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World War II veteran visits his past in Hawaii

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Shane A. Cuomo
  • Air Force Print News
BELLOWS AIR FORCE STATION, Hawaii (AFPN) --  It has been almost 65 years since Raymond Stehle has been in Hawaii. Standing on the now paved dunes of an old air field, he completed a promise to his granddaughter to return to the peaceful island of Oahu to recount the day it was attacked on Dec. 7, 1941.

At the time, Mr. Stehle was an Army private assigned to Hickam Field.  He later transferred across the island to Bellows Army Air Field as an admin clerk. Like everyone on the island that morning, he had no idea a major attack was about to begin, changing his life forever.

"I was sitting on my bed waiting for 8:30 a.m., waiting for mass to start," Mr. Stehle said. "A few minutes later we heard the drone of a single-engine aircraft and the rattle of machine guns. A lone Mitsubishi Zero was the first aircraft to begin its attack run, strafing the tent area that housed about 80 residents of the airfield. Everyone dispersed trying to avoid the hail of machine gun fire. Soldiers started jumping into ditches, hiding behind buildings and whatever else could shield them.

"Almost immediately I said we have to do something. So we ran up to the armory, broke down the door, and got the guns and ammunition out," Mr. Stehle said.

"We were in the armory for 15 to 20 minutes getting the guns and ammunition ready ... then the Japanese came," he said.

Coming in from the north, nine Japanese planes flew in a V-shaped formation and lined up for the attack. The gunfire raid started with a diving attack by all nine of the planes. The sound of 20 mm cannons and machine guns filled the air as the Japanese attacked the aircraft on the ground and strafed Bellows.

"When they came around for the second pass, it didn't matter that they fired at us because we were waiting to fire on them," Mr. Stehle said. "The strafing and return gun fire went on for 20 minutes, then they went away and another group came and that went on for another 20 minutes," he said. "Then it was over."

But it felt like the calm before the storm, because after the attack, almost everyone believed there would be a land invasion.

"We ended up in a sandbag machine gun revetment on the beach waiting for the invasion," Mr. Stehle said.

But it never came.

"Why would they do that with no invasion?" he asked.

Today there is little evidence of the old flying field days. The runways that were at their peak in the 1940s are overgrown and hard to distinguish. The fields where the tent cities were are now reclaimed by nature. It is only because of encouragement from his son and the persistence of his granddaughter that Mr. Stehle finally returned to Bellows after all these years.

"He started talking about his war stories when I was younger," said Shelia McQueen, his granddaughter.

"In the seventh grade he came to my school and had a great presentation of what life was like back in Hawaii and life in the 1940s, what it was like to be a Soldier," she said. "I was very determined to get the stories out of him."

After talks with his granddaughter and an offer of help from his son, Vincent, Mr. Stehle said he really wanted to go back and revisit Hawaii.

"My son and my granddaughter are my right and left hands," Mr. Stehle said. "I couldn't have done it without them."

In the end his promise was kept and according to his granddaughter, "It is a real honor to be able to hear my grandfather's stories."