1. Asbury Park Press Dec. 22, 2003
George E. Elliott Jr., Army radar operator who warned in vain of Pearl Harbor
attack
By Ed Prince
Staff Writer
PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- George E. Elliott Jr., the Army radar operator who detected
the impending attack on Pearl Harbor only to have his warning ignored, has died.
Formerly of Long Branch, he died Saturday, Dec. 20, in Port Charlotte at the age of 85.
Elliott was a 23-year-old private and apprentice radar operator assigned to one of the
Army's new radar units on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, on the morning of the Japanese
attack, Dec. 7, 1941.
He and Pvt. Joseph L. Lockard had been practicing plotting aircraft with the unit and had
been scheduled to turn it off at 7 a.m. But Elliott, who had transferred to from the Army
Air Corps to the aircraft warning service only three months before, asked for more time
with the set.
It was to be a fateful decision.
At 7:02 he saw a large blip on the radar scope, a formation of aircraft 100 miles northeast
of Hawaii. Although he did not know it, Elliott was seeing the incoming Japanese planes.
"Sure, it was the biggest blip I ever saw," he commented during a 1960 interview with the
Asbury Park Press. "But I didn't think of the Japs. It was still peacetime. No one expected
war. The blip made a wonderful tracking problem."
He called over Lockard and urged him to report the sighting. At first Lockard thought
that the set was malfunctioning and took the controls.
But at 7:09 a.m., with Lockard's approval, Elliott called the Army Information Center to
give the warning. The officer in charge, Lt. Kermit Tyler, was out of the office, but called
back.
When he did, Lockard picked up the phone and reported the sighting.
Tyler replied that they were probably seeing a flight of American B-17 bombers that were
due to fly in from California. "Forget it," he said.
As a result, American forces 40 miles across the island at Pearl Harbor were caught
unprepared -- with disastrous results.

2. Twelve ships and most of the aircraft on the island were destroyed, and 2,326 officers
and men were killed.
America had been dealt a devastating blow because Elliott's sighting went unheeded.
Elliott and Lockard continued to track the planes until they went off the radar screen a
few minutes before the attack commenced.
They were unaware of the attack until they turned off the set and returned to their camp,
where they learned of the destruction.
Elliott then returned to the radar station, where he remained day and night until January.
Ironically, although he was the first to detect the incoming planes and urge that they be
reported, Elliott's role was largely unheralded.
Lockard, on the other hand, received national publicity and was given the Distinguished
Service Medal and a promotion to second lieutenant.
Elliott was transferred to Fort Monmouth in July 1942, and remained stateside for the rest
of the war.
But he too had his moment in the spotlight when he was called on to testify at a
congressional board of inquiry on the attack in February 1946.
About six months after the hearing, Elliott was offered the Legion of Merit medal, but
refused it.
"It was a matter of principle," he said in 1960. "We didn't do anything outstanding. Now,
if we had saved some lives, it would have been different."
Elliott had enlisted in the U.S. Army 1940, and two weeks after his discharge as a
sergeant in 1945, he began working for New Jersey Bell Telephone Co. in Asbury Park.
He was an employee of the company for 33 years before retiring.
Elliott's and Lockard's role in the Pearl Harbor tragedy was portrayed in the 1970 movie
about the attack, "Tora Tora Tora," which he admitted seeing four times.
The movie's account of his role was substantially accurate, he recalled in a 1970
interview with the Press, although the actor playing him could have been a little taller, he
said.
Born in Chicago, he lived in Long Branch most of his life before moving to Florida.

3. He was predeceased by his wife, Margaret Wright Elliott in 1990; and two sisters, Evelyn
Nordstrom of Fort Myers, Fla., and Rose Barnhill of Kentucky. Surviving are a brother,
Clarence Elliott of Port Charlotte, Fla.; a son, George Thomas Elliott of Navesink; and
his companion, Eloise Faulkner of Port Charlotte, Fla.
Interment will be private.