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Amon Downs
By ELENA LESLEY
Published December 7, 2005
AMON DOWNS, 84, Beverly Hills, was a member of the 3rd Combat Engineers, 24th Division, and was at Schofield Barracks on Oahu when Imperial Japanese forces struck Pearl Harbor.
I joined the Army December the 12th, 1940. I had always wanted to see Hawaii. I'd heard everyone else talk about Hawaii, how beautiful it was, and it was beautiful ... up to December the 7th.
I was the driver for the company commander. Nobody had any ideas (about what would happen). The upper people might have known something, but we didn't know anything. It was all very surprising.
When we first heard them bombing, we were just getting out from breakfast. We were all standing around talking and all of a sudden we heard some big thuds. I said, "Well, what's the Air Force out practicing today for?' Then the planes came right over us. You could see the pilots, just like they were right next to you.
Our company was digging tunnels for the Navy for ammunition in a crater down close to Pearl Harbor. The commander and I just happened to be in the barracks, so we had to drive right past Pearl Harbor in order to get to the company. So they were bombing when we went by, and everything was burning up, blowing up.
There was no way to retaliate. We stayed down in this crater and everyone was hiding pretty well. ... We were all scared to death.
I've been back to see Pearl Harbor three times. Tears running down my face every time I go to see the fire zone. You look down and you see a thousand kids, all kids - 18, 19, 20 - all there in the bottom of the boat. It really gets to you.
I still feel bad about the Japanese. I don't dislike them, but for somebody to do that to us, you get a hard feeling toward those people.
When I get together with other Pearl Harbor veterans, we talk mostly about other things. No one wants to talk about that.
In 1944, the Army sent me home for two weeks, and then to one of those plush hotels in Miami. It was what you call "relaxation" for guys that were shook up.
I think about Pearl Harbor often. When I see something that reminds my of it, it hits me. Still have nightmares.
[Last modified December 6, 2005, 11:37:02]
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Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
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