Pearl Harbor Day....

[ROBERT CROSS]

Say a Prayer today....





Bob

[noreen&sal]

Originally Posted by ROBERT CROSS

Say a Prayer today....





Bob

For The Greatest Generation. Sal

[Minno]

Amen.

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by noreen&sal

For The Greatest Generation. Sal

For sure!



Bob

[overlander63]

Just a bump...
Don't forget.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by overlander63

Just a bump...
Don't forget.

There aren't many left who remember, actually. Anyone younger than 72 years old wasn't even born then.

I can remember reading about it. I can remember watching newsreels and movies about it. But being removed from the actual event by time (I was born 26½ years after Pearl Harbor) I can't remember Pearl Harbor, and I'll never have the emotional reaction of someone who lived through it. To me and others of my generation, it's merely academic knowledge, not a life-changing event.

My dad served in the Pacific theater in World War II. Lied about his age to join (he didn't even turn 18 until after V-J day!) The Government even took away his Purple Heart when they found out he was too young to be in the service when he got shot, and kicked him out of the Service. No discharge, honorable or otherwise, because he never "officially" enlisted! Wasn't until after he retired from the Air Force, over 25 years later, that his Purple Heart and other awards for his WWII service were restored and he received credit for being a WWII veteran as well as a Korea and Vietnam veteran.

My dad never once spoke of his WWII service. In his words… "If you weren't there, you'd never understand. If you were there, you'd still never understand how human beings could do such things to each other."

[Inland RV Center, In]

Pearl Harbor, where world war 2 started, while being a "Parkland" is a extremely nice place to visit.

The Parkland was recently, completely rebuilt, with not one penny of federal money. There are now 2 buildings, one showing things prior to the war, and the other showing things during and after the war.

The Memorial itself, is a very humble place to visit. Oil is still surfacing at it's greatest rate, and will continue according to projections, for another 10 to 12 years.

Next door, so to speak, is the Battleship Missouri, where World War 2 ended. It however, is on an entire different tour.

Many things can be purchased at both of those places at their stores. In part, that helps them financially. You can even purchase a piece of the decking from the Missouri.

Sadly, our younger generation doesn't have a clue about those Memorials, or what they represent.

Visiting the Arizona is absolutely "free", including the movie.

For most older folks, visiting the Arizona, usually brings on some tears, that are "well spent".

Everyone of my almost 30 visits to that Memorial over a long time, are very different, and a huge reminder that "Freedom" for all of us, is never cheap.

It's indeed a shame, that for many who take advantages of our freedoms, have contributed little to nothing, to keep us that way.

Many hats off and prayers to those that have, both men and women.

Today, December 7th, 2013, is the 72nd anniversary of Pearl Harbor.

I am super sure, that veterans, all over the world, will at least say a "silent prayer" for those that died that day.

Andy

[SteveSueMac]

Protagonist - your comments are somewhat reflected in a USA Today article:

http://usat.ly/1boBhf6

I wasn't born then either. Don't know if this analogy would be accurate but I wonder if it would be like adults in the 2080s not remembering 9/11?

[doorgunner]

Here are a few pics I took.

[John&Vicki]

It's all very close to me. My father-in-law captained a DE in the South Pacific that was sunk by a Japanese sub. He was the last man off with no loss of life.

My father was a physician stationed in Oak Ridge, TN where they were developing the fuel for the atom bomb. He was treating things that no doctor had ever seen. He constantly petitioned for combat duty but they needed him there (which is where I was born).

God bless the Greatest Generation.

Poppy

[SilverGate]

My Dad was a radio operator for the Army Signal Aviation Corps, was stationed at Wheeler Field, and was taking a communications course at Hickam Field on that fateful weekend.

"It was five minutes to eight on [Sunday] December 7, 1941," my Dad recalled. He had just finished eating breakfast and was looking forward to a day of surfing.

"I was all alone and walking back to the barracks when from a long ways away I heard airplanes power diving... I could see a whole squadron on a dive... black objects were coming out of the planes... As explosions rocked the air and the planes pulled away, I knew the bombs were real."

"I started running towards the barracks... hot steel shrapnel [was] slamming into the wooden walls." Dad and his comrades took cover in a ditch that had just been dug for hot water pipes. They were expecting to see a big battle. "We didn't know Wheeler Field was wiped off the map 15 minutes before they bombed Pearl Harbor."

Dad and others in his unit made their way back to Wheeler Field. "We passed a big hospital and saw stretchers upon stretchers and row upon row of casualties out front. The harbor was a horrifying scene. Ships were burning and oil on the water was on fire."

