Posted at 12:26 p.m., Friday, April 27, 2007
Pearl Harbor survivor dies; witnessed Arizona blast
Associated Press
PORT MATILDA, Pa. — Charlie Lincoln Bailey Jr., one of a dwindling number of veterans of the attack on Pearl Harbor, has died. He was 86.Bailey died Tuesday at his home in Patton Township, and will receive a military burial Monday in Johnson City, Tenn., said his son-in-law, Pat Springer, of State College.
Bailey was sleeping on a cot on deck on the USS Dobbin when the attack occurred Dec. 7, 1941. He recalled jumping up and seeing Japanese bombers zoom past so low he could see the pilots faces.
Nearby a bomb touched off ammunition on the USS Arizona and he saw the ship lift, break in two and plunge into the water, killing 1,177 — including many friends — the greatest loss of life from one ship in U.S. naval history.
Revisiting Pearl Harbor in 1979, he corrected a tour guide on details of the attack. When she asked how he knew, he replied, "I was here when it happened," and ended up giving the tourists a two-hour talk.
After leaving the Navy, Bailey worked for 20 years for the Orlando Sentinel in Orlando, Fla., retiring as production manager.
He was a member of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, which counts fewer than 4,600 remaining of the 85,000 servicemen and women there during the attack.
To the end, Springer said, "He loved to tell Navy stories. That was his life."
