We will never forget

Deirdre Newman

In an instant, Deborah Hammett’s life began to mirror that of her

father.

The 47-year-old was in New York City on a business trip when two

planes, commandeered by terrorists, struck the World Trade Center.

Surrounded by so much devastation, she felt compelled to help and

spent three days at Ground Zero.

Sixty years earlier, her father, Jack Hammett, was at Pearl Harbor

when the Japanese bombed the naval installation on the island of

Hawaii, drawing the United States into World War II. As a Navy

hospital corps man, he had the gruesome job of identifying the dead,

with a break every four hours to perform triage on the wounded.

The actions of both father and daughter in the aftermath of

national tragedies illustrate their commitment to their country and

their courage in the face of adversity.

“I didn’t know my daughter was [in New York] until she called me,”

Jack Hammett said. “She steps right in and got a lot of charge and

I’m very proud of her.”

THE DAY OF INFAMY

Sixty-two years ago today, on the morning of Dec 7, 1941, Jack was

in bed with his wife, Mary Jo. The house they lived in was 10 miles

from Pearl Harbor, high atop a hill, with a view of the harbor. Jack,

who was 20 at the time, was off-duty that weekend and was surprised

to get a knock on his door at 7:55 a.m.

It was his landlord looking for the rent. Jack handed it over and

as his landlord walked out the door, he nonchalantly mentioned that

the Japanese had just attacked Pearl Harbor, Jack Hammett recalled.

“I was standing around in my skivvies,” he said. “We looked out

toward Pearl Harbor. I think the Arizona had already gone [down.]

There was a tremendous explosion and overhead were Japanese planes

circling.”

Jack Hammett jumped into his uniform and commandeered a truck to

get a taxi down to the harbor. He found a cab with five other Navy

personnel and rushed toward the harbor.

On the way there and while they were entering the main gate, they

got strafed by enemy fire, he said. At the hospital, they started

receiving dead bodies.

“I didn’t see my wife again for 72 hours,” he said. “I don’t

remember sleeping. I may have, but I don’t remember.”

After that intense experience, he helped recover bodies as part of

the burial detail for two weeks.

When the allies invaded Europe, he was there as well, identifying

casualties from the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions that parachuted

into Normandy. He also worked on navy destroyers in the North

Atlantic.

SEPT. 11, 2001

Deborah Hammett was in New York City the morning of Sept. 11,

2001, for an international trade show. She was visiting one of her

customers in the area when they heard that a plane had just smashed

into the World Trade Center. They went out to look around and as they

were discussing what had happened, she saw another plane fling low,

vanish behind the first tower and then make a horrendous explosion.

“The first image that came through my mind was that I was watching

a movie because it was the only thing I had ever seen,” she said.

“But at the same moment, I knew we were under attack because I knew

something was wrong.”

When officials from her company told her to go back to her hotel,

she complied. But the urge to go out and help was too great to

resist, she said. With the daughter of one of the owners of the

company, she headed out to do anything they could to help.

The next day, they got a call from the Salvation Army. They jumped

into a big SUV with other volunteers and were told they were going to

Ground Zero. She followed a minister through the rubble and began to

absorb the full impact of the devastation.

“The one thing that really stands out in my mind is that it looked

like confetti,” Deborah Hammett said. “It takes a higher heat for

paper to burn. There among all the ashes were pieces of paper. I

would realize that every one of them came from somebody’s office.”

She helped organize the food tents and took the food personally to

the weary firefighters, who were too busy to think about eating.

“One of our things was to get them to start talking,” Deborah

Hammett said. “All I would do is reach out and touch them and they

would start talking.”

One, sitting by himself, had a far away look -- a “thousand-mile

stare” as her father would have called it. Another searched

relentlessly for his crew amid the rubble, she said.

Improvising was key at Ground Zero Deborah Hammett discovered when

she went to scrounge up more food for the firefighters in the wee

hours of the morning. She found a restaurant that had some

functioning machines and figured out how to use its huge coffee

makers and slicing machine. She opened up the refrigerators and

started slicing meat.

Another time when the coffee and milk ran out, Deborah panicked

momentarily. Then she discovered in the American embassy towers down

the street, there was a Starbucks. None of the employees had locked

the doors behind them when they evacuated in the aftermath of the

attacks, she said. She found some cartons of milks and took them to

the firefighters. Later, she wrote to Starbucks and “confessed,” she

said.

REACTIONS TO A TRAGEDY

In the heart of the recovery effort, Deborah Hammett witnessed

firsthand the herculean effort of the recovery workers.

“For me, I was extremely proud,” Deborah Hammett said. “I knew I

was standing side by side with America’s finest. You would see lines

and lines of construction works and lines and lines of firemen. You

could see they had come from all over the country.”

Watching the events of Sept. 11, 2001, unfold from Costa Mesa,

Jack Hammett said he felt the attacks would jolt America out of its

complacent slumber.

“My first reaction was, ‘maybe this will wake America up because

they don’t know what war is like,’” he said. “America doesn’t apply

any attention to what’s happening overseas. Even now, kids are so

blase. They’re so laissez-faire and don’t’ want to do anything.”

Jack Hammett said he was glad to see President Bush react so

quickly by bombing Afghanistan.

SHARING THEIR STORIES

Jack Hammett has been sharing his experience in World War II with

students, through the Freedom Committee of Orange County since it

started in 1995. The committee has spoken to 22,000 students in the

past 18 months, he said. Today, he and his wife will be grand

marshals of a parade in Villa Park.

He is now working with his daughter on a program for schools where

they will share their stories together. This will enable the kids to

have a frame of reference for Pearl Harbor Day, he said.

“With Sept. 11, they understand about mass casualties,” he said.

“I thought it would be a good way to keep their attention. Now we can

relate one to the other. You learn when you have something to compare

it to. The motto of the committee is ‘Passing the torch of liberty

onto future generations. Freedom is not free.’”

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers Costa Mesa and may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at [email protected].