By Sylacauga native Jim Zeigler
They were headed separately to Pearl Harbor, a peaceful assignment in Hawaii — or so they thought. He, a new medical doctor. She, a nurse.
They first met in San Francisco, waiting for a ship to take them to Honolulu. They fell in love and married.
Dr. Howard L. Cockerham and wife, nurse Itaskah Maxwell Cockerham, then lived in a house overlooking Pearl Harbor. Her unusual name is Native American, which runs strongly in her blood.
On Sunday morning, Dec. 7, 1941, Dr. Cockerham was the doctor-in-charge at the hospital at Pearl Harbor. He was finishing up three days on duty, or so he thought. Just as he was getting ready to turn the charge over and leave, wounded soldiers began being brought in by the dozens. They were from the airfield, which was the first target of Japanese attacks, so American planes could not defend the rest of the attack. They had bullet wounds.
“They look like they have been in a war,” Dr. Cockerham proclaimed. How right he turned out to be, the very beginning of America’s Pacific Theatre of World War II.
It didn’t take long before an attack on the airfield spread to a major attack on the harbor and its “Battleship Row.”
As the dead began to be brought in, Dr. Cockerham and the hospital quickly ran out of room and had to stack bodies in the hallway. That’s a sight that will stay with you for the rest of your life.
Meanwhile, Nurse Cockerham was at their home overlooking Pearl Harbor. She was aware that war games had been conducted just a few days before. When she began to hear the booms and see the smoke over the harbor, she at first thought it was more war games. A lot of locals thought that but for only a short time.
She tried to get in touch with her husband, who was supposedly finishing up his duty to come home. Communications had either been cut off or knocked out. For three days, Nurse Cockerham did not know what had happened to her husband.
Dr. Cockerham continued to work on the hundreds of wounded. Finally, he was relieved and got to go home. It was the first time that Mrs. Cockerham knew that he was alive and heard the stories of the wounded and dead.
The Cockerham residence was situated where it did not get hit. Dr. Cockerham and Nurse Cockerham were not injured.
Dr. Cockerham was then ordered to islands in the Pacific where he headed MASH units for three years.
Fast forward a decade. Goodwater and Coosa County did not have a medical doctor. The Cockerham couple and their growing family moved there and made a life-changing impact.
It’s a long way from Pearl Harbor to Goodwater. The same doctor treating the wounded at Pearl Harbor later treated the sick and injured in Alabama.
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler writes about Alabama’s people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at ZeiglerElderCare@yahoo.com.