Dick Girocco survived the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941.

Richard (Dick) Girocco was the reason and the drive to really bring a PBY Catalina back to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, after all these years. When Dick came onto Ford Island and told John Sterling his story of witnessing the first Japanese bomb to actually hit Oahu on December 7, 1941, this impossible connection to the little corner of Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, began a very personal quest to track down a PBY Catalina and bring it to Hawaii. In his 90s at the time, Dick was so appreciative of a seemingly impossible effort, and could hardly be patient enough to hear anything about finding and acquiring a PBY to actually bring an example of his beloved pIane to Hawaii. Finally, in 2014, when told the news that his plane was waiting in Spain, he was elated. 
On December 7, 1941, Dick Girocco was a 20-year-old sailor working on PBY seaplanes at Hangar 54, where Navy PBY Squadron VP24 was based, and was part of a beaching gear crew on Ford Island.
The PBY Catalina is an early 1930s flying boat design where take off and landing strictly used water as airfields.
Dick was at his station in Hangar 54 on Ford Island, having launched 3 of his PBYs to rendezvous with a submarine off of Maui to “check out” the feasibility of fueling PBYs from a submarine.
While awaiting his Catalinas to return to base, the Japanese showed up. 
Dick’s PBYs not on Oahu survived the day by not being in Pearl Harbor. Between Pearl Harbor and the Navy air station in Kaneohe, on the other side of the island, almost 70 PBYs were either destroyed or heavily damaged.

At 0800 hours on Sunday, December 7, 1941, a cacophony of unfamiliar noises on Ford Island assaulted the ears of Seaman 2^nd class Richard Girocco. He ran outside of the hangar where he had been working to discover the cause for the commotion.

Ordinarily, Girocco and the other seamen from his PBY squadron (‘patrol bomber’) would have been resting on their bunks during their weekend leave.

But on that day – December 7, 1941 — they had been ordered to arrive early for work. Their duties included loading equipment to be transported from Pearl Harbor to Perth, Australia.

At first the sight of planes overhead made Girocco think the Army Air Corps was dropping flour sacks for target practice.

But as he and the others gazed upward, they noticed machine gun fire erupting from the planes. At that point the young seamen thought the American flight crews were carrying their maneuvers too far.

Then, with growing horror, Girocco and the other sailors realized the bullets were not part of a drill.

The planes had big red balls painted on the sides. They dropped low over Ford Island, their aviators firing, spewing their vitriolic bombs with precision at the men, ships, and everything below. They belonged to the Japanese Imperial forces.

Pearl Harbor was under attack!

Upon landing at the U.S. territory of Hawaii In November 1941, Dick Girocco thought he was in paradise. “There was lots of green water and sand,” he said.

Note: The Republic of Hawaii had become a territory of the U.S. in 1898. It would not become that nation’s 50^th state until 1959.

Prior to enlisting in the Navy, Girocco, a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, had worked at a forestry camp in Wisconsin for the Civilian Conservation Corps. “I earned $30 a month,” he said. He sent home $22 for his family.

After completing basic training at Great Lakes Naval Training Center near Chicago, Girocco attended aviation machinist school at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Seattle.

Upon arriving in Hawaii, he was assigned to the USS Saratoga patrolling the islands.

Life had been easy with daily chores and camaraderie among the sailors.

That all changed as the Japanese planes destroyed ships, planes and men in their paths.

Girocco’s first impulse upon realizing his life was in danger was to run back inside the hangar. But he was afraid of attracting attention and chose a closer means of safety.

The Navy had begun a project of transporting water from the coast to the hangars. Several feet of pipe lay close by.

Diving inside a section, Girocco watched in horror as a series of bombs hit the USS Shaw. The destroyer had been sitting in the Navy yard dry dock.

When the ship exploded, Girocco flew through the air, landing in a nearby ditch. He couldn’t see, but he could still hear the noise and feel the concussion of successive explosions.

As Japanese bombers set off ammunition in hangars, Girocco and other naval personnel were frozen in shock “All we could do was wait for instructions from anyone,” he said.

Girocco later learned that prior to attacking Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Imperial Navy aircraft had bombed the nearby U.S. Naval Air Station on the east coast of Oahu. They immobilized 27 Catalina PBY seaplanes – ‘flying boats’ — which was devastating as the planes could have provided defensive maneuvers. 

When the Japanese planes finally flew off, Navy personnel quickly set to work, trying to establish order. A hangar was made into quarters. A barracks along Battle Ship Row was converted to a hospital.

For days Girocco and other uninjured sailors looked for survivors in the oil-filled waters. “We did rescue flights with PBYs,” he said. “The planes could land on water to retrieve survivors.”

Rubber rafts were used to retrieve dead bodies.

News about the unmitigated attack spread to Washington DC and other parts of the U.S. While most Americans had no idea where or what Pearl Harbor was, all were incensed at the deaths of more than 2,400 Americans.

On December 8, 1941, during a moving speech to Congress, President Franklin D. Roosevelt urged its members to declare war on the Axis powers of Japan, Italy and Germany, which they did.

Richard Girocco remained in the U.S Navy during the war. After serving more than 20 years, he retired as a Petty Officer First Class. He volunteered at the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum where he told visitors about his love for his country. “It was a good experience being in the Navy,” he said. “The attack was rough, but I was glad to serve my country.”.