“What good Marines were expected to do”: Courage under fire at Pearl Harbor
Still asleep after an evening of socializing at the Pearl City Tavern, Marine Gunner Frank W. Brooks was awakened on the morning of December 7, 1941 by the sound of nearby detonations. “I thought the Navy was having gunnery practice,” CWO Brooks would recount more than half a century later. “Until I saw the planes. That’s when I knew we were under attack.”
Desperate to return to Ewa Field, Brooks commandeered a vehicle, only to be driven off the road by Japanese strafing fire. Uninjured, Brooks was rescued by some fellow Marines and driven back to the airfield. What happened next almost ended his career: “We expected an invasion, but the commander wouldn’t open the armory. We broke it open and armed ourselves anyway. When nothing else happened, we knew we’d be court-martialed.”
Brooks did indeed face prosecution, but the significance of the initial attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States’ swift entry into World War II put his actions into perspective. “The presiding officer told the commander that we’d done exactly what good Marines were expected to do,” says Brooks, “and then he dropped the charges.”
CWO Brooks’ actions that fateful morning on the island of Oahu were not unique.[1] At every point of attack, weapons were broken out of armories, machine guns were hastily mounted and aimed skyward, and even pistols were fired at low-flying enemy planes.
Marines, soldiers, and sailors alike answered the call to battle, with little or no thought to personal safety. They did what they could with whatever resources they could muster on the spot. That the battle of Pearl Harbor is considered a tactical defeat seems like a forgotten footnote to the courage, resourcefulness, and pure grit on display that grim day.
Even as we bow our heads in remembrance of those who lost their lives at Pearl Harbor, we must also recognize that the same qualities that defined the Greatest Generation lives on in the men and women currently serving in America’s armed forces. Like those who came before, today’s service members have answered the call to defend their country, serve its citizens, and deliver humanitarian aid across the globe.
Frank W. Brooks (right) and friends enjoying an afternoon in Wapahu, Oahu, Hawaii, just months before the infamous attack on December 7, 1941.
Note from the author
This story of the Pearl Harbor experiences of Chief Warrant Officer Frank W. Brooks, USMC, Ret. is a cherished memory in my family. My grandfather went on to see action in the Pacific Theater, where he received recognition for courageous action in the Solomon Islands during the Guadalcanal Campaign. After the war, he married and started a family, eventually retiring from the Marine Corps out of MCAS El Toro. He passed away in 2006 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. His contributions to our nation are one of the many reasons I choose to work for a company that is committed to serving America’s career military.
Many heartfelt thanks to others in the Brooks family for sharing Frank’s personal narratives of the War.
[1] https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/u/us-marines-at-pearl-harbor.html
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