Last witnesses | Wives carry on legacy of survivors

They weren't at Pearl Harbor that infamous day, and may never have visited the site of the 1941 Japanese attack that forced the U.S. into war.

But a half-dozen women who regularly attend the meetings of the local chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association are indirect witnesses to that pivotal day in U.S. history: They survive the survivors.

For decades, they awoke to their husbands' nightmares. They watched their spouses slowly reckon with the horrors of that day and the combat that followed. They nursed their husbands through diseases that eventually took their lives, then took up the flag as keepers of the stories.

Kitty Campbell's husband, Austin Campbell, was a gunner's mate aboard the cruiser Phoenix when Japanese bombers came roaring over the naval base.

"He didn't really talk about it, except they wanted to get the 'H' out of there," Campbell said. "He had awful nightmares from it."

She met him shortly after World War II ended, when his ship pulled into Solomons Island, Md., where she was visiting. After 22 years of naval service - he retired as a chief petty officer - he spent 28 years working for the Navy as a civilian in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where they raised their three children. "Fifty total years of service to his country," Campbell said proudly.

The Campbells moved to Hampton Roads in 1987 and got involved in the local Pearl Harbor survivors group. He died in 1993.

Since then, Kitty Campbell has become more active in the group, which meets monthly for lunch at a Virginia Beach restaurant. She's in charge of the annual Christmas party, which will be Saturday.

"Doctors say the more you're involved and talk to people, your life is better. If I sit home, and moan and groan, and feel sorry for myself, that's no good," she said.

Years ago, Campbell started bringing Myrtle Dorman along to the monthly meetings. Dorman's husband, Benjamin, wasn't technically a Pearl Harbor survivor. He was on the aircraft carrier Saratoga, which arrived in Hawaii about a week after the attack.

There were still bodies in the water, he told his family later. The Saratoga spent the remainder of the war in the Pacific theater, taking part at Guadalcanal and in the invasion of the Marshall Islands. A kamikaze attack in 1945 killed more than 120 Saratoga crew members.

Benjamin would get especially emotional around Veterans Day and the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, Dorman said, but military ceremonies in general made him tear up.

"He would cry all the time. He'd say, 'War is hell. War is hell.' "

Myrtle Dorman became involved with the survivors group after her husband's death in 2002.

One of her duties is making a round of phone calls before every meeting, reminding members of the upcoming gathering. There are fewer and fewer calls to make.

Two decades ago, there were more than 100 local survivors. The group organized trips to Washington, D.C., Canada and Myrtle Beach, S.C. Picnics brought lots of folks together.

"The men would do the cooking and the ladies would take covered dishes," Dorman said. "That's kind of gone by the wayside, too."

Now there are fewer than 20 local survivors.

"We probably have as many widows coming as we do survivors," said Sybil Stankavich, 91. She stopped driving a few years ago, but when she feels well enough, she accompanies Dorman to the monthly gathering.

Her husband, Ed, served aboard the cruiser Helena, which was damaged in the surprise attack.

"They were considered lucky compared to the others," she said.

Her husband and his shipmates helped pull sailors - dead and alive - out of the water. But she doesn't know a lot about his experience.

"He wasn't one to talk about things like that. He might have, with the guys in the meeting, occasionally told sea stories about it, but he never did talk about it at home," she said.

Ed Stankavich died in 2001.

Kathy Maloney is the newest widow in the group.

Her husband, Earnest "Frank" Maloney, died this summer at age 90. He was one of four local survivors who served together aboard the destroyer Phelps, which shot down one Japanese plane during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Earnest was a signalman. Frank Chebetar, the group's president for more than a decade, was a cook.

The two men used to joke about how Maloney would sneak into the galley at night and swipe loaves of bread that Chebetar had baked, Kathy Maloney said.

On countless special occasions over the past 20 years, Chebetar showed up with a loaf of bread he'd baked for his old shipmate.

Since her husband died, Chebetar and the other survivors have provided Maloney with sustenance of a different sort.

"They were at his wake and his service," she said. "They all talk with me. They've helped me a lot through this."

Kate Wiltrout, (757) 446-2629, kate.wiltrout@pilotonline.com