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Local survivors meet to share tribute to fallen By PAUL FATTIG Gold Hill retiree Byrl King wasn't much more than a kid when one of the major historic events of the 20th century erupted in front of him. King, then 18, was standing deck watch aboard the battleship USS Nevada 58 years ago today when a Japanese torpedo plane roared in over battleship row in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. "I saw it drop a torpedo that hit the (USS) Arizona," King recalled. "I remember seeing three guys fly up in the air above the ship's mast. "I knew it was the real thing -- that we were under attack," he added. King, now 76, was there when the Japanese attacked the U.S. Navy base, an attack that killed roughly 2,400 American servicemen and drew the United States into World War II. He and fellow members of the Crater Lake Chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association Inc. are meeting to pay tribute to fallen comrades at noon -- 1200 hours -- today at Kim's Restaurant, 2321 S. Pacific Hwy., Medford. But the ranks of Pearl Harbor survivors are growing thinner. There are now fewer than 250 Pearl Harbor survivors in Oregon. Nationwide, there are about 12,000. Nearly 20 members of the local chapter have died since it was formed in 1974, leaving only about 40. King is president of the chapter, which stretches from Klamath Falls to Grants Pass and includes a portion of northern California. Warren Hartman, 79, the group's chaplain, says time is catching up with the survivors. "By the year 2006, we will probably be dissolved," Hartman said. "The average age is 75 to 80. We figure there won't be very many of us left to meet by then." Hartman, who also lives in Gold Hill, was a member of the Coast Guard aboard the USS Taney, a destroyer escort. "I was lucky -- we didn't take any hits," he said, adding that he and his fellow veterans are now taking hits from old age. "Sometimes I can't hardly remember what I did this morning, but my memory is so good when it comes to way back then," he said. "We're all getting up there in age," King agreed. "But we're still taking things as they come." A retired Jackson County employee, King says the fellowship provided by the chapter's periodic meetings -- they meet several times a year -- is good for the veterans. "We hold about four or five noon meals a year," he said. "We thought about having breakfasts but all of us old goats don't get up that early." The veterans gather to remember their fallen comrades and the Pearl Harbor attack that brought the United States into the war, he said. "We like to talk about what we did during the war," he said. "Some of it was pretty funny. But some of it was pretty serious. "We were all young kids when it happened," he added. "We were scared pretty good." King's ship was hit as it attempted to steam out of the harbor. "We got under way but they dropped a 500-pound bomb just aft of the bridge," he said. "It was burning, but we stayed aboard to help put out the fire. There was a tugboat alongside of us with fire equipment. We were real lucky." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA