75th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor attack
Seventy-five years ago today we were “suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan” leading to our ultimate involvement in the war which the rest of the world had been fighting for more than two years. Wiki records our casualties on that day;
All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four being sunk. All but one were later raised, and six of the eight battleships returned to service and fought in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,402 Americans were killed and 1,282 wounded. Important base installations such as the power station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section) were not attacked. Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 65 servicemen killed or wounded. One Japanese sailor was captured.
Here is a link to President Roosevelt’s request to Congress for a declaration of war the following day.
Category: Historical
Such a solemn occasion.
It was the day I officially enlisted and it was my Pay date for the next 23 years.
Never Forget indeed.
I was but 15 months old on that day, but as I grew, it was often the topic of conversation, merging with conversation of the D-Day event of 3 years later. I remember gas, sugar and rubber rationing.
I remember seeing my Grandmother and Grandfather’s ration book from back then with its remaining stamps (I think my idiot cousin absconded with it after Grandma’s passing)and I saw the WWII country store exhibit in the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola where they had price tags in stamps. A different era back than, I wonder how harshly they treated black marketeers in that day?
Here is a link to the US Navy Historical Center: https://www.history.navy.mil
Read the story of Chief Water Tender (Boiler Tech) Peter Tomich. Most of the MOH medals awarded to US Navy Chiefs have a direct corellation to strong deckplate leadership and taking care of your people first.
For the hell of it once I typed in “December 7, 1951” to see if/how the nation reacted to the 10 year anniversary. Guess they weren’t to big on that stuff at the time, most papers they said mentioned it in the back pages. Perhaps a bitter memory still and they didn’t want old tensions resurfacing?
I remember seeing many many more Pearl Harbor survivors even just 15-20 years ago as a scout. Very sad to see so few today. Losing precious links to our very important history.
My grandfather was a Pearl Harbor survivor. He continued to serve until retirement and then served as a Department of Navy employee.
I hold tremendous respect for a lifetime of service like that.
According to some members of this board that means he never held a “real” job.
Defending your nation is a real job. Working for you own self interest should not be held with higher regard than serving you country. Especially on a board of “veterans”.
Thanks to your Grandfather for his selfless service.
Did you really have to poke at “members of this board” in the same post? I know – stupid question.
Of course he did, OldManchu. Piuperdink has no sensibility or common sense. Just wants to pick a fight before breakfast, because he doesn’t have anything else to do.
I was going to talk about my grandfather’s service.
Then I realized this board is full of brainwashed psuedo-capitalist cult members and his service would not be respected because he never held a “real job” chasing profit.
And I got pissed off.
Commissar Poodle:
Please have some respect for the purpose of this thread (remembering the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor) and take your irrelevant opinions of the participants on this board elsewhere.
Your comments regarding ‘brainwashed psuedo-capitalist cult members’ is out of line in this forum.
You got pissed off? Really? You’re perpetually pissed off, Piuperdink.
You can’t just mention that your grandfather survived a nasty ambush by the Japs, can you?
No, you have to turn it into another one of your butthead pissing and snorting sessions and make it all about you.
Go back to your therapist and tell her I told you to get some professional help with your problem. Trump won. You lost. Deal with it, sport, or shut up.
He is a selfish millennial attention whore of a prick, that’s all.
Gen-X attention whore, actually. He’s posted info elsewhere that indicates he’s in his 40s – mid-40s, probably.
Google his name… mid 40’s type with pics of him on campus.
Probably turned 45 years old sometime this year.
Graduated high school with the Class of 89.
Shit! I was class of ’89. Now I’m ashamed I didn’t know we had produced even a single whiner of his caliber that far back.
So you pissed yourself off. Nice work!
If this board pisses you off so much, why don’t you just stop visiting it? here’s got to be a few other sites out there that have people of the same mindset as you.
Grow the fuck up, Lars… and keep your politics out of this thread.
