Citrus County, Fla., board of directors met during a recent monthly meeting and presented Bill Leiner Sr., former longtime Coplay resident, with an award as the last living Pearl Harbor survivor in Citrus County.

Fleet Reserve Association Branch 186 of Citrus County has held annual events for the past 20 years to honor those who survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. Twenty years ago, there were 19 survivors. Today, there is only one.

His son, Bill Leiner Jr., who resides in Coplay and is a former Coplay mayor, made a recent visit to Florida. Leiner Sr., now 92, said in a slow, halting, weak voice the following about the attack: “There were so many ships in the harbor; I forget how many. They attacked five or seven ships ready to leave that night, but they never got out. During the attack, we went to our offensive positions, and the chief wanted me to taxi a plane to get it fueled.

“Someone loosened the oil plug, which fell off while I was driving. It is funny now, but not then. It was the only plane there that could be used for offensive reason. They put oil in the plane, but the plug was off. I thought, ‘There is no way this takes that much oil.’ The oil was running in the street.

“I was 18 years old at that time, but there were so many things that happened to you at that age,” Leiner Sr. said.

He paused for a moment, then added, “I lost a lot of buddies there.”

The loss of his fellow crew was clear on his face even after 73 years.

During the 60th anniversary of the attack in 2001, it was evident to family members that the wounds of Dec. 7 were still there. Leiner Sr. was seen sobbing as he watched TV coverage of the attack. Then something happened; he began to talk.

According to family members, Leiner Sr. never talked about his experience at Pearl Harbor. But around his 80th birthday, over 60 years since the attack, he began to talk to school kids who wrote essays about Pearl Harbor day for school projects.

Leiner Jr. asked his father around that time why he chose to be silent for many years about the clear historical significance of the event and the fact that he was present.

His reply was simple: “I didn’t want to cry,” Leiner Sr. said.

The tragic events on Dec. 7 profoundly and sadly affected him throughout his life.

Leiner Sr., struggling with a form of dementia, now spends his days in a Florida nursing home, a captive to his wheelchair.

He can talk about food, drink and comfort with little else in the present. There are times he thinks he is going to Bethlehem Steel to work the evening shift at #8 machine shop, where he worked for many years.

But if you ask him about Pearl Harbor and the day’s painful and unforgettable events, they are seared into his mind. Strong emotions of how he lost his naval buddies can still be felt after all these years.