At 103, retired Air Force Col. Andrew Kowalski was one of the oldest survivors
of the attack on Hickam Field on Dec. 7, 1941.
Every year on the anniversary — including this past December — the Waikiki man dutifully returned to
the air base, one of the sites devastated in the Japanese attack that catapulted America into World War II.
That morning, Kowalski was designated the casualty control officer.
“It was a fancy name for counting the dead,” Kowalski told the Air Force in 2009. “The bodies were laid out everywhere. It was a sad day seeing people trying to identify who was still alive — very traumatic.”
Kowalski made the comment at Hickam during that year’s Dec. 7 ceremony.
“Events like this bring back these memories,” he said then. “You feel grateful and humble that the good Lord has given you this long life, and you hope that you have used it rather than abused it.”
Kowalski died Wednesday, son Marc said.
He was likely the oldest Dec. 7, 1941, survivor living in Hawaii, historians say. The oldest living Pearl Harbor survivor, California resident Ray Chavez, turned 106 on March 10.
Marc Kowalski said his
father looked upon those he worked with in the Air Force as comrades striving for common goals.
“I’ve had a chance to talk to many, many people who have served with him over the years — some of whom are still alive,” his son and caregiver said. “The respect and admiration and affection they have for my father was really extraordinary.”
Local historian Jessie Higa spoke about Andrew Kowalski at the 2016 Air Force ball. He was born Aug. 13, 1914, on a small farm in Lambert, Pa., dropping out of elementary school in the sixth grade to work odd jobs, she said.
In 1934 he walked into an Army recruiting office. In 1938 he was appointed clerk for the 18th Bomb Wing at Hickam Field, she said.
On the night of Dec. 6, 1941, the then-master sergeant had stayed up late playing poker. The bombs going off jolted him awake, and he headed on foot to the Hawaiian Air Force headquarters.
Kowalski’s office “had a view of the Hickam Hospital lawn where six nurses and a handful of doctors desperately implemented battle triage procedures,” Higa said.
Three months later, in early 1943, Kowalski was commissioned a second lieutenant. He served the rest of the war in the Pacific region.
The Air Force noted that he served every rank in the Air Force up to colonel, except for buck sergeant.
Kowalski retired in 1965 and worked for NASA, then returned to Oahu around 1984, family and friends said.
He will be interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl with his wife, Jean, who died in 1999. Services are pending, his son said.
