December 7, 1941 – 80 Years Ago Today
Usually, the USS Arizona gets the most recall of events, but lest we forget, all the ships docked in Battleship Row were under attack.
This is a review of the attack on USS Oklahoma, related to us by some survivors of that event.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdcchyDNHhk
Category: America, Historical, Navy, War Stories
Thank you Ex-Apropos as the last 33 are set to be interred in the Punch Bowl.
Ol’ Poe has been to numerous national cemeteries all across the country including multiple solemn visits to our main one at Arlington. All are impressive sites, well-maintained by the federal government and impressive to behold.
However, without question, the most visually breathtaking of these is the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, better known as the Punchbowl. I would strongly recommend to any here at TAH who find themselves on Oahu, take the time to make that pilgrimage.
You will not regret it. The memory of that incredibly beautiful and moving tribute to our honored dead will remain with you forever.
https://youtu.be/9yWpYuoELEw
All:
Poetrooper nailed this…He is so right..Spot On.
We were stationed in Hawaii and had the honor and privilege of visiting the Punchbowl. We always ensured we took our family and friends who visited us to that beautiful, solemn site.
Well worth the time and visit.
In memory of all who lost their lives on 7 December 1941 (Military and Civilians) on Oahu..May they all Rest In Peace.
Salute. Thank You, Ex-PH2 and Poetrooper for sharing.
“We have awakened a sleeping giant” is a understatement.
https://youtu.be/yeIaamzG0GI
In Casablanca:
We are SO disgusted by this.
Check out what these folks did to WWII Veterans today:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/left-wing-shutdown-dc-protest-blocks-traffic-around-nations-capital
“Left-Wing Shutdown DC Protest Blocks Traffic Around Nation’s Capital: Demonstrators’ Causes Include Climate Change, Immigration, Voting Rights, Health Care and Racial Justice”
“According to conservative podcaster Lyndey Fifield, the blockades did more than just draw attention to their causes: they also got in the way of World War II veterans looking to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, which took place on Dec. 7, 1941.”
Oneday, Those Folks Are Gonna Reap What They Sow…
As Sir Arthur Harris said so sternly, many years ago: “They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind”.
Tradition – the act of Commemoration ALWAYS takes precedent over the act of Protest.
I guess no one’s ever explained this to the ‘Woke’ crowd…
Oh, they’ll pay for it some day, ninja. Never fear. What goes around, comes around.
And in 1941 it had been 80 years since the start of the American Civil War.
Amazing to think about.
I met a Pearl Harbor survivor in 2001 at a Memorial Day event when it had been just 60 years. Man “joined the Navy to get out of the house and ended up all over the world on a great adventure,” as he put it. I was in awe of his positive perspective on a traumatic experience. Wonderful man.
Baby Poe was born in June of that eventful year in his mama and daddy’s bed in a small rental house in rural, Southern Illinois.
His daddy would go on to serve as a machinist’s mate on an LST in several Pacific island invasions.
Poe has often weighed that reality that only eighty years had lapsed between the Civil War and his birth.
We have a tendency to forget just how brief the intervals are between our own existences and past historical events.
It’s rather startling when you do…
I knew a CID agent who had been a young army private at Schofield Barracks on that day. He said back then you had to give up a stripe to get to Hawaii. He was still in the army in 1969, when he retired at Fort Richardson, Alaska. CW3 Sam Sumerall- quite a man.
“…’lest we forget.” We must never forget that the World is full of people that hate the USA, despite what all we have done to help the World. We must also never forget the Sacrifice that was made by SO many in order to do that. It was a privilege for this White Boy to do his small part.
Below is a linky of a local Sailor, George Vining that died serving on USS California. He is buried very near another local Hero, Marine Sgt Rodney Davis, MoH Earner.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/central-georgia-remembers-macon-native-who-died-in-attack-on-pearl-harbor/ar-AARwcVC?ocid=BingNews
My grandfather was in Pearl Harbor.
