This year will be the 85th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack in Hawaii, kicking off direct U.S.

involvement in World War II to one of the few living survivors of Pearl Harbor lives in Madison County.

Our Mackenzie Spink talked to 100 year old Frank Blankenship about his memories of that historic day.

Frank Blankenship was born in Letcher County when he enlisted in the Army and left home for Hawaii.

It was the first time he had ever left the state.

I was really 15 when I enlisted.

I turned 16 in the military.

I was it was quite the adventure for a young mountain boy.

Blankenship was only there seven months when the war came to Hawaii.

I got on the boxing team in Hawaii.

I had one, but before the.

War hit.

And after that, English.

Soldier.

All the time.

As an Army soldier.

Blankenship was stationed on land on December 7th, 1941.

He says at first, his fellow soldiers thought the attack was part of a practice maneuver.

We didn't even know they were Japanese fighter planes attacking the island.

We had been on maneuvers up until that weekend, and everybody thought it was the end of the activity.

That was, we were going home.

And when it turned out that they were the Japanese.

Were caught with their pants down.

We didn't even have guns.

We had our guns locked up when we locked up.

But the guns and ammunition, we never kept it in the barracks with us.

We kept the guns there, but ammunition was stored somewhere else.

We were caught with our pants down.

Really?

After the Pearl Harbor attack.

Blankenship's duty was to protect the island's only form of communication with the mainland U.S.. My position was.

Craig, you radio station and Hoy.

We had to protect the radio station because it was a main communication to the States.

I'm protecting it for about three weeks.

For the rest of the war.

Blankenship was in a tank battalion where he rose to the technician fourth grade rank.

Ken from the tank was a big thing.

Other soldiers kind of looked up to me.

May have a big shot.

And I loved it.

I'll have to say, I loved being in a tanker.

A sustained.

Four years, a little over four years.

And.

In Hawaii and in the Pacific, when all News Island.

The islands I fought over were small.

While he was still stationed at Pearl Harbor.

Blankenship was a guard for the first Japanese prisoner of war taken in World War Two.

One of my duties were was guarding this Japanese admiral.

They called him Admiral, but he was really just a commander of a two man submarine.

And he ran aground on the north shore of Hawaii.

He wrote a letter to all of those guys.

Blankenship held on to the letter throughout his combat in the Pacific, and kept it safe until 2021, when his son, Mark and his family delivered the letter to the Pearl Harbor National Memorial in Honolulu.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm Mackenzie Spink.

Thank you.

Mackenzie.

Frank Blankenship returned home after World War II two, but later re-enlisted in the Air Force, where he served for 18 more years.

Next month, Frank is turning 101 years old and we want to wish him an early birthday.