The Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard celebrates 100 years of keeping Navy ships "fit to fight" with a series of events this month that honor its rich history and vital role in the nation's defense.

A centennial highlight will be a "birthday bash" on May 13 with 5,000 guests.

As far back as 1887, a treaty with Hawai'i gave the U.S. exclusive use of Pearl Harbor for Naval operations, and on May 13, 1908, Congress authorized the construction of shops and supply houses for the Navy yard, marking its birth.

The shipyard survived the day of infamy on Dec. 7, 1941, even as 2,403 service members and 68 civilians were killed, rising up to complete more than 7,000 ship repairs by the end of World War II and earning the motto, "We Keep Them Fit to Fight."

Among those ships sent out to fight again was the battle-damaged carrier USS Yorktown, repaired in a miraculous 72 hours. It then helped turn the tide of the war at the Battle of Midway in June of 1942.

Then, as now, it has been the people of the shipyard, its workforce and lifeblood, who have breathed continued life into the ships and submarines that also fought in Korea and Vietnam, patrolled during the Cold War, and have steamed in support of more recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Some of their stories are told below.

For sure, Dec. 7, 1941, and the war that followed, were the defining years for the shipyard, and the stories of heroism are legendary.

According to the shipyard, George Walters ran his traveling crane back and forth on its track to force low-flying Japanese planes to veer away.

Shipyard workers, both men and women, grabbed fire hoses to help extinguish the flames.

Allen Kim, now 88, remembers hearing KGMB radio's Webley Edwards reporting, "Pearl Harbor is being attacked by the Japanese. This is no drill, this is the real McCoy!"

Kim, who started in the shipyard as an apprentice in 1938, took the train to Pearl Harbor's main gate, because all yard workers were told to report.

"Pandemonium," is how Kim described it. "The planes were still up in the air, the guns were firing, and oh, good night, I thought I'd never survive that morning."

But he stayed to work and rebuild the U.S. Pacific Fleet, like so many others. He eschews any praise.

"The guys that are the real heroes are the guys like Claude Ortiz," Kim said. "... He went onto the (overturned battleship) Oklahoma and rescued about 40 guys that were trapped."

SMALLER WORKFORCE

At the end of June 1940, the shipyard had 3,300 workers. In anticipation of hostilities with Japan, the U.S. Navy brought the numbers up to 7,300 by mid-1941, officials said.

In 1945 at its peak occupancy, there were 24,910 civilian workers in the shipyard and at least 7,000 sailors and Marines.

The shipyard's workforce dropped after the war, and since then it has experienced less severe fluctuations, but enough "reductions in force" over the years for some to feel the hardship of layoffs as the United States also trimmed its Navy shipyards from eight to the current four.

There is enough repair work now, even as the Navy shrinks in size, to support about 4,100 civilian workers at what is the state's single-largest industrial employer, and with some of the best salaries.

Apprentices start at $17 an hour, and earn more than $27 an hour after four years, the shipyard said. A starting engineer can be paid as much as $81,000, and salaries for senior trades people and managers top $100,000.

A 2005 round of base closures panicked state officials when the Pentagon considered, but then rejected, closing Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard.

MODERNIZING THE YARD

There remains uncertainty as to what the start of the next century will bring for the shipyard, but to stay competitive, the yard has embarked on a $2 billion modernization planned over the next 20 years in the 110-acre industrial area.

Most of the buildings within the core of the shipyard and around four drydocks were built during World War I or II, and the classes of ships and many of the functions the buildings were built to support no longer exist, the Navy said.

The shipyard continues to perform long-lasting submarine and ship overhauls in drydock as well as pierside maintenance and rapid turn-around repairs on ships and submarines.

The Navy recently shifted away from refueling and defueling nuclear submarines at Pearl Harbor, and toward preparing the workforce for the arrival of new warships, including the new Virginia-class submarines.

The Texas, Hawai'i and North Carolina are expected to be the first Virginia-class subs to be home ported at Pearl Harbor, starting with the Texas next year.

"We have to constantly look for ways to become more efficient, and improve the processes we use to maintain and repair the fleet," Capt. Gregory R. Thomas, the shipyard's commander, said in a retrospective of the shipyard's first 100 years and commentary on the way ahead.

Rosalyn Bohner, who has worked in the shipyard since 1979, said the centennial events are a good way to connect the "old-timers" with the current generation of shipyard workers.

Among those "old-timers" will be her father, Samuel B.Y. Lum, 87, who started working in the shipyard in 1941 eight months before the attack. His story is below.

"He's so excited," Bohner said. "Everything (with the centennial) is making him so happy, because this is his time."