Heroes reflect on wars past, current

They're all over 80-years-old, slowed by sickness or just time. They all have sad stories to tell about Pearl Harbor.

One was believed dead by friends and family following Dec. 7, 1941, the bombardment that brought America into World War II.

Others saw friends hurt or injured. As their numbers dwindle, these war veterans seek an ear for those stories.

Carson City veterans of Pearl Harbor reflect on their experience amidst a time of great turmoil about another war.

When Edward Reed watched the Twin Towers fall on Sept. 11, 2001, another infamous date in American history, it triggered an emotion.

"I had the same feeling that I had in Pearl Harbor," said Reed, 87, who was a 21-year-old Navy ensign at Pearl Harbor. "I felt somebody somewhere was letting me down.

"Right now, we're fighting a war, and it's a different kind of war," said Reed. "We can't identify an enemy. They are not wearing a uniform. They don't have an allegiance to any particular country. I'm rather disappointed that the American people are not responding to this (war) the way they did with World War II. And I think we'll suffer for that because this is a far more dangerous war."

Paul Dierlam, 86, was 20 when he was stationed at Pearl Harbor.

"In a war some people die and some people live and that's the sad thing about it," he said.

He returned to the Hawaiian islands for the first time in 2006 - on a cruise ship called "Pride of America."

"This country is worth fighting for," Dierlam said. "It's hell that it's just the young kids dying over there in Iraq. That upsets me. I wasn't a hero, I was a survivor. The people over there in Iraq, those are the heroes."

If he's able, Forrest Brown, 87, will put a flag outside of his home today. Though illness has slowed him, he still remembers the chaos of that day. It came as a shock to see the ships blowing up and the fire raining down from the sky.

"Always be prepared," he said. "Don't look for any help. Be prepared on your own."

Morton Frey, 89, doesn't know how to describe the events at Pearl Harbor. What can you say about something like that, he asks. Frey was an aviation ordnance technician for the Navy. His thought on war:

"Don't get into it unless you intend to go all out and win it. I think a lot of them are unnecessary. If we did better work with trying to get along with people, rather than telling them just what to do ..."

Roland Peachee, 90, calls himself the "oldest sucker" in his group of war veterans. Because of his health he was unable to go to Pearl for this 65th anniversary. His wife, Evelyn, who Peachee calls the "supreme commander," said they've returned to Pearl four times, marking the 45th-60th anniversaries.

Peachee had an interesting return to his home town of Columbia City, Ind., where he was an orphan and raised in a foster home.

"I went back there in the 1970s and they said to me 'you're an impostor.' I laughed. 'What do you mean?' Well, the Navy had notified them that I had gotten killed in Pearl Harbor. So, I'd been a dead hero all these years. I had a hard time convincing them."

• Contact reporter Becky Bosshart at bbosshart@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.

For your information

Veterans Howard J. Spreeman, of Carson City, and Roland B. Peachee, of Incline Village, are in Hawaii to commemorate today's 65th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Spreeman was stationed at Kaneohe Bay, and Peachee was serving aboard the USS Nevada during the attack.