This year marks the 80th anniversary of the “Day of Infamy,” the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. One former Williamsporter, Joe Lockard is forever connected with the Pearl Harbor story. It might also be noted that two Lycoming County residents lost their lives in the Pearl Harbor attack—Paul Free and Billy Brandt.

[Editor’s Note: As we approach the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, we re-visit a Williamsport connection to one of the largest attacks on US soil.]

I had the privilege of interviewing Lockard before his death in 2012 and what follows as well as information in a companion article in this issue is information gleaned from that interview and supplemented by historical accounts of the attack.

Lockard, who was a member of the Army’s Signal Company Aircraft Warning, along with a fellow soldier, George Elliot went out to their radar post at Opana on the northern tip of Oahu, on Saturday afternoon, December 6 and stayed overnight at the radar station. Lockard said they turned on their radar at 4 a.m. on December 7 and were detailed to keep on through 7 a.m.

“I had not turned off the radar yet when about two minutes after seven this huge echo appeared on the screen . It was the biggest that I ever saw,” Lockard told Webb Weekly. “We tried to plot its course. I called Fort Shafter but no one was at the plotting center but a switchboard operator. Everyone was out to breakfast. We finally got a hold of an Army Air Corps lieutenant, who was brought to the phone to talk to us. We tried to impress him with the seriousness of what we were seeing. He was not familiar with our equipment. He said it was probably a flight of B-17s that were due in.”

Lockard said the echo was coming in from the north and he said they plotted it to within 20 miles of Oahu before ground interference kept them from plotting it any further.

He said they kept their radar on until right after eight o’clock and then closed up the radar unit and were picked up by a truck and headed to their quarters. It was at that point that they learned there was an attack in progress by Japanese aircraft. Lockard believes he was able to plot the planes out as far as 137 miles out and that the ships that launched them were probably about 200 miles out.

“A few days later an Army colonel came around and took the plot that we had made and it was eventually used in the Pearl Harbor investigations,” Lockard said. “Shortly after that I was sent back to the States. I went to Washington and I was given a medal that was pinned on me by Secretary of War, Henry Stimson and I met Vice President Henry Wallace. And then I came back to Williamsport for a banquet that honored me. It was pretty heady stuff. ”

At this point Lockard was sent to Officer Candidate School and received his commission as a second lieutenant. He was also sent to advanced radar school at Camp Murphy. Lockard was then sent to the Aleutian Islands, where he remained for more than a year. He was discharged from the Army in December 1945. He then married the former Pauline Seidel.

Lockard was asked by Webb Weekly if he regarded himself as a “reluctant hero” and he answered, “I don’t think so. I don’t think I did anything out of the ordinary. I was just doing my job.”

He has some scorn for the many historians that have written about the Pearl Harbor attack.

“I think a lot of misinformation has been put out there. The account and story of the attack is constantly being re-written depending on what might be politically correct at the time,” Lockard said. “There have also been some outrageous conspiracy theories written about the attack. I think the writing is slanted depending on the author or historian’s point of view. I wish there would be one truthful, definitive version written that everyone could agree on. It is a very simple story and they should get it right. I never have seen the movie ‘Tora, Tora. Tora, the movie that was made about the attack some years back.”

Every five years during the time of the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, Lockard was a much sought after figure by the media and others.

Lockard said he had only been back to Pearl Harbor once and that was for the 50th anniversary of the attack.

“My wife didn’t want to go, so I took one of my Army buddies, Bob McKinney with me,” Lockard said. “Those commemorative ceremonies were impressive and quite moving. I can’t believe how much things have changed there. I was astounded. I couldn’t recognize anything. When I was there Waikiki Beach only had a hotel, a couple of taverns and a golf course. Now it is wall-to-wall high rises.”

Perhaps Lockard summed it up best when he said. “I’m probably just an interesting footnote to history. It was an unforgettable experience and it changed my life forever.”