Posted on 12/13/2003 5:10:58 PM PST by BenLurkin
Harold "Tiger" Bright, who survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and went on to fight in the first wave to engage the enemy in the crucial battle for Guadalcanal, has died. Mr. Bright died suddenly Monday at his home in Palmdale. He was 82.
With the passing of Mr. Bright, only a handful of Pearl Harbor survivors remain in the Valley.
"I'd say there are only five or six left now," said World War II historian Bob Alvis, who conducts programs with veterans in local schools. "When you look at their records after Pearl Harbor, it's just amazing. A lot of people think after all they went through that on Dec. 7, wasn't that enough? But not these guys, they really carried the banner and they were in it for the entire duration of the war. These guys got the full allotment of America's involvement in World War II."
Alvis remembers working on a presentation with Mr. Bright at Lancaster High School a couple of years ago. "He had a great sense of humor."
That sense of humor and his accomplishments in service to his country enabled Mr. Bright to form friendships with the younger people, who were born decades after Pearl Harbor.
Born Harold William Bright in Yeager, West Va., on Feb. 18, 1921, he joined the Marines in 1939 and was stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941. He gave his account of the attack in a Valley Press interview in 2001, on the 60th anniversary of the attack.
Then a 20-year-old Marine with the 3rd Defense Battalion of the Fleet Marine Force, Battery H, Mr. Bright was at morning chow when the attack began. Mr. Bright and other members of his battery braved enemy strafing and bombs to get to their machine guns.
"We had the .50 calibers (machine guns) in action within seven minutes after the raid started," he said. "We were positioned about a quarter-mile from the (USS) Arizona. I was glad I was a ground-pounder, not a sea-going bellhop. They had it bad.
"I remember thinking, 'I'm going to get killed unless I get shooting.' You know in that movie that came out last year, 'Pearl Harbor'? Well at one point there's a blue streak that goes across the screen and you can't tell what it is. Well, that's me running!"
During the war, Mr. Bright was in a Marine detachment in the Battle of Midway and fought in the battle for Guadalcanal in addition to other battles.
"I used to ask him, 'How close did you get to the Japanese (at Guadalcanal)?' " said Fred Hatcher, a friend of Mr. Bright's and a Marine Corps veteran himself. "He'd stand up and tug on my sleeve. That's how close they were to the Japanese. It was hand-to-hand fighting. A real donnybrook."
After Pearl Harbor, Mr. Bright was transferred to the First Marine Division, under the command of Maj. Gen. Alexander A. Vandegrift. On Feb. 4, 1943, they were issued a presidential citation for their performance in a series of battles:
"The officers and enlisted men of the First Marine Division, Reinforced, on Aug. 7-9, 1942, demonstrated outstanding gallantry and determination in successfully executing forced landing assaults against a number of strongly defended Japanese positions on Tulagi, Gavutu, Tanambogo, Florida and Guadacanal, British Solomon Islands, completely routing all the enemy forces and seizing a most valuable base and airfield within the enemy zone of operations in the South Pacific… This reinforced division not only held their important strategic positions despite determined and repeated Japanese naval, air and land attacks, but by a series of offensive operations against strong enemy resistance drove the Japanese from the proximity of the airfield and inflicted great losses on them by land and air attacks. The courage and determination displayed in these operations were of an inspiring order."
The battle for Guadalcanal signaled the first major American ground offensive in the Pacific. Mr. Bright and the Marines who held the island, without significant resupply or reinforcement for weeks, delivered a victory that gave the Allies the margin to carry on in the Pacific after Pearl Harbor and the fall of the Philippines.
Before his honorable discharge from the Marines in October of 1945, Mr. Bright earned the rank of sergeant and was awarded the Bronze Star. He was also wounded and entitled to a Purple Heart medal, but never applied for it. "What was I going to do, stop fighting to put in for the medal?"
Years later, Hatcher found a replica of a Purple Heart medal, had it engraved with his friend's name on it, and presented it to him. "It meant a lot to him," Hatcher said. "His whole life was the Marine Corps. I'm just honored to have known this man."
After the war, Mr. Bright worked with Lockheed for 35 years, retiring in 1983. He and his wife, Leona O'Dell Bright, were married for 42 years. She died in 1999.
A member of the Quartz Hill VFW post, Mr. Bright enjoyed collecting bottles, World War II memorabilia and other items.
He is survived by four daughters: Carol Campbell of Ridgecrest, Joe Donna Rendell of Ventura, Sue Bright of Dorchester, Mass. and Nancy Wright of Nashville, Tenn.; one brother, Lloyd Bright of West Virginia, one sister, Marie Law of Indiana; 11 grandchildren and 30 great-grandchildren.
Instead, we can only advise each other to think of the miracle that heroic generation achieved and with so much less materiel and technology. What they DID have was an abiding love of God, their country and freedom, which in turn drove their commitment to rid the world of an evil which threatened to consume it.
Now another evil threatens the world, and the yellow weenies outnumber those with the fortitude to win.
Sad is an understatement.
Yes, indeed.
I'm sure we have it.
It's our job to recognize and commend it.
LOL...
Bump for a great American.
I bet he could tell some stories. He did his duty as he saw fit in the finest traditions of the Corps... God Bless Sgt. Bright, USMC
You will be missed, Marine...
Rest in Peace Marine!
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