Pearl Harbor survivor reflects on day of infamy

LYNN – Emery Arsenault and another radar man were just about to shut down their equipment and head off to Mass when the radar screen erupted with flashing lights.”It began to light up with all kinds of blips then the torpedo bombers came over at tree top level.”It was Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, and Arsenault was in the middle of the Japanese Navy’s sneak attack on the U.S. base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.He rushed with other soldiers from the radar station to Pearl Harbor but strafing aircraft forced them to take shelter under a tree near another base. They remained there for three days, armed only with rifles, anticipating a Japanese amphibious assault that never materialized.For the Peabody resident and long-time Lynner, tomorrow marks the 67th anniversary of the event that pulled the United States into World War II and that stands along with the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 as the most violent assault on American soil.Planning and preparation allowed carrier-borne Japanese aircraft to strike Pearl Harbor, sink American battleships and kill sailors, airmen and soldiers.”By the time we got organized, the Japs had done their business.”Arsenault and other Pearl veterans are scheduled to gather in Faneuil Hall Sunday to mark what Franklin Delano Roosevelt called “a date which will live in infamy.”When the attack opened, Arsenault and fellow crewmembers of Battery E, 64th Coastal Artillery, were manning experimental radar equipment. He planned to attend Mass with a friend after finishing his shift. Instead, the 20-year-old Cape Cod native received a brutal baptism into the grim reality of war. One of his comrades was killed when a stray anti-aircraft shell struck a barracks.Smoke from the stricken American battleships turned the crystal blue sky to midnight black.”All we had in our rifles was five rounds of ammunition. We stuck the butts in the ground and tried to fire at the planes,” Arsenault said.Arsenault remains an avid student of the pivotal point in history he witnessed. His mementoes include a cross and a picture frame crowded with military unit badges and pictures from Pearl Harbor.Over the years he kept in contact with Pearl Harbor veterans, including locals like George Gallo, Casimir Widerski and Andrew Comeau. One side of the medal he was awarded at a remembrance ceremony bears the words, “Remember Pearl Harbor.”