Harry Chandler, a US Navy doctor who helped rescue wounded sailors from the waters of Pearl Harbor after the 1941 Japanese attack on the naval base, has died at the age of 103.
Harry Chandler, a Navy medic who helped rescue wounded sailors from the fuel-filled waters of Pearl Harbor after the 1941 Japanese attack on the naval base, has died. He was 103 years old.
Chandler died Monday at a senior center in Tequesta, Florida, according to Ron Mahaffee, the husband of his granddaughter Kelli Fahey. Chandler had congestive heart failure, but Mahaffee said doctors and nurses took note of his advanced age when giving the cause of death.
The third Pearl Harbor survivor to die in recent weeks, Chandler was a hospital corpsman third class on December 7, 1941, when waves of Japanese fighter planes dropped bombs and fired machine guns on battleships in the harbor and led to United States in World War II.
In 2023, he told The Associated Press who saw the planes approaching while he was raising the flag that morning at a mobile hospital in Aiea Heights, which is in the hills overlooking the base.
“I thought they were planes coming from the United States until I saw the bombs falling,” Chandler said. His first instinct was to take cover and “run out of there.”
“I was afraid they would start shooting,” he said.
His unit moved in trucks to treat the wounded. In an oral history interview Pacific Historic Parkssaid he boarded a ship to help pull injured sailors out of the water.
The harbor was covered in fuel from the exploding ships, so Chandler washed the sailors after removing them. He said he was too focused on his work to be afraid.
“There was so much movement that you weren't afraid. You weren't afraid at all. We were busy. It was after you got scared,” Chandler said.
He later realized that he might have died, “but you didn't think about it while you were busy taking care of people.”
The attack killed more than 2,300 American service members. Nearly half, or 1,177, were sailors and Marines aboard the USS Arizona, which sank nine minutes after being bombed.
Chandler's memories came flooding back when he visited Pearl Harbor for a ceremony in 2023 commemorating the 82nd anniversary of the bombing.
“I look over there and I can still see what's going on. “I can still see what was happening,” Chandler told The Associated Press.
When asked what he wanted Americans to know about Pearl Harbor, he said, “Be prepared.”
“We should have known that was going to happen. Intelligence has to be better,” he said.
After the war, Chandler worked as a painter and wallpaperer and bought an upholstery business with his brother. He also joined the Navy reserves, retiring as a senior commander in 1981.
Chandler was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and lived most of his adult life in nearby South Hadley, Mahaffee said. In recent decades he divided his time between Massachusetts and Florida.
An avid golfer, he made five holes-in-one during his lifetime, his grandson-in-law added.
Chandler had one biological daughter and adopted two daughters from his second marriage, to Anna Chandler, who died in 2004. He is survived by two daughters, nine grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren.
Military historian J. Michael Wenger has estimated that there were about 87,000 military personnel on the island of Oahu on the day of the attack. With Chandler's death, only 15 remain alive, according to a count kept by Kathleen Farley, California state president of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors.
Bob Fernandez, who served on the USS Curtiss, also died this month, at age 100, and Warren Upton, 105, who served on the USS Utah, died last week.