Pilot's wife, on Japanese attacks: 'I never thought it would happen where I was'

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Carolyn Herrick
  • 15th Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii --  Nineteen-year-old Bea Sullivan hid under the bed when Japanese airplanes attacked Hickam Field Dec. 7, 1941. Her newlywed husband, U.S. Air Force 2nd Lt. Robert Sullivan, a B-18 pilot, was off island in Sacramento, Calif., with two flying squadrons from Hickam, and she was scared.

"Of all the silly things," Bea, now approaching age 90, said with a laugh. "We're under attack. What's it gonna help that I'm under the bed?"

She recalled how surprised she was when she woke up to the sound of low-flying aircraft.

"The noise woke me," said Bea. "It was five minutes to eight on a Sunday, so at first I thought it was the fighters practicing."

When she realized the planes were strafing, and heard bullets bouncing off of tile roofs, it began to sink in that they were under attack.

"It takes time for your brain to realize what's going on," she said. "Realizing what was going on was the hardest part."

When the first wave of planes disappeared into the red, rising sun, she and 20 other Air Force wives whose husbands were on temporary duty in California gathered at the home of one of Sullivan's lieutenant colonels, where they waited out the second wave of attacks before packing a bag and taking shelter at the Oahu Country Club.

As the daughter of a Navy man, Bea was accustomed to the military lifestyle. She knew that World War II was in progress when she married an Airman in July of 1940, and had heard all the stories of the fighting in Germany and England.

"But I never thought it would happen where I was," said Bea, who graduated from Roosevelt High School here while her father was stationed at Pearl Harbor. She met Sullivan, now 96, on the beach in Hale'iwa, Hawaii. "It was so surprising. It was so unreal. You just never dreamed it would happen to you. Japan felt so remote, so far away - I just kept wondering how they'd gotten here without us noticing. It's such a long way."

They evacuated Bea and her mother - one of many military spouses in Hawaii - to San Francisco on Christmas Day. Bea's father was out to sea at the time, on a tender named the U.S.S. Wright, near Midway. He was supposed to have docked already, but they couldn't get in "because of weather," she said.

Her father and her husband were both far away from the attacks. Two of her uncles were also stationed here at the time, serving on ships in Pearl Harbor. Although their ships were badly damaged, neither uncle was killed. Her brother-in-law, a young Navy ensign, was on the U.S.S. Arizona but swam away from the ship and went on to save many peoples' lives.

Bea was lucky, that day. Although she said it was terrifying to live through, her family escaped with their lives, unlike many of those who were here on the "date that will live in infamy."