Well-known Pearl Harbor defender Everett Hyland dies at 96 By William Cole

“We are deeply saddened to share the news that Pearl Harbor Survivor “Uncle” Everett Hyland passed away on July 23,” the National Park Service said.

On Dec. 7, 1941, Hyland was a crew member of the battleship USS Pennsylvania, the flagship of the Pacific Fleet, and immediately reported to his battle station when the attack began.

“If we ever go to war, the last place in the world I wanted to be trapped was down in the bowels of the ship,” the Honolulu man said in a Navy interview. “I wanted to be top side, so if something happened, I could get off it. So I volunteered for antenna repair squad. I was with the radio division.”

When general quarters sounded, he realized there was nothing to be done at his battle station, so he and others began collecting ammo for a small anti-aircraft gun. Pennsylvania was in dry dock No. 1 at the time.

“We took one hit. The one that hit our ship just happened to be where we were,” Hyland recalled.

He was so badly wounded by the explosion that his own friends did not recognize him. He spent nine months in recovery, and then went back to sea, the park service said.

Since 1995, Hyland had volunteered at the visitor center weekly, sharing his story with visitors.

At the 77th observance of the Dec. 7 attack last year, Hyland returned the salute of a passing Navy warship on behalf of all Pearl Harbor survivors and World War II veterans because there were then so few left.

For the first time in many years, not a single USS Arizona survivor of the five still living was present for the commemoration.

“He will be greatly missed,” the park service said of Hyland.

“It is really the twilight of the Pearl Harbor survivor volunteers at the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center,” Martinez said.