Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col Bernard D. Rubien / Crystal Chatham The Desert Sun
Age: 91
Hometown: Providence, R.I.
Residence: Rancho Mirage
Military branch: U.S. Army Air Corps, Hawaiian Air Force (later designated the 7th Air Force)
Years served: 1940-1966
Rank: Private First Class when the war started; Rubien retired as a Lieutenant Colonel.
Family: Six children; eight grandchildren; four great-grandchildren
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Bernard Rubien was working at Hawaiian Air Force headquarters in Honolulu when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
“I was a clerk-typist,” the now-91-year-old Rancho Mirage resident said. “I had just been promoted to Private First Class. My uniform was at the tailor shop having my first stripe sewn on.”
Rubien arrived on the island on Dec. 10, 1940, and had enjoyed himself over the year.
“I had a hell of a lot of fun lying on Waikiki Beach and chasing girls,” Rubien said.
But the morning of the attack, the days of fun and sun came to an abrupt halt.
“I was in bed, sleeping in the barracks with all the other guys,” Rubien said recalling the moments before the bombing. “We heard all this noise and commotion.”
He wasn't immediately concerned.
“The Navy would (sometimes) buzz the field and wake everybody up for the hell of it,” he said.
But the men quickly realized their own guys weren't responsible for the chaos outside.
“Some guy came running into the barracks” with news of the attack, Rubien said.
“We ran outside, (but) we slept absolutely nude. Nobody wore pajamas. We're standing outside against the wall of our barracks bare-naked.”
Then, a Japanese plane flew over.
“It was a two-seater — flying with an open cockpit — tail gunner flying backwards.
“(The pilot) was either smiling or grimacing,” he said.
The plane was so close, he felt like he could reach up and touch it, Rubien said.
“It didn't seem real,” he said. “We didn't have sense enough to be scared.”
The men finally ran inside — Rubien put on his flight suit and shoes, then opened his locker and grabbed three packs of Camel cigarettes.
“(And) for some reason, I grabbed two pairs of socks and put them in my pocket.”
Rubien also grabbed a gun belt, a .45 and a clip of ammo and ran up to headquarters where he worked.
A major grabbed Rubien to help him burn classified documents.
“The worst part that night was when it got dark,” he said.
An announcement came over the radio that said the Japanese were landing at Hickam Field. It turned out not to be true, but if you were out in the street moving, you had a good chance of getting killed, he said.
It was pandemonium.
“Guys shooting at each other because they didn't know what the hell they were doing,” he said of the confusion that night.
Rubien was asked to join some officers and other staff in a remote location that served temporarily as a headquarters.
“We had a secret cave up in the mountains,” he said. “All of us moved up into the mountains into the cave.”
There, they slept on canvas cots.
“I didn't know it existed,” he said. “It was part of the war plan.”
Telegrams were typed and dispatched from the cave.
“That's how they communicated,” he said.
“We had Christmas dinner up there, eating out of mess kits,” he said. “I couldn't get in touch with my parents. They thought I was dead.”
He was finally allowed to send a short cable — limited to 10 words — to let them know he was OK.
“It said, ‘Don't worry. I'm safe. Not hurt.”