What a royal asshole you are Commissar. No matter what you call yourself, you’ll always be that: a royal asshole.
And this comes from a 45 year old perennial student whose idea of a real job is being a government bureaucrat getting a government paycheck. Hey dipshit, what do you think generates the $$$ that pays the taxes that funds those government jobs? Guess what, it is those free enterprise businesses making a profit, you shit-for-brains crypto-commie ex-REMF.
And if your father were still around, he’d probably knock the shit out of you for being such a shitty progeny.
Douchebag move, but that’s to be expected from him.
He’s just trying to hijack the thread. I say just ignore his sorry ass or better yet, hit the “report comment” button for every one of his comments.
Too bad “poodle” wasn’t even worthy of being a pimple on his grandfathers butt!!
Who said that Lars? Give us a direct quote.
FYI-“serving your country” is not at all the same thing as feather bedding yourself into the bureaucracy where you strive to make the lives of private citizens more difficult (this part differentiates DOD employees from those in most regulatory agencies) and where you can earn a lot more than those in private industry and get better benefits (see the various VA scandals documented by Jonn and others).
All respect for your grandfather, but that doesn’t mean that any Fedgov employee is exempt from criticism.
And even if he can provide a direct quote, it was still a dick move for Lars to combine his obviously sensitive little scab in the same post as his mentioning of his Grandfather.
As well as his poke at “veterans”. Obviously hinting that anyone who served a single term, or less than he or his Grandpa did, is not a veteran.
He is trying to start a dick measuring contest using his Grandfather’s service as the ruler.
I agree with all of that, but I’ll bet that any quote he provides will be completely stripped of any context or would not have been intended for someone like Lars’ grandfather in the first place.
But yeah, typical dick move by Lars.
Don’t you have to have one to start that kind of contest?
I put “veterans” in quotes because some of the things said on this board makes me suspect a few posers amongst the regulars.
Well, Piuperdink, maybe you’re one of them!
Stop using ‘Poodle’ in your name, willya? Poodles are smarter than you are. Extremely intelligent, bred for hunting waterfowl, not nearly close to how those silly pompon showcuts make them look. Frankly, I’m not sure you can measure up to a real poodle’s smarts if all you want to do is pick fights.
YOU are the one that named my “Poodle”. I just adopted it.
Then stop using it, Piuperdink.
Commissar apparently respects and assumes the names you come up with for him, Ex-. Please refer to him as Commissar or Asshole so he can adopt one of those and again blame you for it.
Nope, Air Cav, Piuperdink suits ol’ Larsie-poo to a T.
hmm..
Zampolit Piuperdink
That works.
Poifect!
I’m the one that said you remind me of a turd I went through Engineer OSUT with that our Drill Sergeants nicknamed “Poodledick”, REMEMBER?
I suspect a few posers as well. I don’t shower the others with it though. You do what you want. I just thought I’d mention an alternative way of dealing with suspicions you admitted are specific to the few.
I suspect no one here to be a poser.
Wow, talk about doubling down on stupid, Lars. Why don’t you go talk to Bernath and the other members of the DRG to “confirm your suspicions” about “the regulars” here at TAH. Maybe he and his minions are more to your liking?
Dick move… Yes. He just went “balls deep” with that move…
I doubt your ability to “suspect”!!
Well why don’t you start naming names, motherfucker?
You want to throw down, by all means, have at it! I’m sure anyone here would be happy to send their 214 to Jonn (as I have) or sign a SF-180 just to get you to STFU and go away!
“.. that doesn’t mean that any Fedgov employee is exempt from criticism.”
Whip me beat me call me names, make me write bad checks…36 years and counting baybee!
“Whip me beat me call me names,”
Were you replying to me of Ex-PH2?
It’s the part about bad checks that concerns me.
I was just being funny. It’s hit and miss….but I amuse myself in the process.
Well, SARC, it was indeed funny, but the Freudian implications can be a concern. 🙂
It’s what I do.
