The thundering explosions in the distance alerted the U.S. Army soldiers eating breakfast at Wheeler Field that something was off.
Tensions had been simmering throughout Hawaii for the past 10 days, as military officials suspected an attack from the Japanese. Army soldiers had taken up stations at strategic locations throughout Hawaii, watching for the first strike.
As infantryman Philip Clinger ran to the balcony on his barracks, he saw the smoke rising from Pearl Harbor, just 20 miles away. The attack had come, not from the sea or with a ground force, but through the air.
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Click here to purchase photos from this gallery“We couldn’t figure out who was doing artillery maneuvers on Sunday. Usually no one fires on Sundays. But down towards Pearl Harbor, that black smoke was rolling,” he said.
Clinger, 91, of Franklin, remembers the shock and panic of the morning of Dec. 7, 1941. Wheeler Field was one of the first locations hit by the Japanese, as it was where the Army Air Force launched all of its planes. He watched as a single fighter pilot strafed the American P-40 fighter planes and took out nearly the entire force.
“One Japanese plane came over our barracks, his machine gun going. All of the planes were lined up all nice and neat, like you would for an inspection,” he said. “He swooped right down with his machine gun going. He got them all at once.”
Even before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the U.S. formally entering World War II, Clinger suspected that upheaval was coming. Since he would rather have some choice in his role in the military, he enlisted for the Army in 1941.
The then-16-year-old resident of Upper Sandusky, Ohio, lied to the recruiter, telling him that he was 21 and that he wanted to join the infantry. No one double-checked his age, and he started his military training.
He was given the option for three possible posts: Panama, the Philippines and Hawaii.
“I wanted to be somewhere it would be nice to sit out the war,” he said. “In Panama, I knew they had mosquitoes there. And the Philippines was halfway around the world. So I said to give me Hawaii.”
Clinger was assigned to the 19th Infantry Regiment of the 24th Division. His job was to ready the island for a possible invasion.
“The colonel gathered us all in front of the barracks, and told us the Japanese were on their way someplace and were going to hit. That was 10 days before Pearl Harbor,” he said. “We, the regular officers and men, went out in the field to wait for them to invade, in case they came from the sea.”
The U.S. Navy was doing constant patrols up to 100 miles out from Pearl Harbor, watching for any potential threat. Soldiers watched for possible sabotage, and trained using live ammunition. The report of explosions became a common sound around Oahu.
But the attack on Pearl Harbor still was unexpected.
“We were expecting it, but we didn’t get any warning that it had come,” Clinger said. “The regular men in my outfit were already out in the field, waiting.”
In the aftermath of the attack, with war now officially declared, the Army increased the defensive structures to defend Hawaii. Clinger and his fellow soldiers worked on the island for more than a year, building elaborate coastal defenses in case of an invasion.
“We were ready for them if they came, but they never came again,” he said.
By 1943, the 24th Division was sent to Australia for training to fight in the jungle. Clinger was assigned to the mortar squad, and fought in New Guinea and then to the Philippines, where his unit pushed into the islands of Luzon and Leyte in 1944.
“We went in a big fashion. They knew we were coming,” Clinger said.
Clinger’s service time ended in 1945. He was rotated home that summer, and offered a chance to re-enlist. By that time, the war in Europe was over, and all that was potentially left was preparing to invade Japan.
He didn’t want to make a career in the military, and opted for discharge.
“I’d had enough,” he said.
Clinger returned to Ohio, finished his high school equivalency and prepared to enroll in veterinary college. He ended up attending Ohio State University, where he met his wife, Caroline. She was in the master’s degree program in home economics.
After graduating, they moved to Rochester, Indiana, where Clinger worked as a veterinarian for 20 years, then another 18 years as a meat inspector with the state health department.
He and Caroline Clinger have been married for 66 years, and now live in an apartment at the Franklin United Methodist Community.
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Name: Philip Clinger
Age: 91
Home: Franklin
Military service: 1941 to 1945 in the U.S. Army
Occupation: Worked from 1950 to 1970 in Rochester, Indiana, as a veterinarian. Retired from a job as state meat inspector for the Indiana Board of Health in 1989.
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