Deirdre Newman Louis Nockold was aboard the...

Deirdre Newman

Louis Nockold was aboard the USS Honolulu in Pearl Harbor on Dec.

7, 1941. The navy veteran was ironing his uniform, getting ready to

head over to Waikiki to check out “cute gals” when an alarm screamed

over the ship’s public address system -- “battle stations on the

double.”

Nockold recounted the shock and horror of the Pearl Harbor attack

to a rapt group of students at Corona del Mar High School on Friday.

This is the fourth year that the school has invited veterans to share

their personal stories of World War II with students in honor of

Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, which is today.

“This is living history,” said Denise Weiland, the school’s

community service program specialist. “We don’t know how much longer

they’ll be around.”

Eight veterans who served in a variety of capacities at different

stages of the war shared with the students brief summaries of their

experiences.

The most decorated of them, Walter Ehlers, who received the

Congressional Medal of Honor, recounted the harrowing ordeal of being

one of the first to land on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. His

brother, who came ashore a short time later, was killed during the

invasion.

“It was 60 times worse than what you saw in ‘Saving Private

Ryan,’” Ehlers said.

And he urged the students to be tolerant of others to prevent war

in the future.

“One thing I want to get the message out about is hate -- don’t

hate,” Ehlers said. “It destroys you, it destroys families, it

destroys the nation. The [Sept. 11 terrorists] hated Americans, but

actually they hated their own people because a lot of Muslims live

here.”

Gene Robens discussed some of the reasons the U.S. decided to drop

atomic bombs on Japan, including saving American military lives and

accelerating the advancement of science and technology based on

atomic energy.

“Dropping the bombs unleashed the scientific effort that makes us

an atomic society today,” Robens said. He held up a household smoke

detector as an example of a common appliance that uses atomic

batteries.

After their presentations, a rush of students crowded the

veterans’ table to learn more about their experiences. Many said they

were moved by the veteran’s modest descriptions of their heroics.

“I thought it was really important for people to know about their

personal experiences of war,” said Bryan Hall, 17. “They weren’t just

fighting to kill somebody. They were fighting for what they believed

in.”

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.