He passed years ago and never used the internet so never had the chance to connect with his buddies like survivors can today.
He retired Navy and then again as a Navy civilian so he was able to stay connected to the service, but whenever this time of year comes around I feel bad he didn’t live long enough to connect with folks on the internet.
Grr – In response to those who don’t deserve the freedoms and privileges’ others have earned for them exemplified in ninja’s comment. And, to the one (idiot friend of an idiot -no longer tolerated -friend) who dared argue against honoring today “because of what we did to the Japanese”, I went on a rant. I know I’m preaching to the choir here – 80 years ago, Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese, reluctantly pulling the United States into the conflagration consuming the world. Last week, the final 33 sailors of the USS Oklahoma were identified and will be interred together in the Punch Bowl, rendering their ship, their former tomb, an honored a cenotaph. The spot is memorialized as the place where the mighty USS Missouri honors, teaches and exists in commemoration of the unconditional surrender of the Japanese Emperor. Hirohito and his Generals were on a quest for complete domination and control of the Pacific Rim and East Asia. They calculated that with European powers being occupied by Hitler, all they needed to do was eliminate the threat of the United States. By the time the United States ended the war and forced their unconditional surrender, their stampede across Asia ultimately took the lives of more than 25,000,000 civilians. The Japanese lost more than 1,400,000 of their own soldiers. The United States sacrificed 111,606 Sailors, Soldiers, Airmen and Marines. On August 6th, 1945 the United States dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, killing an estimated 129,000 people. Japan vowed to never surrender. On August 8th, 1945 the second nuclear bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing another 226,000. Hirohito finally understood the prophecy in his own words, “we have woken a sleeping giant” and believed us when we said the next bomb would be on Tokyo where an estimated 3.5 million still lived despite three years of extensive, conventional bombing. Had we dropped the third bomb, as catastrophic as that death toll would have been, it would be a fraction of that caused by the Japanese in China, the Philippines and across the Pacific. On this day it is… Read more »
Bravo.
Standing Applause!!! And you wonder why we love you OAM?
Well said, Ma’am.
Preach it, OAM.
OAM, you might want to also add to your backup to shut up the naysayers that the Japanese were so full of themselves about their superiority, they went to Beijing ahead of their attack on Pearl Harbor and slaughtered Chinese men and women both. It is referred to as the Rape of Beijing. You can also dig up the history of the Bataan death march, and what happened to anyone who stumbled or got sick.
They were so full of notions of their own superiority that anything not Japanese was a target, and that included women and children. Sometimes you have to find a way to slap down the idiots who think they know everything. The only reason Japan is what it is today is that they were bitch slapped by the USA good and hard.
If we had not done what we did, those cranks who complain about that war might not be alive today.
FYI – I downloaded and watched an absolutely incredible three part documentary on the December 7th attack called ‘Attack on Pearl Harbor: Minute by Minute’. What made it so incredible was almost all of the footage was in colour and all of the in-depth survivor interviews were utterly enthralling.
https://realscreen.com/2021/06/30/channel-5-barcroft-to-co-produce-minute-by-minute-pearl-harbor-docuseries/
Anyone interested it, let me know and I’ll ‘park’ the series on a file-host somewhere.
I’ll just leave this right here Brother.
OK, OK!! Was over at MilPhonies’s checking out the latest MEAT!!! Will get to uploading this three part series – the Zip-file will be slightly less than 2 Gb’s – in the next hour or so – depending on up and down baud. BBS
Hatchet,
Good catch. Incoming….
He’s already being BBQed on his own December 5 BBQ post
(and other posts) on his Book of the Fake,
which may not survive the next 24 hours.
Ironic, that December 7 is the day a
Navy short timer
Phony Navy SEAL welding subcontractor experiences
his own personal Pearl Harbor, or more accurately,
his own personal Tripoli.
He’ll soon regret using the Trident M
on his (disabled veteran owned?) company logo and company trucks.