Just what kind of movies do you watch, IDC_SARC? May I direct you to a website that provides literary entertainment for those who are frustrated by the rather mundane attributes of their daily lives?
Don’t go there, Sarc!!! It’s a dominatrix site…
IDC SARC, think “Internations Woman’s Day” and “Deadpool” – the scene with Ryan Reynolds is so f’n funny
That should be “International Women’s Day”… damn head cold/vertigo…
Oh, Poe! It’s a romance novel website that reviews novels for all sorts of romantic souls, including – dare I say it? – guys.
I was just being thoughtful because the holidays are coming up.
I was just being a guy…
Ermahgerd…years ago a woman sent me to a site called “Men in Pain”….awww Hellz naw
IDC…do yourself a favor and Google, “Ouchy the Clown.”
Guaranteed hilarity.
Gee. For some reason, the way Ouchy the Clown types On hIs WebSitE kiNDa REmiNds mE oF SomEOnE eLSe. I wonder why?
“Whip me beat me call me names, make me write bad checks…”
Your idea of a perfect first date, ain’t it?
I apologize for my post.
My grandfather served the Navy his whole life, my mom retires as a Navy Civilian with 30 years service in a year, my step-father is retired Navy, and I have served my country in some capacity continuously since graduating high school.
The amount of negativity and disparaging comments about public service on this board pisses me off.
I should not have introduced that anger into my post about my grandfather.
Apology accepted.
Regarding the comments about public service, I’d suggest realizing we all don’t see everything the same way all the time. You can still get pissed if you want, but maybe give yourself a break now and then.
That’s nice, Old Manchu. I have this image of you handing Lars a nice new binky.
“My grandfather served the Navy his whole life….” No he didn’t. Unless he was born at age 17 or 18, I’m confident that he did not spend his whole life serving the Navy. Give himself (i.e., Lars)a break? Phuk him.
I’m just trying to potty train him. And I gave him a woodlands camo poncho liner instead of a binky in order to hopefully speed up the process.
🙂
You’re a better Man than I am, Old Manchu. I hope it works.
The woobie I have in my emergency sleeping bag roll is so old (circa 69) it doesn’t even have a woodland pattern to it.
Just straight OD Green like our old pickle suits.
If it bothers you so much, just go the fuck away. And public service frankly is vastly overrated, when it serves no valid purpose. Like a lot of the shit done in Obama’s name.
Da poodle is just pissed because his hero is going out on his ass in January…HALLELUJAH…and the poodle might be out of work lol
You need to read closer I think. Political service is far different in most minds on this board and elsewhere than is generally considered federal service. I hold military and productive federal service in equal high regards to any other career. But even a federal service worker, such as in the VA, not doing their job is a problem.
The key operative word here being “productive”.
None of us should be held in higher regard than anyone else….criminals in lower regard.
Beyond that, worshipping at the altar of service is not a good thing. Pretending that serving your country for 6-10-20-30 years is somehow better for the country and makes you a better person than creating jobs, paying taxes and supporting the efforts of the government is a sure fire way to build nothing but resentment. If you served to be thanked for what you did, well you got it wrong. We can thank each other and we can understand what it means to serve, but thinking it makes us more of a citizen than those who didn’t isn’t appropriate, not now, not ever.
I have tremendous respect for those who choose a difficult life of service, the country certainly needs you and should compensate your efforts appropriately when you retire. But I also respect those who make their communities better by building things, like businesses that employ people and pay the revenue required to pay for those who serve for a lifetime. We need each other, or it all comes apart.
It’s piss poor public policy to consider cops, judges, or some special snowflake victim class as having lives more valuable than the average citizen. We are all of us citizens created equal according to our earliest documents that created the nation. Laws that differentiate us create elitist factions that shouldn’t exist in a society of equals.
