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.
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