Dec. 7, 1941, still lives in infamy
"Commander Bob" Fulbright of Canton, NC was aboard the battleship USS California in Pearl Harbor on the infamous Sunday - Dec. 7, 1941. Fulbright stayed at his battle station for more than six hours, despite a bullet through his calf muscle."
Canton resident Bob Fulbright remembers that morning right down to the minute his world - and America's - changed forever. According to Fulbright it was "0-seven-five-five, 7:55 a.m. at the time the first torpedo hit us. I was standing in front of my locker with $32 in my hand. I was changing my clothes."
Fulbright and other crew members were told by an officer out of Washington that an airplane cannot sink a battleship. Everyone quickly found out otherwise.
Bob quickly sprang into action. Wearing only his underwear, he climbed the 141-foot foremast to the highest perch on the ship. There he took his battle station, "Spot One." It was his duty and that of seven other sailors to spot targets for the battleship's first three-gun battery of 14 inch guns. He and another sailor were the only ones out of the eight in Spot One to live through the attack.
The Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor in three waves that day. The attack sank 21 Navy ships, destroyed 185 military planes and claimed the lives of 2,290 U.S. servicemen. The Japanese lost 29 planes and five midget subs.
Fulbright stayed aboard until 2:30 that afternoon, shortly before the ship sank. Before sinking, the 806 foot battleship "California" took nine bomb hits in addition to the port-side torpedo.
Of the 1,400 sailors aboard, 701 died.
Fulbright, who enlisted in the navy in December 1939, became an officer and later was the Commander of several ships. He retired Dec. 7,1970. He received 11 battle stars for service throughout the South Pacific theater during World War II.
He makes no bones about his aversion to the Japanese.
"I never taught my kids for one minute to hate the Japanese," he said. "I did tell them, 'Don't expect me to think of them the same way you do. "