A Lifetime Mission for This Pearl Harbor Survivor

At age 17, Earl J. “Chuck” Kohler got his parents’ permission to enlist in the Navy, in April 1941. Only eight months later, as a young serviceman, he would become part of history as a fighter in the Pearl Harbor attack.

Every day since, Kohler, now 102 and just one of 11 survivors left, has made it his life’s work to “honor” the fallen soldiers who didn’t make it home.

“I try to share my experience with anybody who would come and listen,” Kohler told The Epoch Times.

“I thought that way they would have a better understanding of and a deeper appreciation for what those people experienced there that morning, but sadly didn’t live to share that information with their family or loved ones or friends. Somebody had to be a voice for them. And I had tried to do that down through the years.”

To that end, he will keep showing up at veteran’s events. Next up is a big one. Among the dignitaries, actors, and service members past and present, Kohler is an invited special guest of the National Memorial Day Concert held May 24 on the National Mall in Washington. “It gives me exposure that I wouldn’t otherwise have, and I’m going to use that exposure to try to bring a remembrance to my sunken shipmates and fallen comrades,” Kohler said.

Kohler will be escorted or, as he puts it, “chaperoned” by his son and daughter-in-law for his first-ever trip to the nation’s capital where a special segment of the 37th annual broadcast of the National Memorial Day Concert will mark the 85th anniversary of the surprise attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which plunged the United States into World War II.

More than 2,400 American service members and civilians were killed and over a thousand wounded on Dec. 7, 1941, the day President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared would “live in infamy.” The Memorial Day concert tribute will highlight this monumental time in American history, which galvanized the entire nation, and will honor the men and women who left their farms and factories, big cities and small towns, to save the world from tyranny. As part of this salute to the millions of Americans who served the nation in World War II in uniform and on the home front, members of the Greatest Generation will be honored on stage.

The World War II segment will focus on the story of Kohler, who not only witnessed the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the first act that got the United States into the war, but also witnessed the surrender of a Japanese garrison in August 1945, one of the last military acts in the Pacific Ocean. “Something like that, you don’t forget it,” Kohler said. “You never forget it. It’s with me every day.”

After training as an aircraft metal worker, Kohler was assigned to Aerial Patrol Squadron VP-23, arriving in Hawaii in October 1941. On a quiet Sunday morning in December 1941, Kohler sat at a typewriter on Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, writing a letter to his mother when he heard aircraft flying overhead, soon followed by an explosion that injured him with shattered glass.

“The winds of war had been blowing for some time and we almost knew that there was going to be a conflict,” Kohler said. “We didn’t know when or where they would attack first.

“I was angry. You can imagine, you’re 17 years old. While the other people took shelter in a ditch, I got a 50-caliber machine gun and spent the rest of that morning firing on those attacking aircraft with total and complete intent.

“I don’t think many 17-year-olds get that kind of experience, and it never leaves you. Something like that kind of ages you kind of quickly.”

Born in January 1924 in a log cabin in Minnesota, Kohler left school at 14 to help his family farm. He then joined the Navy at 17, and he served for seven years, one month, and 22 days. “I enjoyed every day of it,” he said. “I just knew that there had to be, for me anyway, something better somewhere. And I love airplanes, so I wanted to get somewhere that I could be around them.”

The Memorial Day concert, hosted by Tony Award-winner Joe Mantegna and Emmy Award-winner Gary Sinise, longtime supporters of veterans’ causes and service members, will be televised from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. The show can be seen by service members around the world on American Forces Network and will be broadcast and live streamed on Sunday, May 24, via public television stations nationwide.

In addition to giving voice to his Pearl Harbor brethren, Kohler hopes to use his time in Washington to shine a spotlight on active-duty service members. “If I can use part of the time to get people to pay more attention and to honor the people who are serving now, then that’s my goal,” he said. “That’s what I want to try to accomplish.”

This year’s concert will also commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States of America and the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks; pay special tribute to Vietnam veterans, especially those wounded, ill, and injured; and as always honor America’s Gold Star families.

“I’ve always tried to live my life in such a way [that] it’s better to be a giver than a taker,” Kohler said. This purpose of making sure his service member brethren are not forgotten, he acknowledged, has been a source of strength in his own life as he and his wife Judith raised four children and today share 16 grandchildren and 42 great-grandchildren.

“If you see someone that needs help or something that needs to be done even if it’s not your responsibility, go ahead and do it. You’ll be proud that you did later.”