[ IN APPRECIATION ]
James G. Daniels,
Pearl pilotDODGING an understandable barrage of "friendly" anti-aircraft fire above Oahu on Dec. 7, 1941, Navy Ensign James G. Daniels managed to land on Ford Island. He continued to pilot attack carriers through World War II and the Korean War, rising to the rank of captain and commander of the Fleet Air Command before retiring from the Navy in 1970, after 33 years of service. Daniels, who died in a Hawaii Kai care home last Sunday at age 88, was a paragon of military courage and commitment.
Daniels was among about two dozen fighter pilots who took off at dusk from an aircraft carriers in search of a Japanese attack fleet. Unable to find the enemy, most of the planes returned to the carrier but six were directed to Oahu. Daniels was the only one of those six to avoid tracer fire in response to the Japanese air attack on Oahu and safely land at the Ford Island landing strip; three were killed by the tracer fire, one landed on the Ford Island golf course and the other parachuted after his plane ran out of fuel.
Daniels did not wear the episode on his chest, which became crowded with the Legion of Merit with Gold Star and Combat V, Distinguished Flying Cross and six Air Medals. His son Jay says his father did not tell him about the Pearl Harbor experience until after his retirement from the Navy.