On that note, Bender also volunteered teaching children how to play the violin. Of past grudges, he advised, “Let it go.” Still, Bender believed in moving forward. “It only takes one small person to rise up and say, ‘Enough is enough.’” “Trying to put people under domination doesn’t work. “Eternal vigilance is our cost for eternal freedom,” the Pearl Harbor survivor told me in December. When he saw someone he recognized as a veteran, he always offered a “Thank you” or “Welcome home.”Ī Shriner and member of the American Legion, Bender joined the Freedom Committee of Orange County after retiring and taught the realities of war to school children as well as to adults. Yet Bender had a creative side and was smart enough to nurture it by mastering the violin and eventually becoming a member of the Long Beach Symphony. Mom worked for the Los Alamitos school district dad worked as a chiropractor as well as a food broker representing Sara Lee and Green Giant. His new wife, however, suggested a more genteel life and Bender agreed to conclude his military career in 1946. Still enlisted, he married Geneva Largent, a woman he called “the love of my life.” Immediately after graduating Torrance High, Bender enlisted in the Navy and found himself in the midst of one of the worst defeats America ever suffered.īut instead of becoming a victim of the horrors of war, after World War II Bender thrived. Wearing his veterans cap adorned with miniature medals reflecting the very real ones he earned, the Pearl Harbor survivor continued, “War is the most useless thing you can do - when there are other alternatives.” ‘Eternal vigilance’īorn in Waterloo, Iowa, Bender and his younger brother grew up in Torrance after their parents, Hazel and Lillian - a popular name for boys in the late 1800s - headed west. Yet men like Bender, who grew up in Torrance and later lived in Orange County, neither broke nor bowed.īefore the war was over, Bender went on to serve in such storied places as the Solomon Islands, Bougainville, Guadalcanal - places where valor, honor and patriotism were won with blood. While mighty ships such as the USS Arizona slipped beneath an oily ocean, Bender risked his life saving fellow sailors drowning in a sea of fire. He was aboard the USS Maryland when the enemy attacked the immense Naval base, sinking four battleships, damaging or destroying hundreds of planes and 20 ships, wounding 1,282 Americans in uniform and taking 2,402 souls. But no matter the future, this nation must never forget men such as Howard Bender.īender, who died a few days ago at age 96, was one of the few remaining Pearl Harbor survivors and his courage in the face of that hopeless battle is nearly unfathomable. As the months slip by, there are fewer and fewer World War II veterans and even fewer Pearl Harbor survivors.
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