This is probably not a very popular opinion, but at the end of the day if someone is murdered their killer should be punished the same whether that person is a cop, or a judge, or gay, or just some poor bastard on his way home from work.
Your grandfather’s life of service is indeed something very important, and his service deserves respect. But it makes him no more or no less important than the millions of others doing their part every day to keep all parts of the nation moving forward.
Very well written, VOV!
Wow, Lars. You had a chance to make a valid comment without being a self-righteous shitlord, but you just couldn’t help yourself, could you? My 11-month-old son has more maturity.
Pro tip: this is why nobody likes you.
I also think he’s confusing our high disregard for politicians with our attitudes towards public servants. But then, that is Lar’s hallmark, confusion.
Okay, well, police officers are public servants, currently being hammered by the populist press – which they don’t deserve as a group – and in most instances, cops are good people who deserve our respect.
And then there are people who spend their lives as politicians, puffing themselves off as public servants when, in fact, most of the serving they do is to their own pockets.
Two sides of the same coin.
IMHO Lars has a mind like concrete, it’s permanently set and all mixed up! He seems like the type that is always so confused he doesn’t know whether to wind his ass or scratch his watch.
He stands around with one thumb in his mouth and one in his ass and every 15 minutes yells ‘SWITCH’
This thread was supposed to be about Pearl Harbor, the surprise attack, and how we got dragged into it in the Pacific theater.
According to what my mother told me some time back, Japan was down to about six months worth of crude petroleum – literally, running out of gas – and California did, at that time, have a major oil-producing industry, particularly in the Signal Hill district. The most recent report I could find on CA oil is dated 2012 at 197 million barrels of crude oil. California would have made a good target, and by disabling the Navy’s Pacific fleet with that attack, it left the US west coast vulnerable. It doesn’t account for why the Japanese turned around and went back home, other than ‘mission accomplished’. It’s possible that they didn’t expect the quick recovery that followed the attack. But that’s just speculation on my part.
I don’t think even they understood at that moment the insignificance of the battleship with respect to control of the ocean as compared to the aircraft carrier…with much of the fleet damaged or gone they figured they could take the territory they needed and then the US would have to agree to terms…. 7 months later at Midway, the Japanese would learn a real truth. The side that wins the carrier battles wins the war. The loss of their carriers was one they didn’t possess the manufacturing capability to overcome, which was good for us. We would have many, many carriers built in the months and years after Midway, but Japan lost 2/3rds of its large carrier force over those couple of days in June…only Shokaku and Zuikaku weren’t present to be sunk at Midway…
When not used properly, battlships could not do much to a beach either. That was discovered all over the Pacific. When you don’t shoot much at an occupied island, you don’t do much damage. The Navy did that on every island Marines went after.
A lot of that relative ineffectiveness of Naval Gunfire against Japanese targets ashore was due to the flat trajectory of the Naval Gunfire rounds. The flat trajectory of Naval Gunfire made it very difficult for the Navy to get at Japanese targets ashore that were in defilade. In addition, Naval Gunfire tends to be very accurate in azimuth, but it can be relatively inaccurate in range due to the rocking of the ship while it is firing, which can cause the rounds to impact short of the target, or (as happened at Tarawa for example) cause the rounds go long and impact well past the target. In some cases, Naval Gunfire rounds actually skipped off of the terrain without detonating due to their flat trajectory.
I’m a big fan of Naval Gunfire, and I was trained as a Naval Gunfire Spotter when I first got started in my Marine Corps career, but it definitely has its limitations.
Mick, you are so right. We had naval FO’s assigned to my infantry battalion in Vietnam in 1966 and we quickly gave up on them for their inability to narrow their field of fire beyond a few hundred yards. Those rounds sounded like freight trains going over our heads and they made a mighty blast but they couldn’t hit shit.
