Pearl Harbor Attack
While working as a civilian pilot instructor at Pearl Harbor, Cornelia Fort inadvertently became one of the first witnesses to the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the United States into World War II. On December 7, 1941, Fort was in the air near Pearl Harbor teaching takeoffs and landings to a student pilot in an Interstate Cadet monoplane. Hers and a few other civilian aircraft were the only U.S. planes in the air near the harbor at that time. Fort saw a military airplane flying directly toward her and swiftly grabbed the controls from her student to pull up over the oncoming craft. It was then she saw the rising sun insignia on the wings. Within moments, she saw billows of black smoke coming from Pearl Harbor and bombers flying in. She quickly landed the plane at John Rodgers civilian airport near the mouth of Pearl Harbor. The pursuing Zero strafed her plane and the runway as she and her student ran for cover. The airport manager was killed and two other civilian planes did not return that morning.
Read more about this topic: Cornelia Fort
Famous quotes containing the words pearl harbor, pearl, harbor and/or attack:
“Pilot to crew. Take a good look at Pearl Harbor. Maybe it’s something you’ll want to remember.”
—Dudley Nichols (1895–1960)
“Pilot to crew. Take a good look at Pearl Harbor. Maybe it’s something you’ll want to remember.”
—Dudley Nichols (1895–1960)
“The disabusing a man strongly possessed with an opinion of his own worth is the very same ill office that was done to the fool at Athens, who fancied all the ships that came into the harbor were his own.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“Adolescents swing from euphoric self-confidence and a kind of narcissistic strength in which they feel invulnerable and even immortal, to despair, self-emptiness, self-deprecation. At the same time they seem to see an emerging self that is unique and wonderful, they suffer an intense envy which tears narcissism into shreds, and makes other people’s qualities hit them like an attack of lasers.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)