When I was in high school I had to do a project on Pearl Harbor, my mom thought the man down the road (I lived in the country so this was several miles away) had been in Pearl Harbor and I should talk to him. I had never met him, but asked if I could interview him and he agreed.

He spoke with me for hours and I video recorded the whole thing. He shared in detail waking up that Sunday morning to the alarm and thinking it was a drill, the chaos, the fear. It was the most amazing story I had ever heard. I then typed his story into an essay and submitted it

When I got the assignment back I gave the video and essay to the man (what was I going to do with it). Unbeknownst to me, he me made copies and gave it to all he children. They had never heard his story, not even his wife had heard the whole story. I got a call weeks later

Thanking me for doing this. It was just a school assignment...I didn’t understand the impact it would have on the family. I was just a high school kid. But Pearl Harbor and those who were stationed there meant a whole lot more to me. They were real people. Heroes.

A year or so later the movie Pearl Harbor came out and I was so excited to see it because I had done all the research and I had this first hand account, I was very disappointed that the focus of the movie was a love triangle, I felt that took away from the actual events

Every December 7th I make a special effort to remember Pearl Harbor and to remember Harold Leal who shared his story with me.