Friday's Internet Edition, July 25, 2008.
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| Thomas F. Shook Jr., surrounded by family members, gets a closer look at his birthday present- a flag flown over Pearl Harbor on December 7. |
His ship, the USS Phoenix, was docked in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Shook was reading a newspaper early that morning in his office when he heard an explosion outside.
“I went up to the main deck and saw a battleship go up in flames. I saw a plane bank with the Japanese sun on it, and I knew exactly what was going on,” he said.
Shook had wanted to return to Pearl Harbor last month for the 65th anniversary of that Day of Infamy, but he just couldn’t do it.
“I would love to have gone back, but I have a bad back and didn’t think a long distance trip like that would help it any. When you get up in your 80s you start falling apart,” he said.
Shook turned 86 on Monday.
His children came up with a plan to bring a little bit of Pearl Harbor to him.
They presented him with an American flag flown over Pearl Harbor on December 7 at a surprise birthday party Sunday at the home of his daughter, Betty Telford, in Salem Glen.
Shook arrived at the Telford home expecting to be taken to dinner. When the garage door went up... Subscribe to the Clemmons Courier, P.O. Box 765, Clemmons, NC 27012.