(Link to his Book of the Fake, also linked in MP)
https://www.facebook.com/jose.montanez.56481
For the fans and readers,
internet sleuths and detail hunters,
in anticipation of a VG article today…
Here is the Fu of Google on the Phony Navy SEAL’s company.
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Molagik+Welding%22
Hatchet, I hadn’t read your comment yet when I wrote mine below about the B-17’s flying in to Oahu.
After I posted it, I then read your comment, followed the link and watched the video.
Lo and behold, there’s my B-17 formation…
Ol’Poe is forgetful so he can’t remember how long it’s been since he told this tale here at TAH, but even knowing that I have, it’s worth retelling. One of my broker reps, a forty-ish divorcee, had done an exceptional job for me at Eglin AFB so I rewarded her with dinner at an expensive restaurant in Pensacola. Her date for the evening was a retired Air Force colonel who turned out to be an absolutely wonderful raconteur and dinner guest. After a superb dinner with multiple bottles of wine, we returned to Casa Poe out west of NAS Pensacola in a neighborhood filled with naval aviators, to continue our drinking and to hear more tales from this old warrior’s thirty-plus years of service in multiple wars. When I asked him about his WWII experiences he responded that he had been involved from the very first day, Dec. 7th, 1941. Assuming he’d been at Hickam AAF or Wheeler AAF, I asked which and he responded, “Neither, but I was enroute.” When I raised my eyebrows inquiringly, he explained that he was a few hundred miles east of Oahu, on a flight of B-17’s inbound from the mainland. I was amazed as I’d long ago read about that flight of B-17’s. “You were in THAT flight of B-17’s?” and he nodded. I said, “Hold up, Colonel, I have a lot of young pilots, NFO’s and RIO’s as neighbors and I know they’d love to hear this story.” Even though it was late, it was a friday night, so I got on the phone and within a short time our living-room den, thankfully large, was filled with young navy and marine aviators, the most senior a marine major Vietnam vet, sitting around this colonel, listening raptly and asking aviator questions, like he was the Socrates of military aviation. It was a wonderful night that went on into the wee hours and ended up costing Poe a fortune for all the beer and booze. They cleaned out Casa Poe’s stock but it was well worth it for the experience. They were, after all,… Read more »
Poe, uploading the series now(single 7z/zip file). Going to take a while but will post the D/L linky when this three part series file is properly uploaded and done.
And based on present observed baud upload rate for this 3 part Pearl Harbor file, looks like I’ll be posting the link tomorrow morning. Sorry. Like Crusty the Clown – Don’t blame me, blame my ISP!
Bro, might’ve posted it before but thank you for relating that one now. That’s some true ‘ring-side’ stuff. And for him to pass on his part in history to you? Hugely cool. And yeah, fukit. Dry for supply or not-Alcohol is the Lubrication of Life!
Put Ol’ Glory out to’day.
Vibrant she stood, softly sway’n in the bright blue sky as I saluted her.
The least I could do to commemorate such a day. One that lead to a generation being forged into greatness.
Thank you to the men and women who did their best that day, and all the days after. Greatest doesn’t seem enough…
My album collection on Flickr of my Pearl Harbor photos:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/taobrien/collections/72157718555080395/
I see the USS Arizona still ‘weeps’ black tears(oil). Thank you for sharing those pic’s, FuzeVT
Those pictures of the ground with the oil all over the place were taken from Ford Island. Having a military ID allowed me access to Ford Island via the bridge and I was able to take several pictures of the Arizona Memorial from the area adjacent to the base housing there (didn’t know there was base housing there, actually. As an aside, how would you like the view that greats you when you leave your house in the morning be the fricking Battleship Missouri?) I collected a few of the oil covered rocks. Pretty cool.
https://flic.kr/p/2eeZuPY
My Dad enlisted in the Army on Sept. 10th, 1940 and was Coast Arty out of Ft. Tilden, NY. He was in the movie theater on Liberty ave in Richmond Hill Queens NY with his girlfriend soon to be my Mom on Sunday Dec. 7th When her dad came into the movie theater and told My Dad and the date was broken off as he reported back to Ft. Tikden.
