Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day - 2019

Whit Criswell Bryan
1920-2001

I read today that today there are only three living survivors of Pearl Harbor. There are no living survivors in my part of Virginia where local survivors' names are engraved on a monument at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story.

The Pearl Harbor memorial was built and dedicated in 1990 on the Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story.  An expansion to the monument was completed in 2001 which includes 184  names of known local survivors of the attack.

Names were added to the monument
just a few months after my father's
death in 2001.

My father, Whit Criswell Bryan, was a survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack. Dad was stationed at the Mobile Naval Hospital #2 as a Pharmacist's Mate 3rd Class. He was one of many Naval personnel constructing the hospital and it was not complete when the bombing occurred. He didn't talk about his specific duties after the bombing so I did some searching to find out more. 

According to U.S. Navy Medicine, The Mobile Naval Hospital was not yet uncrated but provided personnel, supplies, and equipment to treat 110 patients on the day that Pearl Harbor was attacked. 

Hospital Corps Quarterly, Volumes 15-16 has a list of all officers and enlisted men stationed at the Mobile Naval Hospital on December 7, 1941.

Bernard Williams, a Pharmacist's Mate at the mobile hospital, stated that after the attack they began the task of cleaning up the debris and worked well into the night. 

LeRoy Knurr, a Navy carpenter, said his unit was quickly put to work building medical facilities for casualties. It was written that as soon as an area was finished, beds would be brought in and it would soon be filled by wounded. Edward C. Kenny stated they worked frantically to finish the mobile hospital to accommodate 400 burn victims. 

George Gorohoff's obituary stated that he was personally responsible for making over 3,000 battle dressings following the attack while working in a cane field. The mobile hospital was surrounded by cane fields. 

Robert Brunner and others from the mobile hospital crowded into trucks and hustled to the harbor. The most severely burned victims were taken to the naval hospital. More than 100 were treated in the still-unfinished mobile unit.

left - Whit Bryan and Robert "Bob" Brunner - Pearl Harbor - about 1941
right - Robert "Bob" Brunner and Whit Bryan - Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story - December 7, 1991

Visit these links to learn more about Dad's time in Pearl Harbor. 

• Friday's Photo: Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day 2012


Thoughts of Dad on Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day 2014
Remembering Dad and Pearl Harbor: Naval Mobile Hospital # 2
Friday's Photo: Pearl Harbor 
Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day - Dad was stationed at the Mobile Naval Hospital #2 in Aiea Heights, Territory of Hawaii
#52ancestors Post Fifty-One: The Second Anniversary of Mobile Hospital No. 2, Pearl Harbor - August 1943 
Friday's Photo: Pearl Harbor Survivors, Whit Bryan and Bob Brunner - 1991

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Diana

© 2019

Other Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection Diana Bryan Quinn. 

“JEB Little Creek-Fort Story honors Pearl Harbor survivors and victims at annual remembrance ceremony .” 13newsnow.com, https://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/national/military-news/jeb-little-creek-fort-story-honors-pearl-harbor-survivors-and-victims-at-annual-remembrance-ceremony/291-d6ce17a8-ef1c-4274-815f-017330c444d4. Accessed 7 Dec. 2019.

Napa Valley Register (California) 9 February 2001, obit for George Gorohoff, GenealogyBank.com https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/obituaries/obit/13C7C709F1A0A2B8-13C7C709F1A0A2B8 : accessed 7 December 2019

Remembering Dad and Pearl Harbor: Naval Mobile Hospital # 2

Under construction - Naval Mobile Hospital #2 

Whit Criswell Bryan standing next to
buildings at the Naval Mobile Hospital #2

In late November 1941, the Pearl Harbor Naval Hospital was over capacity and a mobile hospital was being constructed with prefabricated building segments.

My father, Whit Criswell Bryan, was transferred from the U.S. Naval Hospital in Pearl Harbor to the Naval Mobile Hospital #2 on December 1. However, he had been working at the site of the hospital since at least mid November of 1941. He, along with other enlisted personal, and officers (including doctors), was assigned to quickly complete the hospital. Pearl Harbor was bombed before the hospital was completed. 

According to Bob Brunner, a fellow pharmacist mate, the location of the hospital allowed a view of the bombing. Dad told me that the beds in the hospital were given to the patients while the Navy personal slept in trenches. 

The following commendation was found in his military record.

January 9, 1942
Commended for zeal and initiative displayed during long and arduous hours working continuously without liberty from 19 November 1941 to 6 December 1941 in order to establish this hospital and for diligently assisting in completing preparations for the care of 110 casualties following an enemy air attack on Pearl Harbor, T.H. on 7 December 1941.

Dad saved this wonderful article about the Naval Mobile Hospital #2. The date of the article is unknown, but from ads on the back, I know that it is a newspaper published in Hawaii. Author, Bob Trumbull, worked at the Honolulu Advertiser. 

Diana

© 2015

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn.

Mobile Hospital #2, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Navy Medicine Historical Files Collection - Facilities - Mobile Hospitals 12-0270-001. "12-0270-001 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!." 12-0270-001 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2015.  <https://www.flickr.com/photos/navymedicine/8253012532/in/album-72157628320849325/>.

"Last witnesses | Memories of Pearl Harbor attack | Military | pilotonline.com." Last witnesses | Memories of Pearl Harbor attack | Military | pilotonline.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2015. <http://www.pilotonline.com/news/military/last-witnesses-memories-of-pearl-harbor-attack/article_ef2088e6-b8a8-5c9e-aab7-8663dbe8dd03.html>.

Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day

Dad and Bob

I felt a wave of sadness as I read the headlines Sunday morning. “Pearl Harbor 70 Years Ago, The Last Witnesses” was the front page headline of the Virginian Pilot. The youngest sailors and soldiers present during the attack on Pearl Harbor are some of our oldest veterans. My father, Whit Criswell Bryan, was one of those young sailors.   

On page 8 of today’s Virginian Pilot Magazine is 89 year old Pearl Harbor survivor Bob Brunner of Norfolk. He and my father were stationed together at the Mobile Naval Hospital #2. They both arrived at the hospital site on December 1, 1941 and, as found on the muster below, both left Pearl Harbor in September 1943.  

   

Found at Ancestry.com

Dad died in 2001, but later that year his name, along with Bob Brunner’s name, was added to Pearl Harbor Memorial at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek.

Diana

© 2011, copyright Diana Quinn