We Remember
President Coolidge said long ago, “The nation which forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten.” We remember. America will not forget.
Please take a moment today and remember the fallen. Each ship or base name is a link to the list of people that were killed as a result of the attack. There are still some whose names are known only to God.
Category: We Remember
I went to MEPS in October. I came back a second time after my physical and contract went through the system and I raised my right hand and was sworn in Delayed Entry in 1983….On December 7th. Forever it was my Pay Date and this day, I remember. I left for Basic April 30th the following Spring
I didn’t realize they attacked Midway that day. They probably could have taken it THAT day. Imagine what the repercussions of that would have been.
Pearl, Midway, Wake, and the Philippines were all hit somehow in the space of a few hours. Jap submarines were also torpedoing ships within sight of Santa Barbara and lobbing shells at an oil refinery in Long Beach (luckily their gunner couldn’t hit shit). And if memory serves, the invasion of Guam was only a day or two later.
Oh, yeah. I knew about the others, but not Midway. Taking that island on 7 December would have been more catastrophic strategically than striking Pearl. Really surprising that Yamamoto didn’t make it a priority.
We should also remember how we prosecuted that war against an enemy sworn to defeat us. We didn’t worry so much about killing their wives, sons, daughters, and the elderly and infirm. We just burned their fucking cities to the ground before we nuked two of them to send the message that we will rain down hellfire until you either stop fucking with us or all of you die….
That’s a lesson our candy-assed fellow citizens would do well to remember today, but they will not as they sit comfortably pretending what’s really wrong with the ME isn’t ideology but economy.
We waged and won an actual WORLD war in 4 years. A little over 14 years after 9/11, well you know the rest.
WTF. Out.
Sorry to spill beer on your little rant, but the Second World War was against established nation-states. The GWOT was against ideology. Two very different things. More to the point, we could tell who the enemy was. Hitler’s thugs were upfront about their evil, even to the point of wearing death’s heads on their uniforms. But with the GWOT – and Viet Nam, now that I think of it – the enemy faded into the background and disguised themselves as civilian noncombatants. Really, comparing the Second World War to the GWOT is like comparing apples to oranges.
“When we’re done, the Japanese language will only be spoken in Hell.”
–Vice Admiral William F. Halsey, December 11, 1941
God, I love Halsey!
I would have loved to be on his flagship!
Kinda makes you want to vote for a candidate who would say something like “and if elected and we are attacked, I will issue only one Presidential order: Bounce the rubble – repeatedly.”
Veritas Omnia Vincit…As usual, thank you. Better said than I.
Never forgotten. Including one of my uncles.
15:10 EST 10:10 HST
The attack was ending, damage assessments had begun and news of the attack was reaching the mainland.
Military forces on the islands were preparing for the invasion of Japanese forces that many thought would follow.