Hingham WWII Veteran Speaks About Pearl Harbor

December 7, 1941 was a date that will live in infamy and Hingham WWII Veteran Guy Stadig remembers it well. 

Stadig, now 90 years-old, was only 19  and living in Quincy when the Japanese bombed the United States and he said he remembers just being shocked.  

Two months later, in Feb. 1942,  Stadig enlisted in the US Navy and served during the World War II, right in Hawaii.  

He said the country was different  70 years ago; There was a great sense of nationalism that does not exist today.  He wants the people today to remember the people of his time as the “greatest generation,” because they all came together for one cause: to win a war.

Stadig recently visited Pearl Harbor last February and said it is much different today.  The land is developed, with two story buildings that did not exist decades ago.  In the 1940’s it was a graveyard, today it looks like paradise, he said.  

On Friday, 71 years after the US was bombed, Stadig was present at the Hingham Shipyard for the town’s Pearl Harbor Remembrance ceremony held at the US Navy Memorial.  

Stadig, along with Hingham Service Director Keith Jermyn laid a wreath in front of the Navy Memorial in memory of those who lost their lives. 

Watch the attached video to hear Stadig speak about Pearl Harbor.