76th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor attack
Seventy-six 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.
Disregard the title of this video – it is not racist.
Category: We Remember
Thanks Jonn for remebering,
I just sent a couple of links if you want to add.
MCPO
“With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph — so help us God.”
FDR
God bless all who were lost and those that fought on!
My Grandfather was a senior in high school on that fateful Sunday. After graduation he enlisted in the Navy and became an Aviation Machinists Mate where he served in today’s equivalent VP squadrons in New Guinea & The Philippines until the end of the war.
Thank you for your service, Pop-pop, and thank you to the rest of The Greatest Generation.
My Father had enlisted in the Army in April 1941 and was undergoing training at Camp Shelby, MS when Pearl Harbor occurred.
Pap went on to hump a BAR for the duration and was discharged at Camp Hayes, OH in November 1945.
All four of his brothers (two older and two younger) also served at various times during the war.
Thank You to each one of them and may they all Rest In Peace.
Two uncles and a great-uncle served in Europe; one uncle was an infantryman in the Philippines and did occupation duty in Japan; he was the last to be draft and the last to pass away, this past August.
Dad was still a schoolboy, but joined the 103rd ID straight out of high school, landed in Marseilles 20 Oct. 1944 for his “all expenses paid walking tour of Europe, I just had to carry this machine gun and shoot it from time to time.”
Great uncle that I’m named after served on a destroyer escort in the south pacific.. he died just before i was born.. One grandpa couldn’t go because he was a math teacher, so he was a jersey shore coast watcher on the weekends…
My Dad served in the PTO aboard the USS Belleau Wood, CVL-24. Plank Owner, Shellback and a proud member of the Greatest Generation. He passed over the bar in 2014 to rejoin his shipmates. I miss him every day.
Had some in-laws in the Pacific but Dad was strictly Europe – already in the Reserves, he was activated December 8th and stayed active into the Occupation. Ironically, he was the OIC in a small German town after the war – the same town where I wound up headquartered in ’82-84. The trip when he came over to visit, when he could drive around all the haunts of his time I saw him revert for a while to a 30 year old, stands as one of the best afternoons of my life.
My uncle was at Pearl Harbor assigned to the USS Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania was in dry dock. He was ashore attending an outdoor Mass at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack. Joe also participated in a bunch of naval battles and campaigns in the Pacific on other ships. He never spoke of his WWII service nor the Pearl Harbor experience. It is my honor to pay my respects to this fine, kind and gentle man on this anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. RIP, Joe.
Microsoft co-founder-turned-shipwreck hunter Paul Allen announced this morning that his team on RV Petrel have located the wreck of USS Ward DD-139/APD-16 in Ormoc Bay, Philippines, where she was lost on December 7, 1944. Three years earlier, manned by a crew of Naval Reservists called up from Minnesota, Ward fired the first shots in the Pacific, catching a midget sub attempting to enter Pearl Harbor. Ward scored a hit on the sub’s conning tower with her Number-3 4-inch/50-caliber gun mount, which was probably fatal, then depth charged the contact for good measure, confirming the kill via visible debris and oil slick. https://laststandonzombieisland.com/2017/12/07/ward-who-fired-pearl-harbors-first-shot-located-after-73-years/ Ward, a Wickes-class destroyer built at Mare Island in 1918, was converted to a fast transport in 1943, trading her 4”/50s and torpedoes for 3-inch dual-purpose guns and four LCVPs. She participated in several amphibious operations in the southwest Pacific. On December 7, 1944, she was hit by a kamikaze in Ormoc Bay. With fires burning out of control, Ward was abandoned and scuttled. At least one midget sub made it into the harbor. It attacked the seaplane tender USS Curtiss and was in turn rammed and depth charged by the destroyer USS Monaghan. Due to the shallow water and the even-shallower trigger depth (less than the weapons’ rated minimum safe depth), Monaghan’s stern was tossed out of the water by the blast, causing the destroyer to go out of control and collide with a barge, causing minor damage. A second midget sub is suspected to have penetrated the Harbor and may have torpedoed USS Oklahoma. The old WWI-era “Four-Stacker” destroyers of the Wickes- and near-sister Clemson- and Caldwell-classes have a pretty interesting history. About 300 of them were built in a hurry for the Great War, with most being mothballed in the 1920s. When WWII started, many were handed over to the Royal Navy as lend-lease aid. One of them, HMS Campbeltown (formerly USS Buchanan) was famously expended in the St Nazaire Raid. Those that stayed in American hands were converted to fill numerous roles as training ships, fast transports, minesweepers, minelayers, and other auxiliaries. Some even… Read more »
I think today of my father and several uncles who fought in WWII. All of their generation hold my highest esteem. As it was said, “All gave some and some gave all.”
