attack. Cut off from support from the U.S. mainland, the 80 obsolete warships and submarines defended American bases in the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies for three months until nearly all had been sunk, said retired Illinois State Sen. Robert Mitchler, who helped organize the event.
The veterans received a standing ovation.
