Lighthouse Stamps Tell of History

These images provided by the U.S. Postal Service shows the five 41-cent postage stamps showing lighthouses. The stamps feature, from left, Diamond Head Light, Five Finger Islands Light in Alaska, Grays Harbor Light in Washington, Umpqua River Light in Oregon and St. George Reef Light in California. (AP Photo/USPS) (AP)

"I think it's kind of cool, to recognize the old sentinels built back in the sailing days," Peckham, of North Bend, Ore., said in a telephone interview.

Larsen, of Novato, Calif., says working as a radioman at a lighthouse was a "gravy job," at least until the bombs started falling.

Even then he wasn't sure what was happening. He thought it might be Army war games, even though it was Sunday.

He could see the red ball insignia on the planes and knew it wasn't U.S. Navy, but thought it might be Army in disguise. But when local radio stopped regular programming the lighthouse crew realized what was going on.

A fishing boat called in saying an Army pilot must have gone crazy and was attacking them and they were sinking. Larsen passed the message along, but there was little that could be done to help.

A passenger ship that had left the night before radioed in to ask what was going on and Larsen replied that they were under attack by unknown planes _ the Coast Guardsmen were afraid to say Japanese planes, because of diplomatic issues, he said in a telephone interview.

He then told the ship that it had better stop sending radio messages, in case submarines were listening in.

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