Here’s a photo of a WWII Marine sitting on an unexploded 16-inch round that may have skipped in off of its intended target without detonating.
http://66.media.tumblr.com/1d01c02d1eae1506a7ed6427fa605fb5/tumblr_mys45pKcHI1spwf52o1_1280.jpg
Even the carriers were a bit overrated. Surface combatants were indeed at a huge disadvantage if detected early, but that didn’t always happen (see Battle off Samar). And once the carriers had knocked eachother out, ship-to-ship gunfights were once again the order of the day.
Though the battleship-centric prewar doctrine was flawed, battleships remained important, if not the keystones they were thought to be. Our industrial capacity was definitely a war-winner, but the Army, Navy, and Marines still had to hold out for over a year before all that new iron could be brought online. The war with Nazi Germany and fascist Italy further strained that capacity, as we were also propping up the British and Russians.
Yamamoto knew this, which is why his strategy was aimed at knocking us out within the first year. It almost worked, too. We came very close to losing the war on several occasions in 1942. A shortage of fuel tankers relegated much of the Pacific Fleet’s heavy hitters to a coastal defense role, as they couldn’t reach the battlegrounds of the South Seas, while the japs could.
Years ago I read Gordon Prange’s excellent Pearl Harbor book At Dawn We Slept, and as I remember it, the commander of the Japanese task force, Admiral Nagumo, was not a big believer in Yamamoto’s plan of attack. The plan was quite daring and risky as it was. Nagumo didn’t know where the US carriers were and his schedule for exiting the theater was very tight because he had no means of refueling. So, when the first two waves were very successful with few Japanese losses, he felt it prudent to hightail it out of there rather than press the attack further against shore facilities despite the protestations of Genda, the architect of the plan.
Nagumo had a bit of George McClellan to him, as he was most concerned with avoiding losses as much as possible.
Newt Gingrich and William Forstchen *7998700(the guy wrote “One Second Adfter”, a scary bit of fiction about the US being attacked by EMP weapons) co-wrote several alt-historical novels – the one about Pearl Harbor postulates one change: Yamamoto being with the attack fleet, not in the rear. He sends in a third attack wave… with interesting consequences.
Their series on Gettysburg is one of the best alt-histories I have read, by the way.
The Japanese primary target was our aircraft carriers at Pearl. The battleships were a secondary target. The carriers sailed a few days before the attack, but the Japanese task force was already committed to the attack. According to what I have read, the Japanese strategy was to destroy our navy as an effective force and then dominate the Pacific to the point where we would sue for peace and accept the empire’s new boundaries, plus allow then the natural resources they needed to maintain it. They believed our involvement would be over in less than a year.
I had 2 uncles, an aunt and a cousin in pearl before the attack, one month before, one uncle came back to the states and ended up joining the seabees, the other uncle, aunt and cousin were survivors of the attack, both uncles were there building underground fuel storage tanks in the lava tubes…tell me rosie the velt didn’t know the attack was coming!! By the way, all 3 got out unscathed, cousin ended up joining the Marines and was stationed..where else, but Oahu! I was in the Navy on liberty and bumped into him in the international market place, small world!! that was 1959, our liberty launch went right by the Arizona going and coming, no monument there then, just the burned out remnants of the ship protruding above the water…..not sure why, even talking about it brings tears to my eyes and I wasn’t even born yet when it was attacked?
I am humbled and forever grateful for the sacrifice all Americans made following this unprovoked attack.
We should all be thankful for the nation we live in.
Indeed an appropriate sentiment for all of us who are here today thanks to their efforts.
Ditto.
On this day 75 years ago my parents were in DC working. They did not talk about it except in the most general of terms until after 9-11. That is when I discovered that the reaction of common folk that day was to walk up and down Pennsylvania Ave. My parents joined the parade. They both got very busy in the following days, but on that one, they, among many good people, simply wanted to be with others as they tried to process what had happened.
