By JANIS REID and RON NEWBERRY
Staff reporters

The morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Harold Johnson was headed out on leave to meet a girl.

But before he could get off the USS Oklahoma, the Imperial Japanese Navy conducted a surprise military strike where Johnson was stationed at Pearl Harbor.

He didn’t make the date.

“Three months later I ran into that girl,” Johnson said. “She was mad I stood her up.”

Once the attack began, Johnson had to quickly exit the ship as it took on water, jump into the ocean and hang onto a sinking aircraft until a rescue boat arrived.

“When something like that happens, you don’t have time to panic,” Johnson said. “You just think about how to overcome it and escape it.”

The hardest part was that night, Johnson said, waiting ashore not knowing if or when another attack would occur.

“All you can think about is what’s going to happen tomorrow,” he said. “A lot of us thought they were going to invade the island.”

Johnson was assigned to another carrier and went on to fight in both the Battle of Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway.

A life-long Oak Harbor resident, Johnson is one of the last few survivors of Pearl Harbor still alive in the North Puget Sound area.

A founding member of the North Cascade Chapter of the Pearl Harbor’s Association, Johnson has seen a number of his fellow survivors pass just in the last year.

Cecil Calavan, the witty North Cascade Chapter president, died in his Anacortes home at the age of 90 on Aug. 14, three days after the passing of fellow Pearl Harbor survivor and former chapter president Jim Stansell, 91, of Bellingham.

“It was heartbreaking,” said Cindy Fowler, a senior chief with VAQ-129 and honorary member of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Cascade Chapter group.

“We had a moment of silence. It (their absence) was very noticed.”

Two others in the group also passed away in the past year — Anthony Nady of Anacortes and Roger Allen of Bellingham. Allen, a Korean War veteran, was an associate member with the Pearl Harbor group.

“That generation will never come around again,” said Lynda Eccles, executive director of the Coupeville Chamber of Commerce. “They just had that exuberance. Whether it was what they went through, they were very positive and so full of life.

“They were very proud of who they were.”

Members of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association North Cascade Chapter have been honored guests in parades, changes of command and other ceremonies in Oak Harbor, including a Pearl Harbor remembrance on the Seaplane Base last December.

Fowler said younger sailors have come to her to share how much it meant to them to meet and chat with Pearl Harbor veterans.

“They got fairly well known around Oak Harbor,” said Skip Pohtilla, a retired Naval officer and member of the Oak Harbor Area Council of the Navy League. “They were able to get out and also participate in the St. Patrick’s Day parade. It was an important part of Whidbey Island history to have the Pearl Harbor survivors here.”

With the number of Pearl Harbor survivors declining and current members now in their 90s, it’s a chapter of local history that is fading.

Johnson is now one of only two Pearl Harbor survivors from the North Cascade Chapter along with Harold Shimer, who served on the USS Helena.

Only four members total remain with the North Cascades Chapter. The group met in September at its monthly meeting at the Farmhouse Restaurant in Mount Vernon and agreed to continue on.

The lesson that Johnson said he and his fellow survivors always share is similar.

“Don’t let it happen again,” Johnson said.