HONOLULU – Today marks Pearl Harbor Day, and with it a little known piece of credit union history.
On Dec. 7, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, P.W. Eldred, the treasurer of what was then Hawaiian Air Depot Employees FCU, was killed while trying to reach the credit union. On that morning the credit union took a direct bomb hit that destroyed most of its member records for loans and shares. In the months that followed not just the credit union but those records also had to be reconstructed, and HADEFCU would not reopen again until Jan. 11, 1942.
In June of 1950, Hawaii Air Depot EFCU changed its name to Hickam Federal Credit Union, to reflect an FOM serving the Air Force base of the same name. Today the credit union has a community charter.