My Grandpa was in church when he heard the news. He was twenty years old and had just took a job as a painter at Consolidated Aircraft. Three weeks later, he was raising his right hand and swearing to uphold the Constitution of the United States as an enlisted man of the US Navy, length of enlistment to be “the duration of the current crisis, plus six months.” At the same time, his brother Trevor and two future brothers-in-law were enlisting in the Army.
Six months later Grandpa was dodging U-boats as an antiaircraft gunner in the Atlantic. And in a crazy little twist of fate, one night while docked at Brooklyn Navy Yard he went to a USO dance, where he met a pretty blonde girl his age (birthdays 3 weeks apart). She was second-gen American from a German family in Queens who had been working at Macy’s in Manhattan when the war started. When her brother joined the Army Air Forces, she and her sister wanted to do their part as well, so they went to work at Bendix making antiaircraft rangefinders and gun directors for the Navy, the very same ones this Irish Gunner’s Mate from San Diego took his targeting data from. Grandma and Grandpa were married in Norfolk, Virginia the following summer.
That’s a great story. Reminds me of my grandparents – my grandfather, an Italian kid from New York City, was a young Army Air Force sergeant in training in Georgia when he went to a USO dance in 1943. He saw two girls playing a strange game he’d never seen before (Chinese checkers, which my grandma loved and played till the end of her life) and asked them what it was. The young woman, who grew up on a nearby farm in southern Georgia, offered to teach him to play. One thing led to another and, three years later, they were married when grandpa was discharged. The story explains how the son of Italian immigrant from NYC fell in love with a southern belle from a very rural part of Georgia, something that was pretty unusual back in the ’40s.
Any time a pretty girl offers to teach you a game take her up on it.
Can you still call it Chinese checkers, or will some special snowflake get all butthurt??
Mom and Dad were supposed to be married soon after Dec 7. However, he was in the Reserves and was called up Dec 8, 1941 according to his 201 file. He stayed Active till the Occupation, finally getting home in early 1946. My brother was a result of that homecoming from the timing.
What I remember about this is the films we were shown in boot camp, which hadn’t deteriorated too much by then. Some of them clearly showed the damaged battleships rolling over and sailors jumping over the side into water full of oil and fuel. How any of them came out of that alive was and still is beyond me.
I saw the same films, being in hawaii, seeing the oklahoma, the Utah and the Arizona,….REALLY brought home the images…!
To my father and six uncles from both sides of the family I offer my thanks for their service. Most enlisted the week following December 7th, 1941. One uncle died in the Pacific and one in Europe. May we never forget this day, what it meant and still means. I pray we will have the men to step up should a need like this ever come upon our nation again.
This is a new 10-minute film by a Navy veteran who was a correspondent for Voice of America – Pacific.
https://youtu.be/aDjUQm0IHJE
Like many other boat sailors, during our off-crews I’d ride the ferry to our boat’s office on Ford Island. The ferry passed by the Arizona Memorial and then I’d walk past some of the plaques marking the location of ships that were targeted during the attack on Perl Harbor.
Humbling, to say the least.
For unknown reasons I’ve forgotten much about my time in the Navy however hardly a day goes by when I don’t recall those plaques think of what they represent.
My first boat had just left on Westpac when I got to Pearl, so I had a few days to kick around the island before I flew to Yoko to meet the boat.
To say the Arizona was humbling was an understatement. Years later, I found out my ex had a relative on the Arizona, and is still entombed there.
