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It
has been a few years since Edward Anthony Maierle
was employed at Fligelman's Department Store in Hele-
na, Montana.
He was working there December 7, 1941, the day
Pearl Harbor was bombed.
He immediately enlisted in the U.S. Navy and flew to
Hawaii to become an "Avenger" (American torpedo bomber
World War II) stationed on Pearl Harbor.
"Many of the men stationed at the Receiving Station in
Honolulu were actually killed," says Maierle.
"ose that survived fled and were hiding in the hills
above Pearl Harbor."
He was one of them.
His lively conversation belies the fact that he is 95 1/2
years old as he details how he swam through the oil infested
water to rescue a B-24 sea plane off Hawaii's shore.
Memory Lane
Text by Polly Kolstad and Photography by Jesse Martinez
World War II Waste Hatch
Gunner Remembers
EDWARD ANTHONY MAIERLE RETELLS HIS
B-24 AND B-17 SURVIVAL MANEUVERS
Edward Anthony Maierle enlisted in the U.S. Navy, December 7, 1941 to become a WWII American torpedo bomber.
