MILITARY ~ Honor, Duty, Country

[BOREALIS]

A Pearl Harbor survivor spent decades trying to forget it. Then one man got him talking

by David Montero
December 7, 2016

On the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, survivors recall where they were and how they survived.
David Montero

He walked slowly, an entourage of help ensuring he didn’t slip. People in the bar clapped as he moved past. Then Lauren Bruner gave up his cane and settled at a table against the wall where his picture had been hanging for years.

Dwight Lockwood, reed-thin in shorts and flip-flops, darted behind the bar and quickly popped the cap off a Kona Longboard beer. “It’s his favorite,” he said. The drink was on the house, of course.

Bruner took a swig. Around him, dozens of people waited to shake his hand, share a story or take a picture. The bar was a dive, barely more than the width of a long hallway. He looked around from the stool — his stool — and the decades began to melt away.

No longer was he 96, with a broken heart and a busted back. He was back in Smith’s Union Bar, and it was in the exact same place it had been when he was stationed at Pearl Harbor all those years ago. In his mind, he was 21 again — strong from swabbing decks and climbing steep ladders aboard the battleship Arizona.

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http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pearl-harbor-anniversary-20161207-story.html