Cincinnati Enquirer Article from Feb. 15, 2008

Veteran going with band on Hawaii trip

BY MICHAEL D. CLARK | MCLARK@ENQUIRER.COM

LIBERTY TWP. - Lakota East High School band members met a living part of America's World War II history on Thursday.

The marching band is headed to Hawaii in November to play concerts and parades - including a performance at the USS Missouri Memorial at Pearl Harbor. Band officials announced to students Thursday that World War II Navy veteran and Pearl Harbor survivor Joe Whitt will accompany the band as an unofficial tour guide and eyewitness to history.

Once there, the students will have the rare opportunity to imagine what then-17-year-old Whitt saw on the infamous morning of Dec. 7, 1941, as the seaman from Clermont County stood on the deck of the USS San Francisco.

Overhead were hundreds of Japanese warplanes launching a deadly sneak attack that thrust America into a global war.

As the now 84-year-old Whitt described the horrific scene, the teens' usual youthful fidgeting quickly gave way to rapt attention.

"It was a quiet, sunny morning, kind of like this one, but it turned into a chaotic one," said the still-spry Whitt.

More than 2,300 American military people stationed at Pearl Harbor died that day. Whitt saw a lot of the carnage.

"You are going to see the USS Arizona battleship, where more than 1,100 men were entombed. I saw it blow up in a ball of fire," Whitt said. "I saw the Oklahoma battleship when it got hit by those giant Japanese torpedoes and it started to sink and then roll over."

Whitt left the service in 1946 after fighting in five major battles against the Japanese. He later married, raised two children and worked for 38 years as a service technician for the Coca-Cola Co. His wife, Judy, plans to accompany him to Hawaii.

"Adding his personal experience to the trip really changes the history for you," said junior Lauren Dudley, 16. "These were normal, everyday people going through an amazing experience."