Veteran George Pann, 99, was stationed in Hawaii during the Pearl Harbor bombing on Dec. 7, 1941, and then served in the South Pacific during World War II.

SAXONBURG — Eighty years ago today, 19-year-old George Pann waited on a Hawaiian beach for a Japanese invasion force in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Japanese land forces never arrived, but Pann later took part in invasions of Japanese-held territories across the South Pacific during the course of World War II.

Today, Pann lives in Saxonburg. But on Dec. 7, 1941, he was in the Army and stationed with a coastal artillery unit at Fort Ruger on the volcanic mountain of Diamond Head on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

Diamond Head was a long way away from Glassmere in East Deer Township, Allegheny County, where Pann grew up with four brothers and three sisters. He joined the Army when he was 18 years old in 1940.

He was sent to Hawaii for training as a gunner on a 155 mm self-propelled artillery vehicle. He was at Fort Ruger, 15 miles from Pearl Harbor, when the Japanese Zeros began their attack.

“It was Sunday morning, around 8 a.m. I was having breakfast at Fort Ruger,” said Pann, “when we had an alert.”

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