"At last we got to Wheeler and we couldn't see the air field through the jet black billows of smoke... Just as we got to the main street leading to the barracks a gust of wind blew the smoke away and we saw the American flag furling in the breeze. I've never been so glad to see our flag again!"

On November 16, 1991, Dad and about 400 other survivors were awarded a bronze medal commissioned by Congress commemorating their service. The medal was inscribed with a battleship and the words, "Remember Pearl Harbor."

Dad died on February 2, 1995, but his memories live on!

(Based on what my father told me years ago and on quotes from "Pearl Harbor vet recalls that fateful day," by Princeton Packett Staff Writer, Suzanne Spinelli, 1991)

Thanks, Dad (standing on left in photo below), for the memories.

[BAB]

My Dad did WWII and Korea (retired from the Army after 26 years), I did Vietnam (20 years), and my son graduated from West Point and served 5 years. My Mom, Dad, and wife are all buried at Arlington. This is prefatory to simply saying that there are many ways of serving the Nation --- and I think those of us who have had this privilege owe it to those who haven't to share our stories and our memories, just like the previous poster has done -- so beautifully. I do think every American should visit a National cemetery either here in the US or one of those located overseas and administered by the American Battle Monuments folks who maintain cemeteries outside the US in those countries where our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines rest in perpetuity. The freedom we treasure was paid for by each and every one of them. We must all do our part to make sure their sacrifices and the sacrifices of their families will never be forgotten. Barry

[ROBERT CROSS]

We have a GREAT bunch of folks here...Thank You ALL!!!

God Bless

Bob

[Excella CM]

One wonders just how much longer December 7th will remain "...a day that will live in infamy." It seems that, like so many things, the lessons of one generation are non-transferable to the generation twice or so removed. "Remember the Maine" or "The war to end all wars." I wonder, are we just recalcitrant children in this world that will not learn our lesson ever?

[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by Excella CM

...snip...
I wonder, are we just recalcitrant children in this world that will not learn our lesson ever?

I don't care if it's overly pollyannaish, I wonder if people world-wide would actually learn from the past - wouldn't war cease to exist?

I'm grateful for the sacrifices out soldiers have made - I just hate that they were ever in that position to do so in the first place...

[overlander63]

My father was serving on board a cruiser that was undergoing repairs on the East coast on December 7. All hands turned to, and the repairs were completed in early January, 3 months ahead of schedule. They left for Pearl Harbor with a full load of bunker oil and ammo, but did not have time to fully provision the ship with food. Everyone, including the officers, ate beans and Spam for the duration of the voyage to Pearl, which even under "full military power" took on the order of three weeks. a couple of things he related about that trip:
1-40 mph is scarily fast on a ship like that, especially during storms.
2- You couldn't run fast enough to give my father a can of Spam afterward.

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by SteveSueMac

I don't care if it's overly pollyannaish, I wonder if people world-wide would actually learn from the past - wouldn't war cease to exist?

I'm grateful for the sacrifices out soldiers have made - I just hate that they were ever in that position to do so in the first place...

Steve,

Some of you may have seen this before in another post.

I found this note folded in the breast pocket of my Fathers dress uniform as I was getting it ready to take to the funeral home.

Bob

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by Excella CM

One wonders just how much longer December 7th will remain "...a day that will live in infamy." It seems that, like so many things, the lessons of one generation are non-transferable to the generation twice or so removed. "Remember the Maine" or "The war to end all wars." I wonder, are we just recalcitrant children in this world that will not learn our lesson ever?

Sadly, the lessons aren't even transferable to the same generation. The gap between World War I and World War II was only 11 years, not even long enough for a new generation to grow up, and yet WW2 was even more horrific than WW1, the war to end all wars.

But there is hope that future generations will remember the wars of previous generations. Just ask any Texan about the Alamo. They all remember!

[SilverGate]

Originally Posted by ROBERT CROSS

Some of you may have seen this before in another post.

I found this note folded in the breast pocket of my Fathers dress uniform as I was getting it ready to take to the funeral home.

Bob

See the quote in Marlborough: His Life and Times, Book Two, by Winston Churchill.

Thanks, Robert Cross, for starting this thread!

Bill, HM3, USN, 1971-1975, (Hospital Corpsman)

[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by ROBERT CROSS

Steve,

Some of you may have seen this before in another post.

I found this note folded in the breast pocket of my Fathers dress uniform as I was getting it ready to take to the funeral home.

Bob

Thank you for sharing that. How powerful.