Pearl Harbor

Pvt. Joseph McDonald, a switchboard operator at Ft. Shafter’s Information Center, was on duty the morning of December 7, 1941. It was McDonald who received the call from the Opana radar operators.

Although McDonald died in 1994, he left notes about what happened shortly after 7 a.m. Hawaii time. His son George has given us permission to tell his father’s story. The haunting question of what “might have been” remained with Joseph his entire life.

Pvt. Joseph McDonald started his shift at 5 p.m. on December 6, 1941. The Information Center was connected with the five radar sites from various locations on Oahu. The people at the Center had been on alert for a few weeks. The rumor was that the alert was called because the Japanese Navy could not be located. The alert was canceled just before December 7th.

Beginning at 6 p.m. McDonald manned the switchboard. Most of the time he was alone. At 4 a.m. the radar plotters entered the Information Center. The radars - a new concept at the time - would operate between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. General Short thought that was the most likely time that an attack could take place.

The Information Center had a large table with a map of Hawaii. The plotters would move arrows on the table to designate planes picked up by the radar sites. The radar sites had a direct phone line to the plotters.

At 7 a.m. (the time set for the radar monitoring to cease), the plotters left the Information Center for breakfast. Joseph McDonald’s orders were scheduled until 6 a.m. But the day was Sunday, and Joseph stayed on duty beyond his time so his replacement could eat breakfast before he took over the switchboard duties.

Shortly after 7 a.m. the switchboard buzzed. Joseph thought he was in the Center alone. He inserted the plug into the phone and answered. It was the northern radar station Opana. An excited voice that he could hardly hear asked whether the plotters were still around. McDonald said, “No.” The voice from Opana said:

There are a large number of planes coming in from the north 3 points east.

Joseph replied:

I am not sure what to do. There is nobody here.

At that point the connection was broken. (Pvt. George Elliott had made the call.) McDonald looked at the clock to time the message and saw a Lieutenant from the Air Corps sitting at the plotting table. McDonald told the officer:

I just received a call from 6QN Opana reporting a large number of planes coming in from the north 3 points east.

The Lieutenant said that there was nothing to get excited about. McDonald returned to the switchboard and called the Opana radar unit. McDonald relayed the Lieutenant’s lack of concern. But the voice at Opana was coming in stronger. McDonald recognized the voice - it was his friend, Pvt. Joseph Lockard.

Lockard was excited and stated that a large number of planes were “heading fast” towards Oahau:

Hey Mac, there is a heck of a big flight of planes coming in and the whole scope is covered.

McDonald told Lockard to hold on. Infected by his friend’s excitement, McDonald again returned to the plotting table. He told the officer:

Sir, this is the first call that I have ever received like this. This sounds serious! Do you think that we ought to do something about it? Shall I call back the plotters?

The Lieutenant said it was probably a flight from the States.

Pvt. Lockard asked to talk directly with the Lieutenant. The officer took the phone and McDonald could hear him say:

Well, don’t worry about it.

McDonald asked the Lieutenant whether he should recall the plotters or call Wheeler Field. The Lieutenant replied:

Don’t worry about it.

But McDonald was sure the matter was serious. He knew the Lieutenant was inexperienced in the Information Center’s operations as it was only his second day there. Several times Joseph grabbed the line for Wheeler Field. But then he thought, “I could be court martialed for going around the Lieutenant.” His added thought was:

Who would listen to a private anyway?

At about 7:45 a.m. McDonald’s replacement arrived. Joseph was exhausted after working over 14 hours - yet the communication from Opana kept gnawing at him. He thought he would call Wheeler from the orderly tent, but as he passed it he saw the Sergeant was using the phone. He returned to his tent where he told his tent mate, Pvt. Richard Schimmel:

Shim, the Japs are coming.

Sitting on his bunk, McDonald recounted the call from the Opana radar. Moments later, Shim and Joseph heard the drone of planes. Their tent was on a hill, overlooking Pearl Harbor. Finally, the could see the planes. “Lots” of planes. “They seemed to play follow the leader.” All were flying in a single file.

Suddenly the lead plane dived, and the others followed. Joseph and Shim could hear the loud roar of explosions and could see black smoke. A radio was playing in a nearby tent. The music stopped, and a frantic voice said:

All cars keep clear of Pearl Harbor! Pearl Harbor is under attack by the Japanese!

To get a better view, McDonald and Schimmel ran to the top of the mess hall. They could see planes diving on Pearl Harbor and Hickam Field. The explosions kept getting worse. Everybody was stunned. George McDonald recounts the story from his father’s notes:

Some guys were running out of their tents with their pants half down and some no pants on at all. Everybody seemed to be running in different directions. Confusion ruled as the torpedo planes flew overhead. The planes were so low that some threw stones at them. All of the ammunition was locked up. The rocks became their only weapon. Anti-aircraft guns from the 64th C.A. across the street tried to knock down the oncoming planes. They came so close that it knocked Schimmel and McDonald down to the floor of the mess hall roof. They ran to their tent and got their guns and gas masks and headed to the Information Center. They worked through the day answering the calls from the various military bases.

Pvt. McDonald’s son relates some of the details of the ensuing investigation:

Later, in an investigation of the Pearl Harbor attack, Associate Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts reported said to my father that the message my father received was far greater than the “Message to Garcia.” This reference was to a message from the President to the Commanding General in Cuba during the Spanish American War. It had been critical in winning that war.

What about the investigation into his father’s actions on the morning of December 7, 1941? George McDonald:

Later, as written by Col. USAF (Ret) W.J. Tetley, Commanding Officer of the 580th Signal Corps: “Joseph McDonald performed in an outstanding manner on 7 December 1941 when he manned the AWS switchboard in order to keep the Air Corps duty officer appraised of the position of the approaching Japanese bomber force. Had that duty-officer been able to get his Fighter Wing airborne, it could have deprived the Japanese of the important element of surprise which was so much in their favor.

Later, after his son was born, what did Pvt. Joseph McDonald say about his first-hand knowledge of the Pearl Harbor attack?

That was my father’s longest day. My father continued in the central Pacific hopping on a number of islands as the military headed for Japan. He did not talk a lot about Pearl Harbor publicly. He always questioned how many lives might have been saved if the radar warning was heeded.