The United States Navy Memorial Stories of Service Program is honored to announce the December 2021 story of the month has been selected to recognize the service of United States Navy Veteran, Fireman First Class Albin P. Marks. The United States Navy Memorial Stories of Service Program was privileged to interview Fireman First Class Albin P. Marks at the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, Liberty Bell Chapter One picnic in 2007. This interview was one of the first conducted by the United States Navy Memorial Stories of Service Program in 2007. 

As we reflect and remember the events that took place 80 years ago at Pearl Harbor, we honor, recognize, and celebrate the service of Fireman First Class Albin P. Marks. Fireman First Class Marks recalled with vivid detail the events of the Japanese Attack on December the 7th, 1941 as they unfolded before his eyes from his ship that was docked at Pearl Harbor on that fateful Sunday. 

Fireman First Class Marks was assigned to the USS Dobbins AD 3, a Destroyer Tender. On Sunday, December 7th, 1941, Marks recalled, “In the morning I went down for breakfast and I came up to the shop and all of a sudden I heard an explosion. I watched a second plane drop a bomb at Hickam Field.” After some confusion about what was happening, Marks shared that fellow shipmates realized that this was no accident but an attack. He recognized the markings on the planes were not American but those of the Empire of Japan. Everything changed when he heard a call go out to “report to your battle stations.” A Chief ordered Marks to “get down below and close up the cargo hatch on the side of the ship which faced Battleship Row.” As he leaned outside of the ship to close the side door, Marks shared, “I heard, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, a series of  explosions, I turned and looked back and that was when the USS Arizona blew up. The striking part of it was that it blew up and there was a momentary shock. Then the forward mast keeled over, it seemed like the whole ship was going down an escalator.”

After the explosion of the USS Arizona and the confusion aboard ship, Marks was ordered by another Chief to bring box of lettuce to the ship moored next to them. Amid the fighting, Marks brought the produce to the neighboring mess hall and recalled, “I looked up at the sky there and there was a squadron of Japanese planes, just flying majestically overhead, you had to marvel at them. I was a little unnerved but seeing them pass, it calmed me down a little.” Fireman First Class Albin P. Marks was 19 years old on December 7th and witnessed key moments of the attack from the harbor.

The USS Dobbins was well within view of Battleship Row and Ford Island which gave him a key vantage point. Following his time in the service, Fireman First Class Albin P. Marks would share his Pearl Harbor memories with thousands of students at schools near his home in Pennsylvania so that we may never forget what occurred that day and for America to always be on alert. 

The United States Navy Memorial honors United States Navy Veteran, Fireman First Class Albin P. Marks, featured within this series titled, Tales from the Navy Log, Story of the Month. Each month, this series honors a Veteran’s story recorded by the Stories of Service Program at the Navy Memorial. To learn more about this story and to explore the Navy Memorial archive, visit the Navy Memorial Stories of Service site at https://www.navymemorial.org/stories-of-service. 

To view this interview please visit the Pearl Harbor Survivors December 7th, 1941 Collection on the Navy Memorial Stories of Service page.