Click the image above for fascinating audio of Delia Baseman's grandfather's experience at Pearl Harbor.
Maurice Baseman, was stationed as a flight engineer at Hickam field, Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7th, 1941. This is his story of the attack recorded 50 years later in 1991 shortly before his death.
Staff Sergeant Maurice Sydney Baseman was a Jewish airplane mechanic and flight engineer in the Air-force stationed at Hickam Field, Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7th 1941. He woke early that morning to do his laundry. Afterwards as he was folding and sorting his laundry in the barracks he heard a sound and looked out the window at nearby ford island. This is when he saw Japanese planes beginning to drop bombs. In the general panic everyone in the barracks ran to grab weapons from the depot. Maurice ended up with a 45. caliber pistol which he had no idea how to shoot having been only taught how to fly plane, fix a plane, and drop a bomb. He hid in an airplane hanger till the attack was over. Maurice went on to invent a compound for waterproofing planes that ended up being very useful for both the military and the widening of commercial air travel.
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Cool!
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