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 No party in brig
By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| Velton Parker sat out V-J Day in the brig at Pearl Harbor.
Gregory Yamamoto | The Honolulu Advertiser
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Velton Parker has no trouble remembering exactly where he was on V-J Day. In the brig at Pearl Harbor.
He and six other guys got into a bar-bashing brawl the night before at the El Dorado Club on Dillingham Boulevard. Someone had thrown a drink in Parker's face, so the young sailor from Magnolia, Texas, decided to break a bottle over the man's head.
The 75-year-old Parker said he got into the Navy by lying about his age — he was only 15.
But even the end of World War II was not a big enough event to spark a party in the brig, the Kane'ohe resident recalled.
"It was all over the place that the war was over," Parker said. "We could hear the sirens and everything. It was just like New Year's Eve. Firecrackers shooting off. There was no doubt the war was over. I wasn't able to celebrate, but I knew the war was over."
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