Nobody ever talks about USS VestaHe l (AR-4), the repair ship moored alongside Arizona. Vestal was among the first ships to return fire, bringing a 3-inch gun and .30-cal Lewis guns into action at 8:05. She was also among the first to be hit, taking two bombs probably meant for Arizona. The first started a fire near the forward magazines, which had to be flooded. The second punched straight through the hull and out the bottom, detonating beneath the ship, but miraculously failing to break her keel. At 8:10, Arizona’s forward magazine exploded. Dozens of men topside on Vestal were blown overboard, including her captain, Commander Cassin Young USN of Wisconsin. Uninjured, but pissed off about the japs having thrown him off his own ship, Young swam back and re-boarded Vestal. He found an inferno where Arizona had been, shrapnel had swiss-cheesed Vestal’s superstructure, gun crews had gone overboard with him, more fires were burning, and a junior officer had panicked and ordered the ship abandoned. The only thing going right was the men he saw taking badly-wounded men off of the remnant of the battleship alongside. Channeling John Paul Jones, Captain Young countermanded the abandon ship order, re-manned the guns, and gave the order to get the ship underway. Burning fuel oil from Arizona’s wreckage prevented anyone from reaching the mooring lines to cast off properly, so Bosun’s Mates took fire axes to them instead. Anticipating Young’s order, the chief engineering officer had lit the boilers immediately at the first warning of attack, so steam was up. Vestal limped away, on fire, down by the stern, and listing to starboard, her guns still hot. Recognizing that Vestal couldn’t float much longer, Young beached her in Aeia Bay. Young assigned every man not essential to the firefighting effort to a rescue party he sent to the now-capsized Oklahoma with acetylene torches. As Vestal’s fires were brought under control, he assembled more rescue and repair parties to assist other ships. Over the next few days, Vestal’s crew refloated the ship, patched her into good-enough condition, and made their way around the… Read more »
Photo of the old gal here, clearly showing her listing to starboard just slightly.
http://pacificwarbirds.com/uss-vestal-ar-4-repair-ship/
Here’s a set of photos of the career of Vestal.
http://navalwarfare.blogspot.com/2011/12/uss-vestal-collier-1-ar-4.html
What a great Story! Still remember the feeling when entering Pearl aboard ship- “Attention to Port—–“. Semper Fidelis!
“Remember Pearl Harbor” Teach it to your children, your grandchildren, kids you might coach or otherwise have an opportunity to share it with. We do that or it fades.
We do that, or it happens again… 2001.
Also, it is -essential- to remember Tokyo Bay 2 September 1945. -That- is the lesson to teach the world.
We must ever remind ourselves, set the goal of Victory, then -go get it-.
“JAPS?” Have the LA Times and NY Times apologized for that yet?
On days like this I go to the Google home page and the Bing home page. Bing always has an awesome picture. Today is one of those days.
God’s Peace and Rest to our Fallen Warriors and an eternal “Thank You” to those who answered the call and fought. My Great Uncle who I loved as a kid was with the US Army in the Pacific Campaign and saw a lot of hairy shit, yet he never uttered a word about it. I never even knew he served until after he passed away.
God bless those badasses who died and survived. I will always and forever be grateful to all of our active military and our veterans, but to anyone who gave the ultimate sacrifice or was wounded in defense of our wonderful country, I hold a special place in my heart for them. Obama has no respect for them and tried his very best to cripple this country of ours, but he is just like the japs we’re back then. They and he completely misjudged the resolve of true Americans.
My Pacific (maternal) grandfather was on a supply ship as a mid grade engineer. That ship ate a kamakazi and went down with all hands a few days after he transfered to the Enterprise as the engines master chief.
More Pearl related, I saw this a few days ago and didn’t see anyone posting it. This is a pretty awesome story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsNKolpQqwU
Good story about Elvis & the USS Arizona Memorial.
https://news.usni.org/2016/12/07/elvis-helped-save-uss-arizona-memorial
I remember watching “From Here to Eternity” as a kid, which was my first exposure to the story of Pearl Harbor. I still remember the fury I felt just from seeing those celluloid images and can’t pretend to understand how those who lived through it felt and how it affected the American people as a whole. I do remember a story, probably apocryphal, that Admiral Halsey, upon returning to Pearl Harbor aboard an aircraft carrier (the Enterprise?) said “When this war is over, the Japanese language will only be spoken in Hell!”
Just some random thoughts…God bless the United States of America and the Army in which I serve.