By admin 
LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Joe Estores was 8 years old on Dec. 7, 1941. Estores and his young brother were helping their dad get ready for a fishing trip out in their rowboat. They lived in military housing near Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
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It was a sunny Sunday morning when the family started hearing explosions. Estores says that was unusual for a Sunday, because live fire training didn’t typically happen on Sunday.
“I saw all of the aircraft attacking with the big red symbol on the aircraft,” Estores said.
Now 92, Estores spoke at the World War II Memorial about witnessing the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was on the Honor Flight Southern Nevada trip to Washington D.C. in April. Veterans tour their war memorials. FOX was with the group.
“I always told my military buddies I began my military career at Pearl Harbor, and I was eight years old,” he said.
AMPLIFIED: Honor Flight takes Southern Nevada veterans to war memorials
Family escaped through chaos
Estores and his family lived close to Fort Kamehameha. When the attack started, the family raced to the fort to drop his father off to fight. Estores, his mom and dad, brother and six sisters were in the vehicle.
“With six little sisters, they were screaming because of all of the explosions,” Estores said.
The family could not return the way they came and were rerouted by the airplane hangars at Hickam Field, where U.S. planes were under heavy bombardment.
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“That was the only way out. There was so much smoke and explosions and fire and heat and explosions that I felt that sitting as a passenger in the front seat with my youngest sister who was six months old, I felt all the heat and the explosions inside the vehicle as we were passing slowly to get out,” Estores said. “Because there was chaos. There were a lot of people running all over vehicles and ambulances and everything. It was destruction happening as we were leaving.”
Estores’ mother calmed the children by singing “Jingle Bells.”
“And everybody started singing with her and it calmed the whole car out,” Estores said. “And I can remember all of those moments. And it was my mother with eight children, I’m sure in a state of panic and shock, she had to save her family. And she did a marvelous job doing that.”
Three months in the mountains
The family escaped to the mountains to stay with others. Because there were no phones and martial law-imposed travel restrictions, they stayed in the mountains for three months. During that time, they did not know if their father survived, and he did not know if his family survived.
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“When we came out, three months later, that’s when my family realized that we safely evacuated through the bombing. Nobody knew that before we came out. It was very stressful,” Estores said.
Estores said he felt privileged to stand at the World War II Memorial.
“It’s just so overwhelming for me emotionally. And I feel so privileged to stand here among a memorial that my father could not witness. And all of the other World War II veterans who were unable to do what I’m doing today,” he said.
He left the memorial with a message for young people.
“They can be as good as they want to be. There is so much opportunity in this country,” Estores said. “And build a new America that should be the best in the world.”
Estores is also a Korean War era veteran and served in Vietnam.
In Korea, after the fighting ended, he flew advisors and observers near the DMZ and to Seoul in a single engine airplane. He says he also flew payroll money to service members and would have a bag of cash in the plane, thousands of dollars, to pay people. He also flew a chaplain to different locations to conduct religious services.
In Vietnam, Estores was a helicopter pilot. His crew provided cover for troops who were being shuttled into areas by helicopter to fight. Estores says the chopper he flew had machine guns, grenade launchers and rockets. He earned 11 flying medals, including the Distinguished Flying Cross. He also earned a Bronze Star.
Estores says his most traumatic memory of the Vietnam War was not on the battlefield. He says something that still impacts him today was when he was working as a Casualty Assistance Officer at Hunter Army Airfield in Savanah, Georgia in 1967. He, along with a chaplain, had to a deliver a letter to a woman with two children, informing her that her husband was killed in action in Vietnam. He says he still remembers her screaming to this day, and believes some of his PTSD is from that traumatic event.
Other Honor Flight veterans tell FOX5 they also suffer today from the horrors of the Vietnam War. They urge other veterans who are also suffering, to seek therapy.
The following information is from the Veterans Crisis Line.
The Veterans/Military Crisis Line is a free, confidential resource that provides Department of Veterans Affairs support for all service members, including members of the National Guard and reserve, and all veterans and their families, even if they are not registered with the VA or enrolled in VA health care. The caring, qualified responders at the Veterans/Military Crisis Line are specially trained and experienced in helping service members and veterans of all ages and circumstances.
If you or someone you know is in a crisis, there is help – contact the Veterans/Military Crisis Line. Dial 988, then press 1 or text 838255, or chat online with a VA responder.
When you call, chat or text, a qualified responder will listen and help. You decide how much information to share. Support doesn’t end with your conversation. VA responders can connect you with the resources you need.
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