“AIR RAID PEARL HARBOR THIS IS NO DRILL.”

Those were the first words broadcast from the Ford Island Field Control Tower at Pearl Harbor on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941,
as hundreds of Japanese fighters, bombers and torpedo planes attacked the Oahu naval base.
Construction of the 158-foot control tower began in early 1941. At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor,
the tower structure had been completed without a portion of the platform on the top. Of the more than 70 aircraft on the ground at Ford Island on the morning of the attack,
33 were destroyed. Despite this, the Ford Island air base remained operational throughout the attack. The base was officially deactivated in 1962.