Consider This from NPR - A Real-Life Pearl Harbor Love Story

Episode Date: December 7, 2021

In October of 1941, a young soldier was on leave in southern California when he met the woman he was sure he would marry. Then, two months later while stationed in Hawaii, Art "Bud" Montagne witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor firsthand, and was swept up in the conflict that followed. NPR special correspondent Renee Montagne tells the story of what her father witnessed on that day 80 years ago, and how a cinematic love story — put on pause by war — turned out for him.Read more about Art Montagne's experiences at Pearl Harbor. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Back in the spring of 2001, a movie was released that was expected to be the next Titanic. December 7th, 1941. Pearl Harbor. A date which will live in infamy. It was directed by Michael Bay, so in Michael Bay fashion, it had plenty of explosions. The real focus of the movie was a love story. A love triangle, actually. A combat pilot, played by Ben Affleck, is shot down over the English Channel during a mission, and is thought to be dead. I told you I'd come back.

But then he returns to his base in Hawaii, only to find the woman he left behind, a nurse played by Kate Beckinsale, is now with his childhood friend. Stay away. The following day is the Pearl Harbor attack, and, well, it goes on from there. It was a typical Hollywood romance meets war fantasy, but as it turns out, the plot wasn't that far-fetched. Dear Mom, having quite a time in Honolulu, Hula dances on the ship swimming at Waikiki Beach. That is the voice of a sailor who was there at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. I could look out and see the Japanese planes, which were just airplanes to me, and I thought it was just a drill. And there was a woman he left behind.

It was the first girl I'd ever met that I really was smitten with. Consider this. It's been 80 years since the attack on Pearl Harbor. We'll look back on that day through the eyes of a young sailor who lived through it and hear his love story, which almost sounds made for the movies. From NPR, I'm Ari Shapiro. It's Tuesday, December 7th. This message comes from NPR sponsor, December 7th. comes from NPR sponsor VMware. Navigate change faster with technologies that unleash the power of all clouds. Learn more about VMware cross-cloud services at VMware.com slash welcome. VMware, welcome change. It's Consider This from NPR. That sailor who was there at Pearl Harbor in 1941 happens to be the father of longtime NPR host and correspondent Renee Montaigne. And so she'll take it from here.

The story really started two years before Pearl Harbor in Sioux City, Iowa. 18-year-old Arthur Montaigne, known to his family as Bud, left a note behind in an empty house. To his parents and six younger brothers and sisters, he wrote, I've joined the Navy. I'll write when I get to California. His family was still struggling out of the Depression. The Navy offered a shot at radio school. Soon his mother received a gleeful letter. I've been accepted into the radio gang. What's more, having graduated at the top of his class, the young sailor was assigned to the flagship of the battle fleet, the USS California, and he was headed for Hawaii.

Dear Mom, having quite a time in Honolulu, Hulu dances on the ship swimming at Waikiki Beach. I got a snapshot of Dottie L'Amour, but as I didn't have a pencil on it or anything, I couldn't ask her for her autograph. Wait, that was Dorothy L'Amour, the actress? Yeah, Dorothy L'Amour. Ard also wrote home about more serious matters, and by mid-1941, the young sailor and his best friend, a wild and handsome Texan named Joe Ross, had hatched a plan. Europe was at war. France had fallen. Dunkirk was history.

They joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and fight alongside the Brits. But by the time they got back on leave to Long Beach, they had missed their moment. We went over to the Canadian consulate and they said, well, we're sorry, but you're a few months too late. By October of 1941, the U.S. had decided it needed every man it had in uniform. This turn of events did leave Joe Ross free to go back to Abilene and propose to his high school sweetheart, and Art to indulge his passion for big band music. One night at the Crystal Ballroom, a pretty girl caught his eye.

So I took her out on the dance floor and realized right away she didn't know California-style dancing. And I said, you must have come from Iowa. And she said, no, as a matter of fact, I grew up in Nebraska. Oh, I understand. So you don't know the Palladium Shuffle or the balboa hop and some of our California dances. Her name was Aline. It was the first girl I'd ever met that I really was smitten with.