Grandpa had enlisted into the federalized National Guard for his “one year” of federal service February 1940. They had participated in the Louisiana Maneuvers and were still in the swamp, counting down the weeks until they could leave the mud and go back to their lives.
Come 7 December, they realized they weren’t getting back home in February. Put on guard duty along the Gulf Coast in the early days, they soon made it up to New York, then Britain, and into North Africa. They went to war, but not with the Japanese like they’d expected after the attack.
Still uploading. Based on present observed upload baud rate(approx 23:00hrs local), probably be a couple/three hours. Wish I could make it go faster but… More ASAP.
FINALLY!! Uploaded and posted, *whew* For the sake of OpSec, renamed it ‘Infamy’. Contained therein are the the three requested episodes of Attack on Pearl Harbor: Minute by Minute. No password, just unzip, or unrar or whichever file-decompression software you’re using – this .7z file can be opened by all of the afore mentioned. Anyone without this software onboard their ‘puter – just go to Sourceforge or the 7-zip site itself. Installation is easy(install in Programs directory, etc) and if desired, uninstall when done with. And for those that may want it, I’ve also included a link for die-hard WinDoze-WinZip users. Hint: SourceForge software is all Open Source(Free). And to cover all possible software bases – CoDecs(audio/visual compression/decompression) for video format – in this case, this is a Matroska file aka .mkv format. For brevity of info – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matroska . If you find these files do not play on your ‘puter(which, in all likelihood – will play just fine), in case they don’t play – go here and download this CoDec pack(hint: get the Basic pack – it just works and doesn’t use up a lot of drive space) – https://codecguide.com/download_kl.htm
https://sourceforge.net/projects/sevenzip/
https://www.7-zip.org/download.html
https://www.win-rar.com/
https://www.winzip.com/en/
===================
File format: .7zip
7-zip Content: episode 1, 2, 3,
File size: 1.89 Gb’s
File Resolution: 720×1280
File Content Format: Matroska/.mkv
No PW
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16348586/
https://1fichier.com/?co3uzvpwvqx7n53giy8w
P.S. be interested to hear from those that care to share – what their download speed was and how much time it took to download this file from this file-host in France to your ISP/You. Cheers an outta here!!
Well just…DAMN! No lucky on the linkys. I’m either (a) doing some thing wrong (b) This Cloud Based Chromie won’t crossload since there is no drive (c) The Security Firewalls that my Boy put in here is seeing something sketchy or (d) All of the above. No can see…yet. Gonna forward this to my Boy in SD and see if he can Help me Oh Bee Juan Kee no Bee he’s my only hope.
I may have been parried, but I will endeavour, I will persevere. Watch for my next thrust.
Yeah, all of the issues you make mention of could be your culprit/blocker but as you made mention of ‘Cloud Based Chromie won’t crossload since there is no drive’, seems to be the most likely of the four to me. And yeah, I’ll keep a wary eye out for your next thrust but in the mean time, I solemnly attest I did not parry you. No Sir. That effort would just take waaay too many calories to do… Today’s physio session was like a bad out-take from the movie ‘300’ – took too damn long, hurt like a mutherfucker and I didn’t like it one bit. Going to get a shot of something hi-test and get horizontal. I’ve earned both. FTW-especially that puss-nut, no-load POS Jose Carlos Montanez. Oh and while I’m at it – Buck Joe Fiden.
Off I git.
At the risk of getting into Hondo’s Rice Bowl, and the tremendous job he has done on posting the IDed members of USS Oklahoma, I’d like to post an article that I found on the back story that went into IDing these Warriors. Pictures and a story on one of them.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/inside-the-80-year-quest-to-name-pearl-harbor-s-unknown-victims/ar-AAR2CGq?ocid=BingNews
And a nice visual here –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPAlHuUq87A
You can murder me later, Hondo.
Does anyone know if all the Marines killed on the Oklahoma were identified?