MOULTRIE, Ga. — It was 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian time on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, that Japan launched its attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in what was then the Hawaii Territory.

It was early afternoon when the news of the attack reached the East Coast of the United States and in Colquitt County, The Moultrie Observer, under editor C.B. Allen and managing editor Grady Adams, geared up to quickly get an edition on the streets and into the homes of its readers.

That night, The Observer printed and distributed a Special Extra edition, selling for five cents.

Its banner headline read: JAPAN STARTS WAR ON U.S.

The front page of the edition published 75 years ago was covered with stories filed by The Associated Press.

In addition to keeping up with the wire stories, the Observer staff also was able to cobble together a story under the headline “Ten Moultrie Boys in Hawaii.”

It listed Jim Latham, Jack Linder, Everett Clark, Thomas Evers, William Estle Laird, Arnold Daniel, Durwood Carter and Marion Turner as being attached to the U.S. Army Post and Naval units in Hawaii.

The story noted that at least two others from Colquitt County were reported to be there, but their names were not available.

On Dec. 27, The Observer reported that Perry William Strickland, 20, had been killed in the attack.

Strickland, who gave his hometown as Moultrie, was one of 12 crew members of the destroyer USS Downes who died that day. He was the nephew of I.E. Carlton of Hartsfield.

The Downes sustained severe damage and was decommissioned two months later.

Moultrie’s Johnnie Shiver, who served in the U.S. Army in Europe in World War II and has been active in a number of veterans organizations in Colquitt County, said he believes there was one other local man killed at Pearl Harbor, Emmett Taylor of Doerun.

Shiver said he is one of only three World War II veterans still living in Colquitt County.

Now 91, Shiver says he does not remember when he first heard of the attack on Pearl Harbor, but says he would have been attending school in Doerun at the time. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1943 and went on to fight in France, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Pearl Grandy has lived in Moultrie for 35 years, but grew up in Washington, D.C.

And she clearly remembers when she first heard of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.

Then 14 years old, she was at home with her older sister Esther and Esther’s boyfriend George Campbell, who was teaching the girls to play cribbage.

They also were listening to the Washington Redskins-Philadelphia Eagles football game being played at Griffith Stadium on the radio.

Broadcaster Harry Wismer announced during the game that the U.S. had been attacked by Japan and urged all military personnel to report to their offices.

Campbell, who had enlisted several months earlier, put down his cards and left immediately to join his unit at the air base at Bolling Field.

The unprovoked attack that day — one that President Franklin Roosevelt said would “live in infamy” — took the lives of 2,403 Americans and left 1,178 wounded.

The 353 Japanese war planes, which arrived in two waves, damaged eight U.S. battleships and sunk four. All but the Arizona were later raised.

The Japanese also sank or damaged three destroyers and three cruisers and destroyed 188 U.S. aircraft.

One of the cruisers damaged that day was the USS Helena. On board was William H. Watson, a young seaman who had lived in both Worth and Colquitt counties.

After undergoing repairs, the Helena, with Watson on board, saw action at Guadalcanal, Savo Island and Cape Esperance before she was sunk in the Kula Gulf in 1943 with 165 of her crew.

Watson survived the sinking of Helena and later in life moved back to Moultrie, where he died in 2003.

The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war on Japan.

On Dec. 11, Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S., leading the country into World War II.

The U.S. would suffer some 418,000 military and civilian deaths before the war was over in 1945.

Over the weeks following the attack on Pearl Harbor, The Observer kept its readers abreast on what was happening in the Pacific and European theaters of the war.

On Dec. 8, The Observer reported that there was a heavier guard in place at “the air base near Culbertson.”

Construction on what would be named the Spence Army Air Field, had begun the previous July. It was reported that a detachment of 27 officers and 39 enlisted men staffed the airfield.

A day later, the base was put on a “wartime basis.”

The following day, the Colquitt County unit of the American Red Cross was asked to raise $6,000 to help the organization carry on its activities in connection with the war against Japan.

The Observer also reported that some 500 Colquitt County men were already active in military service.

W.H. Westberry, chief clerk of the Colquitt County Selective Service Board, received a call for “20 white males and 20 Negroes.”

On Dec. 12, The Observer reported that Lt. Jim Latham cabled his parents, Mr. and Mrs. W.R. Latham, from Honolulu that “we are all right.”

The family interpreted the “we” to mean Latham and his first cousin Jack Harrell of Bainbridge, serving with the U.S. Army in Honolulu, were both safe.

Similar short stories appeared in the paper over the next few weeks as concerned relatives heard from their loved ones.

The Observer included a short story noting that Mr. and Mrs. J.C. Carter of Sylvester Drive reported that their son Durwood, a Norman Junior College graduate who was stationed at Fort Shafter in Honolulu, was safe.

Chief Petty Officer Idus Milton Lawson, son of Mr. and Mrs. J.H. Lawson of Route 5, confirmed that he was well “somewhere in the Pacific.”

Mr. and Mrs. S.A. Watson of Route 2 received a telegraph that their son T.W. “Buddy” Watson, who was drafted and had left Moultrie on March 13, and was stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, was safe.

On Dec. 19, Mr. and Mrs. G.W. Kendall of Route 1, Norman Park, reported that their son Thomas Henry Kendall contacted them from Hawaii, where he was serving with the U.S. Navy.

A day later, The Observer reported that Omega had suffered its second Pearl Harbor casualty.

Also in the Dec. 20, 1941, issue, in a box in the lower right corner of the front page, it was noted that there were three shopping days until Christmas. In that box, readers were urged to give U.S. Savings Bonds and Stamps, available at stores, banks and post offices.