Editor’s note: In honor of Veteran’s Day on Nov. 11, the Village News will highlight the experiences of a different war veteran each week during the month of November to pay homage to the men and women who have defended our country. WWII veteran and Pearl Harbor survivor Al Bodenlos, 91, vividly recalls the morning of Dec. 7, 1941 as if it were this morning. Seventy years ago, a young Bodenlos — fresh out of high school — was stationed at Schofield Barracks in Honolulu as a bugle master in charge of 14 musicians in the 804th Engineer Aviation Battalion’s bugle corps. The day before Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Bodenlos recalls shopping in Honolulu for bugles for his corps, attending a hula show at the Royal Hawaiian Inn, then attending a concert at the Army-Navy YMCA. After the concert, Bodenlos chatted with the other musicians and got a bunk at the dormitory for the night. The next morning, all of the soldiers were ordered back on base immediately. Bodenlos thought, “Maneuvers on Sunday? No way.” When he dutifully got onto a shuttle heading back to Schofield, he said to a friend, “Look at all those airplanes. There must be a hundred of them, and the smoke and the rumble. Boy, the Navy’s putting on realistic maneuvers!” After reaching the harbor, he discovered this was no drill. “The harbor was already a mass of burning oil, ships were blowing up, sailors flying off those ships,” he said. “Although we could see it going on, we couldn’t comprehend what was going on. We were trying to save our lives. Boy, everything was blowing up around us, bullets whizzing over us.” After being ordered off the shuttle, Bodenlos witnessed the U.S.S. Arizona blow up and sink right before his eyes. “It was so tremendous and it knocked us off our feet, so we dove in the ditch. [Then] here come the Japanese swooping down so close you could see their faces smiling at us,” he said. “We were trying to save our lives at that point. It’s amazing we didn’t get hit.” The raid lasted one hour and 20 minutes. There was a short lull, followed by a second hour-and-a-half attack. At the time, Bodenlos, as the courier, was responsible for transporting classified material from the command post to the five bases scattered across the island on his motorcycle — a task he undertook for two days straight. “The second wave started and they went back to all the five air bases and cleaned up what they missed on the first run,” he said. Bodenlos said every detail of the attack is seared into his memory as if it happened mere hours ago. Despite the horrific spectacle, he has long since forgiven the attackers. Twice a year, Bodenlos travels back to Pearl Harbor to recount his experience with different groups. Next month, Bodenlos will travel to the scene of the horrific events to speak to 1,000 band members about his experience and direct them in a performance to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the attack. He also serves as a docent on the U.S.S. Midway, detailing facts about Pearl Harbor and recounting stories from his days in the Army, like the time he accidentally played his bugle for the wake-up revelry at 3:30 a.m. instead of 6:30 a.m. On Mondays and Wednesdays, Bodenlos can be seen at the Veterans Administration memorial center in La Jolla, where he has worked for 27 years. His unmistakable identity at the welcome center is accentuated by his official Pearl Harbor survivor uniform consisting of white shoes, white pants, a white jacket, Army beret decorated with numerous pins and one of his 45 colorful Hawaiian shirts. “I’m comfortable and happy around veterans, and I want to serve them regularly,” he said. “I really feel that all young fellas and gals should serve their country at least once —one hitch maybe — and you learn to appreciate your country more.”