The night of Dec. 6 Second Lieutenants George Welch and Ken Taylor spent drinking, like most servicemen stationed at Pearl Harbor. Next morning, they sobered up quickly as Japanese planes bombed the Pacific Fleet and their air base Wheeler Field. It was impossible to take off from there, so they called ahead to Haleiwa Airfield. Gas up two planes! They raced over in their Buick and soon were airborne. They spotted some Japanese dive bombers strafing and tore into them although they were outnumbered six to one. Taylor shot down two and damaged a third with Welch covering him as his wingman. They returned to Haleiwa to reload and refuel. They took on another formation of dive bombers, but a tail gunner put a bullet just inches from Taylor’s head. It exploded and he was wounded in his arm and leg. Welch shot down the bomber. Taylor damaged another and then they tangled with some Zeros until the Japanese had to return to their carriers. The two men were awarded Distinguished Service Crosses. Taylor went on to shoot down more Japanese over Guadalcanal until he was wounded and sent to America to train other pilots. He retired as a colonel. Welch ended up training jet pilots and shot down some MiGs in Korea (although he was under orders not to get into combat). He died in 1954 test flying a new F-100 Super Sabre.
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