Pearl Harbor memories

Ninety-year-old Thomas Adams Jr., a member of the first class of aircraft mechanic students at Keesler in 1941, made a visit to Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., Dec. 7, 2011, on the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Adams has made his home in Pass Christian, Miss., since 1966 when he retired with 25 years of service in the Army Air Corps which was later name Air Force. (U.S. Air Force photo by Kemberly Groue)

Retiree was Keesler student during Pearl Harbor attack

Aircraft mechanic students relax outside one of the dormitories in 1941, at Keesler Field, now known as Keesler Air Force Base, Miss. The dormitory was located south of where the present-day service station and shoppette are located. Ninety-year-old Thomas Adams Jr., a member of the first class of aircraft mechanic students at Keesler in 1941, made a visit to the base Dec. 7, 2011, on the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Adams has made his home in Pass Christian, Miss., since 1966 when he retired with 25 years of service in the Army Air Corps which was later name Air Force. (Courtesy photo)

Retiree was Keesler student during Pearl Harbor attack

Published Dec. 16, 2011
By Susan Griggs
81st Training Wing Public Affairs

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- Thomas Adams donned a cap that proclaimed his service in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War to visit the place where he heard the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 70 years ago -- at Keesler.

"I've been an airplane nut for as long as I can remember," the 90-year-old Virginia native recalled. "I used to hang out at the library just to read whatever I could about them and I used to ride my bike to the airport to see what was going on there."

Adams enlisted in 1941 after working for a while for the Navy in Norfolk, Va.

Dec. 7, 1941, Adams was a 20-year-old student in the first class of aircraft mechanic students in the 305th School Squadron at Keesler. The student barracks were located on what's now the southwest corner of the base's Larcher Boulevard and Meadows Drive intersection -- green space where Muse Manor used to stand. A row of chow halls was to the north across a shell road where the base service station and shoppette are today.

His first knowledge of the Pearl Harbor bombings came on a Sunday afternoon after an early dinner of cold cuts. A buddy ran across the road from the chow hall to the barracks with a fork and knife from his mess kit in his hands shouting, "Those ~`!@#$%^&* just bombed Pearl Harbor! Where the hell is Pearl Harbor?"

Adams remembers thinking about the Sailors he'd met while working in Norfolk and wondered how many of them might have been at Pearl Harbor.

His 25-year career in the Army Air Corps and the Air Force took him to Guam, the Philippines, Korea, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Colorado, New Mexico, Turkey, Vietnam, Louisiana and many other locations for training, assignments and temporary duty. He also served as an instructor at Keesler and the Gulfport Army Airfield.

Adams' dreams of becoming a pilot were derailed because of his vision, but he finally got to fly during B-29 flight engineer and combat crew training. He flew 24 missions with his crew and substituted on two others during World War II.

He reenlisted at Keesler in 1946 and was sent to Albuquerque, N.M., as part of the Manhattan Project research and development program for bomb drop test flights as part of the 509th Bomb Group.

Adams moved into the officer ranks and became an aircraft maintenance chief and maintenance control officer at England Air Force Base, La. When he retired in 1966, he had achieved the rank of chief warrant officer 4.

He and his wife, Esther, made their home in Pass Christian, Miss. His wife passed away last year and he visits her final resting place at Biloxi National Cemetery often.