It’s been 68 years since America declared war against the Axis Powers during WWII and as those who lived it are dwindling in numbers, yet some left retain the best and worst memories of, “the Good War.”

Monday marks the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the memories remain as vivid to then 16--year-old Robert V. Lindsey, who remembers sitting through a school music recital when it happened.

“We heard about it at the recital when some woman came running in screaming, ‘the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor’,” Lindsey said. “Needless to say, they didn’t finish the recital.”

He explained that he didn’t think much about it then until his family relocated from High Shores, N.C. to Virginia after his father answered the call when President Roosevelt insisted any willing machinists help the cause.

His father began working with Alexander Torpedoes for the duration of the war.

Two years later, Lindsey joined the U.S. Navy.

“At the time, we were fighting for the U.S.’s existence,” Lindsey said. “Even though a lot of people say it, God was with us through the best and worst.”

Lindsey recalled one instance of regaining consciousness after a blast to find his buddy tossed and bleeding across his lap with his head, “busted open.”

“He’ll be remembered forever,” Lindsey said. “He died for his country.”

The repercussions of Pearl Harbor were evident as the war passed and Marlyn Benoist says she doesn’t directly remember the attack since she was only five or six-years old, but as a child she remembers the searchlights waving through paranoid skies.

“I have many childhood memories of the war,” Benoist said. “Some more than others.”

Benoist moved to Wilmington in 1941 from Richmond County when her father, like Lindsey’s father, devoted his time to working in the Navy shipyards.

“I remember walking out on the beach and looking up and seeing the searchlights just waving back and fourth,” Benoist said. “They’d be searching for enemy planes and other aircraft.”

Whenever those same searchlights would catch a glimpse of a plane, the panicked town would begin a blackout process, according to Benoist.

“You’d hear knocking a few doors down and some whispering that would get louder and louder,” Benoist said. “Until it got to your door and someone would knock and say, ‘blackout, blackout’.”

During a blackout, people would turn off all the lights in the home so not to give enemy planes a reference.

“I remember being fairly young and in school when they attacked,” Leon McDonald, an 80-year old Korean War veteran said as he and Lindsey swapped war stories and benignly bickered back and fourth about training posts.

After WWII, McDonald and both of his brothers joined the military to serve their country since they missed WWII.

McDonald said he was an M24 tank driver during the conflict.

“Yeah, it was definitely a big turning point for the country (Pearl Harbor),” McDonald said. “It changed war.”

Kamikaze planes for Navy sailors like Lindsey threatened every aircraft carrier and every boat. Lindsey wasn’t able to escape unharmed.

During a Japanese raid in the Pacific, where he was stationed, Lindsey received significant injuries after tripping into the hatch on a carrier as a Japanese plane dove towards to boat.

“The officers were outrunning me,” Lindsey joked.

He would go on to return to the Navy for 32 more years after attempting to find a job in civilian life.

Staff writer Bryan Stewart can be reached at 997-3111 ext. 15 or by e-mail at bstewart@yourdailyjournal.com.