It's kind of like love on first sight. Art convinced her to meet him and Joe the next night. They talked. He mentioned the word marriage. But the two young sailors had to be back to their ship by midnight. Three weeks later, on December 5th, the USS California pulled into Pearl Harbor. The next day, Art went ashore to Christmas shop. He bought his sister's Moomous, his little brother's games. For the girl he'd fallen for back in Long Beach, he bought an opal ring and mailed it that very day.

The next morning on December 7th, I woke up, had a cup of coffee, and about 7.50, I heard this tremendously loud clang, clang, clang, followed by the bugle call, which was our signal to go to battle stations. Radioman 2nd Class Arthur Montaigne raced to his battle station with the Admiral's staff high up on the flag bridge. And I could look out and see the planes, which were just airplanes to me, and I thought it was just a drill. I saw two of them approaching us, and they obviously were two torpedo planes. Then I started watching the rivulets of the torpedoes coming and approaching the ship, and then finally they disappeared from my view, and a fraction of

a second later, they hit the side of our ship, and the ship shook, and the water blew 50 feet in the air above the sides. The attack on Pearl Harbor had begun. We have witnessed a severe bombing of Pearl Harbor by enemy planes. It was kind of a crazy scene where planes were going here and there, and you look up and say, okay, where are our planes? You know, boy, I expected to see like the movies. Our planes come sailing down out of the sky and start chasing these guys and shooting them down. In the Oklahoma, it capsizedized and all I could see was the bottom of the vessel, totally tipped over. And the men from the Oklahoma, all you could see were the heads bobbing and

pretty soon a lot of small boats were dashing out there to help rescue all these men. Several hundred of them never escaped. About that time, that's when the Arizona blew up. And we couldn't see too much back there because of the black smoke by this time. And from then on, the oil in the harbor started burning. The torpedoes that had ripped open the USS California had knocked out its electricity, rendering useless the mechanized hoist that sent ammunition to the upper deck. Deep inside the ship, in a dark passage fast-filling with oil-slicked water, smoke, and flames, chief radioman Thomas Reeves organized his men to send the ammunition up by hand.

Because the only way they were going to get ammunition up to the anti-aircraft guns was like a bucket brigade. As the Japanese planes disappeared over the horizon, the men on the California were ordered to abandon ship. The ship had been bombed. The ship was slowly sinking. There was a flame. I got down there in the oily water, and it seemed like it was six inches deep in oil,

but you had to stick your head under the water if the flames came near you so that you'd swim under the water. Finally safe on shore, Art never saw his best friend, radioman Joe Ross, again. He didn't make it. Among the bodies that were found was Joe Ross's. We were told that they found him next to the body of Chief Reeves. For the first time, Art couldn't write home about Joe and Chief Reeves, nor could he tell what he had just lived through. The Naval Censor wouldn't allow it. His next letter, postmarked Pearl Harbor, December 12th,

avoided any news that touched on the massive military losses. Dearest Mom, how is every little thing at home? Fine, I hope. There is something I wish you would do for me. I became engaged to a girl in Long Beach when I was last there, and I wish that you would write to her. Someday she will be your daughter-in-law. Her name is Eileen, and I feel sure that she will wait for me. If she don't, that girl in Long Beach didn't wait. During the years of war, she learned to fly, got her pilot's license. She worked at several war-related jobs and got engaged two more times to other suitors heading off to war. By 1945, Art Montaigne was a commissioned officer in the Marine Corps, preparing for the planned invasion of Japan.

But in August, the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs, and the war was over. Now he could see a future. He'd never forgotten the girl, and when Aline and Art met again, she was still wearing his opal ring. She would wear it for the rest of her life. As for chief radioman Thomas Reeves, he was awarded posthumously the Medal of Honor, Joe Ross a Purple Heart. And almost 70 years to the day, on December 5, 2011, my dad Bud joined them when we laid him to rest at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Commonly known as the Punchbowl, it sits high above Pearl Harbor. Along with my mother, Aline, they have all now taken their place in history.

NPR Special Correspondent, Renee Montaigne. You're listening to Consider This from NPR. I'm Ari Shapiro.