In the backseat of Lessig's 1950 Buick staff car was Gen. Minoru Genda, one of the first naval officers in the world to realize the potential of using aircraft carriers to project air power.
"It was a bone-chilling experience," said former Air Force Master Sgt. Baughman, 76, of West Chester. "I always remember [Genda's comments] around this time, as we get close to the anniversary of the attack."
Baughman said he "felt like Forrest Gump" with a front seat on history.
He recalls meeting or chauffeuring a host of other dignitaries from 1955 to 1958, including Cardinal Francis Spellman; variety show host Ed Sullivan; Chinese leader Chiang Ching-kuo, son of Taiwan President Chiang Kai-shek; as well as a host of world golf professionals.
"I got to see Bob Hope doing a live Christmas taping at Johnson Air Base on my 23d birthday, just before coming home in 1958," he said.
But it's the memory of Genda - with his proud manner and piercing eyes - that still stands apart from all the others.
"I'll never forget him," said Baughman, who married a Japanese woman in Tokyo in 1956. "I had him in the car three times.
"He and Gen. Lessig carried on normal conversations, like two old friends, while I took them to conferences near Toyko."
Genda "didn't fly during the Pearl Harbor attack due to illness," Baughman said, "but much of what he planned was carried out."
The Japanese officer "described the island, explained how the planes went over certain areas for strafing and bombing," Baughman said. "He went into everything in detail, what they planned and what they did."
Genda, who was commissioned a general in the Japan Air Self-Defense Force after the war, told Lessig he had hoped to take the attack much further.
