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Episode #533 of Hometown Heroes, airing July 21, 2018, is a tribute to Pearl Harbor survivor Chuck Lishman, who passed away July 6 at the age of 97.

“Remember Pearl Harbor. Keep America Alert.”

That was the motto of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, and Chuck’s commitment to those six words was evident to anyone who had the privilege of meeting him. Born in Flint, MI and raised in Long Beach, CA, he enlisted in the Naval Reserve at the age of 16. His affiinity for the water took hold early, and he actually intended to follow his father into Merchant Marine service. You’ll hear what gave him his first opportunity to join a ship’s crew, and what it was that redirected his path before the Navy called him to active duty.

Assigned to the destroyer USS Perry (DD-340), Lishman knew he’d be soon heading out to see, and decided to accelerate the timeline of his planned September wedding to his high school sweetheart, Dorothy. Told he would never be given leave, he mustered up the courage to ask anyway. You’ll hear about the whirlwind journey to Las Vegas and back that made the Lishmans a married couple on June 28, 1941. Little did Dorothy know she would see him for just four brief visits over the next four years. Chuck made it back to his ship just in time to set out to sea, as the Perry escorted three battleships, the Arizona, the Nevada, and the Oklahoma, to Pearl Harbor.

Lishman’s enlistment was set to expire December 3, 1941, and he had made arrangements to head back to the mainland to reunite with Dorothy. The Oklahoma was the vessel he would be journeying home on, scheduled to depart December 8. On Saturday, December 6, he had gone shopping in preparation of his return. He picked out a sweater and a malt mixer to take home to his young bride. The next morning Chuck’s life – and world history – were forever altered by Imperial Japan’s surprise attack on Oahu. You’ll hear him recall how those chaotic moments unfolded aboard the Perry, including the moment he had to dive for cover, dodging the bullets of a strafing enemy plane, while holding on to giant 4-inch shells under each arm. After shooting down a Japanese plane and sinking a miniature submarines, the crew rallied together to get the destroyer out of the harbor and out to the waters around Oahu, searching for enemy vessels. The scene that awaited them when they returned to Pearl is one that Chuck could never forget.

“If anybody ever wanted to cry, that was it,” he explained. “The battleships were burning and the oil was there, and the guys were floating around in that oil, and the stuff was on fire.”

The death, the destruction, and the devastation were seared into his memory forever, and instead of being discharged from the Navy and heading home to his bride, he understood he now would be in uniform for the as yet unknown duration of the war that the U.S. had just been drawn into. Back home in California, Dorothy waited nervously, finally getting to see her husband once the Perry headed to Mare Island to be converted into a high-speed minesweeper (DMS-17).

All told, Lishman would participate in six naval engagements and eleven landings as part of the Perry’s crew. You’ll hear him describe close calls and twists of fate, from the Aleutians to the Palaus, where the ship would meet its tragic fate. Chuck shared the premonition he felt about the Perry’s destiny. He never asked to be taken off the ship, but that’s exactly what happened in September, 1944, just three days before the Perry struck a mine near Peleliu and Angaur, and sank.

“My section was in the fire room at the time,” he explained. “The thing blew the fire room and killed everybody there.”

Joseph Brand, who had replaced Lishman, died that tragic day, along with seven others: Paul Burnette, Frank Byrd, Dan Wersebe, Arthur Schieber, Ottice Joplin, Henry Edgell, and Don Schomer, a sailor we learned about on episode #456 of Hometown Heroes from his childhood friend Leo Neubauer. The wreckage of the Perry was discovered in 2000, thanks to an effort spearheaded by a survivor of its sinking, Larry Tunks.

Spared again, as he’d been on December 7th, 1941; as he’d been on January 11, 1942 when a torpedo went under the Perry and struck the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga; as he’d been in the Aleutians when his ship froze up in dry dock and another sunk in its place, Chuck returned to the U.S. for training before deploying on a newly constructed ship. Aboard the USS Fergus (APA-82), Lishman helped deliver Marines to the Battle of Okinawa, then carried wounded men back to San Francisco. When World War II came to a close, Chuck finally had the privilege of meeting his son – by then five months old – for the first time. The Lishmans would go on to have four children, ten grandchildren, and 25 great-grandchildren. After his discharge, he worked for Union Oil for 31 years, retiring to Arizona before spending the last 18 years of his life in California. In 2016, family and friends joined them for a 75th anniversary celebration, and they marked their 77th anniversary just 9 days before Chuck’s passing.

Eternally committed to his fallen brothers, and the mission of keeping America alert, Chuck pulled a float with a USS Arizona Memorial replica in military parades for years. He was the final president of his local Pearl Harbor Survivors Association chapter, and never missed an opportunity to keep that important history alive. One of the final interviews he gave was to student journalists at thefeather.com on the 76th anniversary of the attack. Chuck Lishman’s humor, his resilience, and his unwavering dedication will be remembered by all who knew him. At the celebration of his life, another element that took center stage was his strong faith, reflected in these words he shared with us in 2007, a sentiment he repeatedly voiced in the years since:

“We’ve been blessed so far beyond everything we can imagine,” he said, explaining his belief that God had protected and directed his journey. “Man, howdy, we have been blessed.”

Some of the audio you’ll hear in this episode of Hometown Heroes comes from the TV story below, from 2007: