PORT ANGELES — If you’ve seen photographs of the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, you’ve probably seen at least one taken by former Army Air Corps Staff Sgt. Lee Embree of Port Angeles.
The Japanese attack on American forces at Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii, began on a Sunday morning and ended two hours later, claiming 2,390 lives.
Then 27 years old, Embree was in a B-17 Flying Fortress arriving in Hawaii en route to the Philippines about 30 minutes after the surprise attack began that fateful morning.
He took the only aerial pictures of the attack. They have been featured in Life magazine and in numerous historical books and promotional brochures around the world.
“We were just very lucky. The plane was hit several times, but we weren’t,” said Embree.
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The rest of the story appears in the Sunday Peninsula Daily News.
