Volume 104 Number 48
ˇ ´ VESTNIK S P J S T Benevolence
H E R A L D
★ Humanity
ISSN —07458800
★ Brotherhood
December 7, 2016
75 Years Ago . . . Remembering Pearl Harbor . . . Dec. 7, 1941 By Greg Bowen New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung December 6, 2012 Photos by Laura McKenzie
Editor’s Note: This story by Greg Bowen appeared in the December 6, 2012, issue of the New Braunfels HeraldZeitung. Pearl Harbor survivor and World War II veteran Emil Matula joined SPJST on December 12, 1946, and was a 67-year member of SPJST Lodge 133, San Antonio when he passed away on December 27, 2013. Brother Matula served on the SPJST Publication Committee from 1976 to 1988. His wife Evelyn passed away on November 21, 2016. Emil Matula was there, 75 years ago today, when the Japanese attacked Pearl
Harbor. The 94-year-old remembers firing a pistol up at the Zeros as the enemy fighter planes strafed his barracks on the infamous morning of December 7, 1941. “I have no idea if I hit one,” he said. “They were too fast.” Matula was a 23year-old United States Army sergeant stationed at Schofield Barracks, one of the Pearl Harbor airfields targeted in the Japanese surprise attack. Matula and his buddies on the 35th Infantry’s football team had played for the base championship the day before the at-
tack, and had stayed out late celebrating, even though they’d lost the game. The Granger farm boy with a sixthgrade education was sleeping that Sunday morning when the first wave of attackers rained down their torpedoes and bombs and bullets. Matula, remembering, holds out his hand and makes a side-to-side rocking motion. “My bunk was doing like this,” he said. He ran outside in his skivvies and watched the attackers come. “The planes flew right between the barracks and shot at us. They flew in so low I could see the Japanese pilots squeezing their trig-
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Linda Bratina
Nancy Kelly
Bill Orsak, CFFM, FIC
Kerry Herrington
Ray Esparza
Lodge 28, East Bernard District Six
Lodge 180, Burleson District Three
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Vestnik by Email..................................2 Readers Write ......................................3 Important Dates ...................................3 Interest Rates ......................................3 Seeking the Treasures of SPJST .......5 Lodge Section......................................6
Lodge 9, Snook District One
Lodge 142, Houston District Five
Inside This Week’s Vestnik
In Memoriam ......................................13 Youth Section ....................................14 Vestnik Project...................................15 Czech Culture ....................................18 Advertisements ............................20-21 Lodge Calendar .................................22
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Lodge 80 Holland’s original bingo workers
Lodge 76, Wichita Falls District Four
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Lodge 88 Houston recognizes Veterans
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District One Youth participate in Burleson County Fair Parade