God rest those we lost and who have died since and give peace to those few remaining with us.
My grandfather went to ROTC at Ft Knox in 1936 and was commissioned an infantry officer in 37. He was called to active duty in 42 and by virtue of having an civil engineering degree, was appointed a engineering officer in the 540th Combat Engineers. He landed at Casa Blanca, Sicily, Salerno and southern France (5 more amphibious landings than this Marine will ever do in 20+ years) and fought his way to Austria.
He died in 2004 while I was 1 week out from my first trip to Iraq and I couldn’t make the funeral.
Pictures:
https://get.google.com/albumarchive/104745627018165888181/album/AF1QipOMtTZxf6LWgSy4T-N9Z1NBE_MVG1tA2qYZfxtk
Info on the 540th:
http://www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com/540th.htm
And on him from that site:
http://www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com/JackOBrien.htm
That is cool!
My dad was 13th Combat Engineer Battalion, under 7th Division in Korea 51 – 53.
http://www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com/engforum/index.php?/topic/2199-us-army-engineer-units-korean-war/
I tried to get to the site the moderator (Marion Chard) linked, but couldn’t at work. Perhaps you’ll have better luck on a non-government network!
One Japanese Zero pilot crash-landed on the island of Niihau and with the help of a turn-coat Japanese-American couple unleashed a reign of terror on the tiny island and its small and isolated native Hawaiian community for six long days. Finally on 13 Dec 1941, native shepherd Ben Kanahele had enough and killed the Japanese pilot after being shot numerous times by the enemy pilot. Kanahele was eventually awarded the civilian Medal of Merit for his heroism. This incident is pretty much completely forgotten and virtually unknown today…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niihau_incident
It also affected the decision to intern ethnically-Japanese Americans. While unconstitutional and wrong, the Niihau collaborators were a case of longtime US citizens established in their community who turned on their neighbors and joined an enemy combatant.
Father was part of the Japanese occupation. His younger brother served, but we never found out where. His youngest brother joined the USMC at age 17. He was killed at Tarawa before he turned 18. I am waiting for a call from DPAA, hopefully soon!
My Father joined the Army before Pearl Harbor and was in Coast Arty.So he was in the movie theater on Liberty Ave in Richmond Hill Queens NYC, NY on a date with my Mother on Dec. 7th when my Mother’s father came into the theater and told Pop about the attack on Pearl harbor so Pop went back to Fort Tilden in Rockaway Queens NYC, NY. My Uncle Johnny was an Arty officer and wound up in France. My other Uncle Jake was a Doctor and wound up landing in Normandy. My other Harry and his Brooklyn NYC, NY guard unit (horse) relieved Black Jack Pershing on the Mexico border, Then wound up in France during WW1.
I noticed that there was not much attention paid to this event’s memorial today in the media. They sort of blow 9/11/01 off to the side, also. Perhaps it’s not important to them, not the way it should be.
Even so, fair winds and following seas to all who met their end at Pearl Harbor.
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My dad was a recent High school grad(’41) and he joined and ended up in the 15th Cav. He landed in France on or about D+10 and then did scouting in a jeep. He will celebrate 95 yrs next month.