CHANDLER, Ariz. — On Sept. 2, 1945, Gen. Douglas MacArthur met with a Japanese delegation on the decks of the USS Missouri to sign surrender documents to officially end the war.
A Valley event commemorating that historic day had to be scaled down on Wednesday because of coronavirus.
Many veterans, including 98-year-old Chandler resident Jack Holder, were invited to attend the event but had to cancel due to health and safety concerns.
“When I got the news I was devastated. I wanted so badly to go,” says Holder.
Holder was serving in the Navy as an aviation machinist mate first class, and he was just six days shy of a year at Pearl Harbor on the morning of the attack.
He remembers very vividly just finishing assembling from muster with his section when a loud terrible explosion occurred.
“We ran outside and the hanger beside us which is about a hundred yards from mine received the first bomb that fell in Pearl Harbor.”
They knew immediately that they were under attack when they looked up to the sky and saw the Rising Sun insignia on the side of the airplanes. One of his shipmates remembered there was a sewer line under construction behind the hanger and said let’s go for the ditch.
“One of the Japanese pilots had seen us, circled, strikes the ditch with machine-gun fire missing us by three feet hitting the dirt pile next to us,” he said.
There were 2,402 Americans killed that day and 19 Navy ships were either destroyed or damaged heavily.
Hear more about Jack's experience in this extended interview:
After surviving the attack, Holder later went on to fly in 315 missions, including combat at the Battle of Midway. He became a decorated U.S Navy Flight Captain and was honorably discharged in 1948. Holder spent much of his civilian career flying commercial and corporate aircraft.
Even though he wasn’t able to attend the commemoration in person, Holder with the help of his friend Thomas Baldrick, live-streamed from his home in Chandler.
“I thought it was tremendous, they did a great job. Everyone was really prepared; they delivered some great speeches,” he said.
Baldrick is helping Holder build a website to share his story which he’s very passionate about. His mission is to tell his story to the younger generation to inspire them to become the next Greatest Generation.
"I tell each one of them as I’m leaving they live in the greatest country in the world. It’s not always correct but it's still the greatest country and they have to respect it and be prepared to defend it if necessary."
You can visit his website at www.jackholder.org.
