Anna Welsh
I met Anna one day when I was checking the surf at Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz, CA. She was hardat work, digging up bulbs and moving them for the lady across the street.
We struck up a conversation, and she told me shewas from Hawaii, and had moved to California after the war.
We were quickly becoming friends.
A clear plastic wallet hung from her belt, and in it she had her ID badge from Pearl Harbor. Anna liked to keep it with her.
I told Anna about my web site, BLUEYONDER, and that, like her children, I had also grown up as an Air Force Brat. I asked if I could borrow her ID Badge to scan and put it on my website, and she agreed, telling me that I might like to see her war scrapbook.
At her house, I met her son Al, who had also had an Air Force career, and like all good Hawaiian aunties, she insisted that I have something to eat, or at least to drink. Although her son was a little skeptical about this haouli stranger walking off with her scrapbook, she assured him that I was family and that I'd take good care of it. I left glowing with Aloha spirit.
These are some of her newspaper clippings and memorabilia. We hope you enjoy them.
Anna Welsh was born aboard ship, ten miles from Hawaii, and raised in the Islands. Her mother worked for the Princess, and she grew up on the Princess's farm. When she got older, she was offered the position of personal handmaiden to the Princess.
She married a serviceman, worked at the shipyard at Pearl making paint, and lived at Hickam Field.
Her children were sent to live on the farm with their grand-mother, and were among the first to see the Japanese planes fly in over the coast.
They ran back to the house to tell their grandmother, who called the base. By the time she got through, the attack had begun.
Anna related to me, that the conversation at work on Friday, December 5 th, 1941, centered around the possibility of a Japanese attack.
One of her co-workers bet her that they wouldn't dare attack such a strongly fortified base. Anna took him up on that, and bet $5.00, that the Japanese would be there by Monday.
On Sunday, December 7th, all hell broke loose.
She never collected on that bet.
Anna Welsh, Friday December 5, 1941
On her way out to dinner after work.
Anna Welsh
I met Anna one day when I was checking the surf at Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz, CA. She was hardat work, digging up bulbs and moving them for the lady across the street.
We struck up a conversation, and she told me shewas from Hawaii, and had moved to California after the war.
We were quickly becoming friends.
A clear plastic wallet hung from her belt, and in it she had her ID badge from Pearl Harbor. Anna liked to keep it with her.
I told Anna about my web site, BLUEYONDER, and that, like her children, I had also grown up as an Air Force Brat. I asked if I could borrow her ID Badge to scan and put it on my website, and she agreed, telling me that I might like to see her war scrapbook.
At her house, I met her son Al, who had also had an Air Force career, and like all good Hawaiian aunties, she insisted that I have something to eat, or at least to drink. Although her son was a little skeptical about this haouli stranger walking off with her scrapbook, she assured him that I was family and that I'd take good care of it. I left glowing with Aloha spirit.
These are some of her newspaper clippings and memorabilia. We hope you enjoy them.
Anna Welsh was born aboard ship, ten miles from Hawaii, and raised in the Islands. Her mother worked for the Princess, and she grew up on the Princess's farm. When she got older, she was offered the position of personal handmaiden to the Princess.
She married a serviceman, worked at the shipyard at Pearl making paint, and lived at Hickam Field.
Her children were sent to live on the farm with their grand-mother, and were among the first to see the Japanese planes fly in over the coast.
They ran back to the house to tell their grandmother, who called the base. By the time she got through, the attack had begun.
Anna related to me, that the conversation at work on Friday, December 5 th, 1941, centered around the possibility of a Japanese attack.
One of her co-workers bet her that they wouldn't dare attack such a strongly fortified base. Anna took him up on that, and bet $5.00, that the Japanese would be there by Monday.
On Sunday, December 7th, all hell broke loose.
She never collected on that bet.
Anna Welsh, Friday December 5, 1941
On her way out to dinner after work.