Local seniors recall as if it were yesterday
By: Candice Leigh Helfand
"I remember there was a commentator who was on every Sunday night at 7 p.m. on the radio, by the name of Walter Winchell," said World War II Navy veteran Joe Spataro. "His opening comments were: ‘Mr. and Mrs. America, and all the ships at sea.’ And that’s how he opened his program every week."
On Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, Mr. Spataro and his future wife, Ruth, were in her kitchen listening to the program. But what followed Mr. Winchell’s trademark greeting, was anything from ordinary.
"It was hard for me to believe. That Sunday, Walter Winchell began his program by saying ‘Mr. and Mrs. America, and all the ships at sea; Pearl Harbor’s been attacked,’ " Mr. Spataro said, who enlisted after the Pearl Harbor attacks and served with the 35th Special Naval Construction Battalion. "It stayed in my mind so clearly after all these years."
For those who lived through it, Pearl Harbor was a moment that defined a generation, a moment that cemented itself in their memories.
The stories and details of that day where they were at the time, how they coped, who they were with, even the weather can be called back within a moment’s notice.
It was the first real infiltration of American soil by an outside neighbor; the day that President Franklin D. Roosevelt called "a day that would live in infamy."
Al Kady, a combat veteran, Normandy Beach survivor and commander of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9111, also remembers the day with startling clarity, as well as the events following.
"I was young, and it was a time when it was hard to believe," he said. "Older people looked at it differently. They said ‘Well it’s war, it happens,’ but just looking at the day of infamy and the pictures of how they bombed us, it was terrible."
Visitors to the South Brunswick Senior Center discussed Pearl Harbor with the South Brunswick Post this week. Some weren’t old enough to enlist, but were nonetheless affected by the event, including Ben Brodkin, who was 10 at the time.
"I don’t remember much about the experience, though I do remember reading about it," he said. "Times were tough, I remember. We had to collect newspapers, and rubber and tin cans for war supplies."
For some senior citizens, like Spencer Schnyder, who was not born until after Pearl Harbor was attacked, the event still stands as a pivotal moment in history.
"One thing about Pearl Harbor was that people back then probably didn’t see the airplane as much of a weapon," Mr. Schnyder said. "Who would have thought that a plane could have taken down something as huge and massive as a ship?"
Mr. Kady echoed Mr. Schnyder’s sentiments of surprise at the intensity and success of the attack.
"It was a time when all of the front pages of all of the papers were talking about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor," he said. "They talked about how it killed so many people, and it was just something that never was expected."
But, there was a bright side, even amidst all of the tragedy. That bright side was unity.
Pearl Harbor was one of those historical moments that moved America to bond, inspired by the encroachment on the nation’s security and safety.
"One thing that happened was that everybody in this country took the bull by the horns, and everyone worked day and night," Mr. Kady said.
And from that unity pride and patriotism were born.
"In World War II, I never saw so much pride in the people of America. For a lot of us in World War II, you weren’t Italian, or Irish, or German, or French; you were American," Mr. Spataro said.
"We were Americans, and together, we went and fought against the enemy, whoever it was. We went as Americans."

