Growing Up in Hawaii

A REAL HERO

Do you know what a real hero is?

Heroes are people who do extraordinary things in very unusual circumstances.  Heroes are made and not born.

Examples of heroes include a kicker who kicks the winning goal in a football game, one who rescues someone from drowning like Uncle Todd did for two ladies who fell into the St. Joseph River or Jesus, who gave us eternal salvation when He died on the cross.

We have a hero in our own family, Uncle Paul.

During World War II, Uncle Paul enlisted in the navy and was assigned to the destroyer USS Hoel, DD533.  This Fletcher class destroyer was assigned to a battle group called Taffy 3 in the South Pacific Ocean.

During the invasion of the Philippines this group including the USS Johnston and the USS Samuel B. Roberts were assigned to protect some small aircraft carriers in the Leyte Gulf.  One morning on October 25, 1944 they heard some huge splashes in the ocean near the ship.  It was the Japanese battleship Kongo and other warships firing from 18 miles away.

These three destroyers headed off to take on the Japanese thinking they were cruisers.  The Japanese shells were hitting the Hoel and the shells going right thru the ship, until one hit a reduction gear and stopped the ship in the water.  Soon other hits tore the ship apart.

Uncle Paul was a loader in the #1 turret of the ship’s 5-inch guns when the order came to abandon ship.  First Uncle Paul tried to open the hatch, but it would not open, so he ran toward the officer’s quarters only to be met by a blazing fire.

He ran back to the gun turret and pushed so hard on the dogs holding the hatch shut that he bent them as the ship was sinking by the stern.

(Meanwhile, Great Gramma Bigdog was living on 16 Foote Street in Campbell, California when she heard Uncle Paul calling her at the front door.  She ran to the door, but he was not there--he was in the sinking ship).

Uncle Paul was able to push the hatch open and ran to the bow of the ship and jump into the sea as the ship sank stern first.  There he found Robert Wilson unconscious floating in the water.  Uncle Paul gave him his life jacket just as the Kongo was bearing down on them.  He pushed Wilson aside and was struck by the battleship and knocked into the air.  After the Kongo passed by, he went to Wilson and dragged him to a life raft and held him in the water for 56 hours until they were rescued.

All three ships had been sunk.

Mr. Wilson lived to become a schoolteacher and Uncle Paul is a Patriot who served his country well and has all the qualifications of a real hero.

AIR RAID SHELTER CURSE

Shortly after the Pearl Harbor Bombing on December 7, 1941, the Hawaiian Islands were subject to martial law.  That is, the military had assumed government control and we were to follow rules set out by the military commander.  All citizens were issued identification cards and gas masks which we had to carry with us at all times.

One of the requirements laid out by the military was that each household had to dig an air raid shelter.  So Uncle Paul, Uncle Wally and Grandpa Bigdog dug an air raid shelter in our front yard at 1822 A Boyd Lane.  We dug a large pit, covered it with beams and a tin roof then put dirt on top of the shelter.

Well, when we finished our shelter we went over to Eddie Medeiros’ house and helped him dig one.   We spent a lot of time digging this big hole in the middle of Eddie’s back yard.  Johnnie and Walter Mederios also dug with us.  In the next yard, Willie Olivera and Stacy Marks were digging a shelter and discovered a skeleton.  There was a necklace around the skeleton’s neck and Willie and Stacy gathered up the beads and were throwing them around. 

In Eddie’s yard we too uncovered a skeleton and Walter and Johnnie were throwing the bones around and laughing.  Soon it was lunchtime and Uncle Paul and GBD went home.  We showed Great Grandma Olivia the necklace beads and she knew that it came from a grave and became very upset with us. 

She told us about desecrating a Hawaiian grave and there was a curse

which followed those who violated a Hawaiian Grave. People who did that died a violent death.   Great Grandma Olivia then told us to go back and bury the bones and pray over them. 

When we went back, we told them what our mother said, but the kids laughed at us.  So Uncle Paul and I gathered up the bones and dug a hole under a mango tree, prayed over the bones and buried them.

Sometime later Stacy Marks was on a navy ship and the ship was sunk.  He was trapped inside and died.  Willie Olivera had gone on a plane ride and the plane crashed into the ocean.

Many years later Walter Mederios, who had become a successful jockey was killed when his car was struck by a Southern Pacific train in California.  Not long after that Johnnie Mederios was riding on the back of a motorcycle when the driver lost control and slammed into a telephone pole, killing Johnnie.  Uncle Paul nearly was lost when he was trapped inside the USS Hoel, DD533 that sank of Samar in the South Pacific.

Years later when GBD was a graduate student at Notre Dame, he read an account in the Saturday Evening Post of the curse attached to the disturbing of an Hawaiian grave.  After recalling the incidents mentioned above, GBD had