Charlie Braga was up early on this Sunday. He’d been out the night before with a buddy, meeting some local girls at the American Legion, but had been back home before 10 p.m. curfew. Charlie wasn’t a rule-breaker — he was a thoughtful young man, curious, soulful, responsible and sober-minded.  

Charlie was a yeoman second class in the Navy, a 22-year-old Fall River man serving aboard the USS Pennsylvania — a battleship, and the flagship of the United States Pacific Fleet, a massive 600-foot vessel capable of carrying over 1,000 men. The ship was in drydock at the naval base in Pearl Harbor, on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, undergoing a refit. 

The ship was Charlie’s home and had been for many months. He was a secretary in the ship’s executive office, and was spending the sunny morning of Dec. 7, 1941, delivering messages to the officers, walking along the Pennsylvania’s decks and through its narrow compartments. A Catholic, he often attended Mass on Sunday mornings but had a few errands to do first and planned to go later that day.

Read more from Dan Medeiros at heraldnews.com.