_TSgt Emil S. Peters, seen here on 11 October 1938, was a veteran of
service in Nicaragua and a little more than three weeks shy of his 48th
birthday when Japanese bombers attacked Ewa Field._]
Fortunately for the Marines, however, the last raid proved
comparatively “light and ineffectual,” something Lieutenant Colonel
Larkin attributed to the heavy gunfire thrown skyward. The short
respite between the second and third strafing attacks had allowed Ewa’s
defenders to bring all possible weapons to bear against the Japanese.
Technical Sergeant Turnage, after having gotten the base’s machine
guns set up and ready for action, took over one of the mounts himself
and fired several bursts into the belly of one Val that began trailing
smoke and began to falter soon thereafter.
Turnage, however, was by no means the only Marine using his weapon to
good effect. Master Technical Sergeant Peters and Private Turner, from
their improvised position in the lamed SBD, had let fly at whatever
Vals came within range of their gun. The two Marines shot down what
witnesses thought were at least two of the attacking planes and
discouraged strafing in that area of the station. However, the Japanese
soon tired of the tenacious bravery of the grizzled veteran and the
young clerk, neither of whom flinched in the face of repeated strafing.
Two particular enemy pilots repeatedly peppered the grounded Dauntless
with 7.7-millimeter fire, ultimately scoring hits near the cockpit area
and wounding both men. Turner toppled from the wing, mortally wounded.
Another Marine who distinguished himself during the third strafing
attack was Sergeant Carlo A. Micheletto of Marine Utility Squadron
(VMJ) 252. During the first Japanese attack that morning, Micheletto
proceeded at once to VMJ-252’s parking area and went to work, helping
in the attempts to extinguish the fires that had broken out amongst
the squadron’s parked utility planes. He continued in those labors
until the last strafing attack began. Putting aside his firefighting
equipment and grabbing a rifle, he took cover behind a small pile of
lumber, and heedless of the heavy machine-gunning, continued to fire at
the attacking planes until a burst of enemy fire struck him in the head
and killed him instantly.
Eventually, in an almost predictable way, the Japanese planes formed
up and flew off to the west, leaving the once neatly manicured Mooring
Mast Field smouldering. The Marines had barely had time to catch their
collective breath when, at 1000, almost as a capstone to the complete
chaos wreaked by the initial Japanese attack, seven more planes arrived.
* * * * *
Their markings, however, were of a more familiar variety--red-centered
blue and white stars. The newcomers proved to be a group of Dauntlesses
from _Enterprise_. For the better part of an hour, Lieutenant Wilmer
E. Gallaher, executive officer of Scouting Squadron 6, had circled
fitfully over the Pacific swells south of Oahu, waiting for the
situation there to settle down. At about 0945, when he had seen that
the skies seemed relatively clear of Japanese planes, Gallaher decided
rather than face friendly fire over Pearl he would go to Ewa instead.
They had barely stopped on the strip, however, when a Marine ran out
to Gallaher’s plane and yelled, “For God’s sake, get into the air
or they’ll strafe you, too!” Other _Enterprise_ pilots likewise saw
ground crews frantically motioning for them to take off immediately.
Instructed to “take off and stay in the air until [the] air raid was
over,” the _Enterprise_ pilots took off and headed for Pearl Harbor.
Although all seven SBDs left Ewa, only three (Gallaher’s, his wingman,
Ensign William P. West’s, and Ensign Cleo J. Dobson’s) would make it as
far as Ford Island. A tremendous volume of antiaircraft fire over the
harbor rose to meet what was thought to be yet another attack; seeing
the reception accorded Gallaher, West, and Dobson, the other four
pilots--Lieutenant (jg) Hart D. Hilton and Ensigns Carlton T. Fogg,
Edwin J. Kroeger, and Frederick T. Weber--wheeled around and headed
back to Ewa, landing around 1015 to find a far better reception that
time around. Within a matter of minutes, the Marines began rearming and
refueling Hilton’s, Kroeger’s and Weber’s SBDs. The Marines discovered
that Fogg’s Dauntless, though, had taken a hit that had holed a fuel
tank, and would require repairs.
[Illustration: