Kermit Tyler, 96, an American pilot who dismissed initial reports of what turned out to be the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, has died.
Tyler, who suffered two strokes in the past two years, died Jan. 23 at his home in San Diego, said his daughter Julie Jones.
The pilot thought the big blip on the radar screen on Dec. 7, 1941, was a fleet of U.S. B-17 bombers due in from the mainland, so he replied “don’t worry about it” when told of the approaching mass. He was ultimately cleared of wrongdoing.
“I wake up at nights sometimes and think about it,” Tyler said in a 2007 interview with the Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. “But I don’t feel guilty. I did all I could that morning.”
He retired from the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel in 1961.
The Associated Press
