Pearl Harbor survivor to be honored in Leander

Right after Horace Hamilton finished breakfast on the USS Phoenix cruiser ship, he noticed planes flying overhead. At first, he said, he thought it was U.S. planes practicing bombing runs by dropping sand bags on the nearby USS Utah in Pearl Harbor.

But when the planes turned, "you could see a big red sun on the side of them," Hamilton said.

That's when he and his shipmates recognized the Japanese symbol on the planes, heard bombs exploding and realized they were under attack. Hamilton not only survived the surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor, but also other major naval battles in the Pacific during World War II while serving on the Phoenix.

The 94-year-old Leander High School graduate now lives on a farm in Caldwell, about 70 miles east of Leander, and spoke about his war experience during a phone interview this week. City and state officials will be recognizing him for his service during the Leander Veterans Festival, starting at 2 p.m. Saturday at Veterans Park, 1011 S. Bagdad Road.

Born in Florence in 1924, Hamilton said as soon as he graduated from Leander High in 1941 he joined the Navy. "Times were hard and jobs were scarce," he said. His parents had divorced, and he was living with relatives, he said. "I joined the Navy for a place to go and have a regular meal and clothes."

He said his first assignment was at Pearl Harbor as a gunner's mate on the Phoenix. After the Japanese started bombing on Dec. 7, 1941, waves of planes started passing over and shooting at the ship, Hamilton said, but none of the bombs they dropped struck it.

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The Phoenix's crew shot so much anti-aircraft fire during the battle that the guns' inside lining came out, Hamilton said.

After the battle, the Phoenix searched for any Japanese forces but didn't find them, Hamilton said.

"I'm so glad we didn't catch them," he said. "I think they had six aircraft carriers and a bunch of cruise destroyers, and we would have been annihilated."

Hamilton also was on the ship when it was involved in other major battles in the Pacific, including the battle of Surigao Strait in the Philippines on Oct. 25, 1944. He said he was inside a turret aiming three machine guns on the ship during the battle.

"All these other battles involved aircraft, but this time it was ship to ship, like two men standing up and fighting each other," he said. "It seemed like the lead battleship we concentrated on sunk in about five minutes."

The ship also picked up survivors of the Bataan death march to take them to a hospital ship, Hamilton said. "They were skin and bones and about half dead, but we took them and doctored them up," he said.

After the war, Hamilton said, he went to a junior college in Longview, got a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and worked at Armco Steel in Houston as a machinist and later as a manager for 35 years before retiring.

He said he was married for 69 years to a "wonderful woman" named Virginia Louise, and they had two daughters. His wife died of Alzheimer's disease in June, Hamilton said. "I still cry about her," he said.

Hamilton said his health is good, although shooting guns in the war affected his vision in one eye and he's had hip replacements.

He said he was proud of his service but that the "heroes are the ones that don't come back and the ones that come back maimed. ... They are the ones that ought to be honored, not me."

Karen Thompson, the chairwoman of the Leander Historic Preservation Commission, said Hamilton deserves the honor. Thompson said her mother-in-law was valedictorian of Hamilton's high school class and wrote to him during the war.

"We are honoring him to let younger people know what happens if you do your duty and do what your country needs, you will be recognized for it," she said.

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