As Japanese naval aircraft descended on the United States military facilities located around Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941, they split up to hit key targets. Among those targets was the Army Air Force base at Hickam Field. There, a 20-year-old aircraft photographer named Ivan C. Lewis of Tower City, Pennsylvania was stationed.

During the attack, Lewis was strafed by a Japanese aircraft, leading to grievous injuries. In the chaos of the attack’s aftermath, Private Ivan Lewis was reported killed-in-action. He was reported to be the second Schuylkill County soldier to be killed in World War II.

A story and obituary appeared in the December 12, 1941 edition of the West Schuylkill Herald in Lewis’s hometown. In it, the Herald reported “[Lewis] was always interested in flying and his enlistment was motivated by a desire to advance himself as an aviator; as well as to serve his country… He had made application for enlistment as a flying cadet, and had the bombing by the Japanese not occurred, would probably have been on his way back to the States for further training in a few weeks.”

As the soldier’s family grieved, a new telegram arrived from the War Department. It reported that Ivan Lewis was not killed on December 7th, but had been severely wounded and was in hospital.

“Needless to say, all of Ivan’s friends and the whole community rejoices with his family that the report of his death was an error,” stated the West Schuylkill Herald on December 19.

Between Christmas and New Year’s Day, the first letter from Private Lewis arrived at his home from a hospital in Honolulu. It reported that the young soldier had received “a machine gun bullet in the back that lodged in the chest, another machine gun bullet in the stomach, shrapnel wounds of the back, a fractured rib, his wrist injured by a shrapnel that ruined his wrist watch, one finger shot off at the first joint and another finger injured.” He had undergone a surgical operation to remove the bullets and shrapnel from his body.

Lewis recovered surprisingly quickly from his Pearl Harbor wounds and by March 1942 was heading to California in an effort to become a pilot.

Though he did not ultimately become a pilot, Lewis was promoted to sergeant and became a tail gunner on B-17 Flying Fortress bombers and headed off to war in Europe by 1943.

On July 26, 1943, Sergeant Lewis took part in a bombing raid over Hannover, Germany with the 95th Bomb Group, 335th Bomb Squadron of the USAAF’s 8th Air Force. Over the target, their aircraft was struck by anti-aircraft fire and two engines set on fire. The aircraft was last seen heading toward the ground, where it crashed near Bremen, Germany, killing the plane’s entire crew of 10.

Ivan C. Lewis was 22-years-old. His remains were never recovered.

The young airman had barely survived the attack that brought the United States into the conflict at Pearl Harbor. In July 1943, he lost his life serving where he always wanted to be: serving his country in the skies.

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