Milton Walter Verberg

Milton Verberg, Pearl Harbor Hero, passed away Thursday, Dec. 19th here in Orange. He was 98.

Milton was a real cowboy in New Mexico, hailing originally from Wisconsin. In the fall of ‪1941‬, he enlisted in the US Army, was trained as a medic in San Francisco and chose to transfer to Pearl Harbor.

While on leave there he was in a bus at Hickham Field and headed for Waikiki Beach. At that moment the Attack at Pearl Harbor began on December 7th. In returning to Fort Shafter, he was ordered to the hospital to await the injured. He refused and returned to Hickham Field to aid the wounded there.

Later, hit in the face by shrapnel from a bomb, he was again ordered to the hospital, this time for himself. Again he refused and stayed to help those more seriously wounded than he.

Near the end of the attack, he watched the last nine Japanese aircraft fly over head and could see the lead pilot in that plane.

Two years later in 1943, on duty at Waikakalaua Hospital on Oahu, Hawaii, Milton met Lt. Maureen Strever, a nurse. They married that May and from that union had a daughter Kathleen after the war.

Decades later, he saw that same Japanese flight leader he had seen at Pearl, now at the Pearl Harbor 50th Anniversary. In 2016 on the 75th anniversary, a book was published on both of their first-person accounts of the event.

Living in Orange, Milton lost his beloved Maureen some fifteen years ago and leaves behind his daughter Kathleen. Milton Verberg is not just a Survivor of Pearl Harbor, he is a Hero and has a Bronze Star to prove it.

Many thanks to Douglas Westfall publisher The Paragon Agency for writing this tribute to my Dad.