Wearing a tropical-print shirt, Wilmer “Bill” Bailey smiled brightly in a room of about 50 people.
“It’s not a Hawaiian shirt; it’s my aloha shirt,” he said.
Bailey, 87, along with seven other Pearl Harbor veterans, attended a Sunday tribute ceremony and luncheon to honor, recognize and remember the longtime heroes.
This annual Tribute to the Veterans of Pearl Harbor coincided with the 67th anniversary of the attack.
Colorado usually hosts the tribute ceremony at the state Capitol, but this year’s celebration was at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Littleton.
Bailey, of Arvada, was an Army communications clerk at the time of the attack. He later became a navigator in a B-17 bomber.
“It’s gratifying. I don’t feel like I’m a hero. I never will,” Bailey said. “We had a job to do, and we did it.”
Bailey arrived in Hawaii in September 1940. On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, at 7:55 a.m., he said he was goofing around with friends after breakfast when he saw the Japanese attack aircraft flying into Wheeler Army Airfield. They bombed the hangars that contained U.S. P-36 and P-40 fighter planes.
“We had no idea,” Bailey said of what was to come.
Air Force Brig. Gen. Sal Villano is an honorary member of the Pearl Harbor survivors and has hosted the tribute ceremony for several years. “It was the biggest shock we had ever seen as a country. It was hell on Earth,” Villano said. “Pearl Harbor vets were the leaders. They survived; they served.”
The Pearl Harbor attack left 2,335 service members and 68 civilians dead and another 1,178 wounded. It sent the U.S. into World War II.
“They had knocked out half of the entire U.S. Navy,” Villano said. “Admiral Yamamoto (commander in chief of the Japanese navy) said, ‘We have just awaked a sleeping giant.’ ”
Villano said the result was a country united like never before.
“The Pearl Harbor vets are the greatest generation of America,” Villano said. “America would not be the same without them.”
Humbled and honored, Bailey said he would do it all over again.
“Freedom is not free,” Bailey said. “You pay for every minute of it.”
Sally S. Ho: 303-954-1638 or sho@denverpost.com
