Army Air Corp Officer Who Replied "Don't worry about it" to Radar Reports of Blips Around Pearl Harbor Dies

[Donster]

Kermit Tyler, who was ultimately cleared of wrongdoing, has died at age 96, content he did all he could that morning.

Still had to be hell going through your lifetime knowing that if you had acted on the report how it could have saved lives.

[Stans]

Yeah, that had to be a tough thing to live with. RIP.

[The Dude]

People who don't worry about stuff tend to live long lives.

RIP, Kermit.

[Joker]

Well, I recently saw a documentarry about Pearl Harbor myths, where they interviewed Kermit Tyler.

He insisted that even if he had recognized the blips as Japanese, communications weren't in place that would have allowed him to put both the army and navy on alert soon enough to do anything to oppose the raid. Other historians contend that time was so short, the US never would have been able to get enough aircraft into the sky to make a difference regardless. In fact, limiting the number of aircaft that got airborne might have actually saved American lives, given Japanese air superiority.

Nobody will ever know, but they're interesting arguments, I guess. To me, blaming the men on the ground in Hawaii that day has always seemed a bit like blaming a kicker for missing a 60-yard field goal. The bigger question is, how did we ever get into that situation to begin with? For years, there were clear indications that Japan planned an attack on Pearl Harbor, and for whatever reasons, we ignored them. As Gordon Prange wrote, "At dawn we slept."

RIP, Kermit. You did your best with the information you had at hand. I'd hate to have been in your shoes that Sunday morning.