For people like Charles “Chuck” Spencer, the significance of
today’s date is as clear as it was 65 years ago.

The Fullerton Road resident is a World War II veteran who served
in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters. Spencer was originally
from the Duke Center and Bradford area when he moved with his
father to Buffalo, N.Y., where his father worked for Bell
Aircraft.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, Spencer, now
81, enlisted in the U.S. Navy at Niagara Falls when he was just 17
years old.

“I joined (the war effort) because of Pearl Harbor,” Spencer
said. “I wanted to join and fight someone. I was just doing at
little bit to help defend my country.”

He said when he entered the war, “they started drafting men in
the service, and the women were working jobs, doing the things the
men would normally do.”

After boot camp, Spencer was shipped to New Orleans, serving on
the PC 1261 vessel, protecting convoys from German submarines.

Spencer then went to England, and his ship was involved in the
Normandy Invasion on June 6, 1944, at Omaha and Red Beach. He was
in the crow’s nest to spot when the troops hit the beach. Before
the initial shooting began, German shore batteries fired at the
ship. Spencer said when the first shot whizzed by the ship he put
on his life jacket, which saved his life. The next shot knocked him
out of the crow’s nest, and he hit either the deck or water,
landing on his arm. Shortly after falling into the water, his ship
was sunk – the first sunk in the attack at that beach.

“I lost 16 of my buddies,” Spencer said. “I believe I was saved
by my mother’s and grandmother’s prayers. They were praying the
whole time. On the night of the attack, June 6, my grandmother woke
up and felt she had to pray for something. I was one of the
fortunate, the lucky ones.”

He also said his mother wrote him a letter after hearing
secondhand what had happened to him on the radio, thanking God he
was OK. Spencer also said news of what happened to him was printed
in the Bradford, Olean and Buffalo papers at the time.

Spencer’s arm was paralyzed from the fall, and he was taken to a
hospital in England.

“In two weeks, (my arm) was all right again,” Spencer said.

After recovering, Spencer was on a survivor’s leave for 30 days.
When the leave was up, he joined a crew on a mine sweeper in
Cleveland and traveled from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie, up the St.
Lawrence River, into the Atlantic Ocean and down through the Panama
Canal.

Spencer spent 30 days in the Pacific and was involved in two
battles in Guam and Okinawa. His mine sweeper was the 10th to sweep
mines in Tokyo and Okayama bays.

While in the Pacific, Spencer said he had enough points to be
discharged, but he had to serve until he was 21 years old. He was
discharged on his 21st birthday. He said when the Japanese
surrendered he received a Japanese flag, on which he had written
“unconditional surrender.”

To this day, Spencer believes he just did what he had to do.

“I’m no hero; I’m just a survivor,” Spencer said. “The guys who
are heroes were the ones who didn’t come back. I was just glad to
survive and get back home alive.”

Spencer said his family is very proud of him. His daughter, Barb
Dixon of Duke Center, referred his story to The Era. He also said
his son joined the U.S. Air Force and served in Vietnam. He said
two of his brothers served after him, and his “nephew went in the
Navy because of his uncle.”

“My dad was too young for the first war and too old for the
second one so he became an airplane mechanic,” Spencer said. “When
I was home (on the survivor’s leave), my dad took me in the cockpit
of one of the planes. … He told me (when he heard I was hurt), ‘If
I could have flown one of these things over there, I would have and
dumped it on someone.'”

Spencer said what Pearl Harbor showed was “just that nobody
should attack us or they’ll suffer unconditional defeat. It proved
you don’t attack us unless you want to be defeated.”

Spencer said younger people today don’t understand what it means
to defend your country and the meaning behind Pearl Harbor.

“It was a different time,” Spencer said. “Time heals all wounds
and makes people forget. (The 9/11 attacks) woke a lot of people
up, but just look how soon they forgot too. Instead of over there,
it happened here. That should prove that we’re never out of touch
with the terrorists, what they can do and how to stop them.”

In honor of those like Spencer who served during World War II,
on Dec. 1, President George W. Bush officially proclaimed Dec. 7 as
National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day and urges all to fly the flag
at half staff in honor of the more than 2,400 Americans who died on
Dec. 7, 1941, in the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and honor all
those who sacrificed for the country during World War II.

Congress had also designated Dec. 7 of each year as “National
Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.”