Tim Willert
NORTHEAST GLENDALE -- Glendale resident George Haney taught school
from 1939 to 1941 in Kamehameha on the island of Oahu. From there he
enlisted in flight school, which took him to Phoenix.
Haney was a 25-year-old pilot-in-training on Dec. 7, 1941 --the day
Pearl Harbor was attacked.
"I really couldn't believe it," Haney, a retired Army major, recalled
Thursday from his home on San Gabriel Avenue. "We thought the islands
were so fortified that nothing could happen."
Today marks the 60th anniversary of the Japanese attack on the U.S
Pacific fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. More than 2,400
Americans were killed and more than 1,000 wounded in the attack, which
thrust the U.S. into World War II.
"When they announced the attack, the alarm sounded and the base went
on 24-hour alert," Haney said, adding that his flight training was
accelerated as a result of the attack.
"It was terrible. I had a lot of friends who were in the service."
Haney completed his flight training on Jan. 4, 1942. In March, he was
co-piloting a B-17 en route to Manila. The plane hit some rough weather
and crashed.
Haney, his back broken, recovered in a hospital at Hickham Field, an
air field severely damaged by the Dec. 7 attack.
"Pearl Harbor was devastated," Haney recalled. "Battleship Row was
just a terrible mess."
Haney's wife, Bettie, a United Airlines stewardess based in San
Francisco, was playing tennis the day of the attack.
She worked that afternoon on a flight to Salt Lake City.
"Everyone was talking about it," she recalled. "At that time we
thought the Japanese were going to attack the mainland."
The California coastline, Bettie Haney recalled, was fortified with
artillery to protect against invasion.
The airline, which often flew up and down the coast, would exchange
code to let the military know "we were friendlyplanes," she said.
Glendale Mayor Gus Gomez has proclaimed today Pearl Harbor Day, and
has ordered city flags to be lowered to half-staff in accordance with a
presidential proclamation.
