Pearl Harbor and my Uncle Conway

Pearl Harbor Today

Last month I was flying with a pilot who shared his life's hobby with me.  He had a collection of aviation/military history that I cannot begin to describe.  He had signatures from every WWII veteran he had ever met.  He also had the signatures of the greatest aces from the U.S, Germany, and Japan and almost everyone that was involved in the Doolittle raid including some from men that died before he was ever born.  He had a collection of pictures and history that is no doubt worth thousands of dollars but that is invaluable to our country.  This pilot spent his days off traveling around the country and world meeting with old chapters of war veterans and writing down their stories.  We in aviation, I imagine, will owe a lot to him one day.


As I was flipping through the names of the American veterans he has met I found on his list Conway Benson, USS Tennessee.  I smiled as I thought of my amazing uncle Conway who had passed away just a couple of years ago.  I said to him,"This man is my uncle."  He grabbed his book from me and made a notation of "Uncle to Joshua Krason that I flew with" and told me my name would be going in a book.  He then proceeded to get any information out of me about my Uncle Conway that I could remember.   Unfortunately, it wasn't much.  Uncle Conway was awesome.  He was hilarious.  He was very proud of his service in the navy and Pearl Harbor.  He was head of a chapter of Pearl Harbor veterans.  He had a Pearl Harbor survivor sticker on the back of his car.  The pilot told me to never ever forget these things about him and to write them down.  He said that their biggest fear (WWII veterans) is that they would be forgotten in time.

I know the war changed my Uncle Conway.  He left the LDS church after his service and demanded that nobody ever talk religion to him.  Until one day about 4 or 5 years before he died when he told my grandma that he had been going to church.  He was reactivated, received a calling, became a faithful home teacher and went through the temple all in the last few years of his life.  It reminds me that we have no idea where people come from and we cannot judge a thing about them.  The effects of the war possibly stayed with him for almost 70 years until he could truly make peace.  He came to my wedding and I am so proud that I got to know him a little better then.  I wish now I could have sat down with him for hours.

So today I think of my 18 year old Uncle Conway at Pearl Harbor.   I hope I never forget what he and the other men and women there went through 70 years ago.  Thanks to that pilot for reminding me how important he was to my family and this country.