Remember Pearl Harbor

[Hoop]

Fly your flag.

[John Kennedy]

It's also my wife's birthday.

On Dec. 6th, 1941, her father was transferred OFF the USS Arizona.
Makes one wonder.......

[Kens 34 PU]

We got transfered to Wheeler Field in '63. Wheeler was one of the first bases attacked. I'll never forget exploring the base on my bike and stopping to stick my fingers in the bullet holes still there in several of the buildings at Wheeler. Saw the USS Arizona Memorial that same year and, believe me, it will put a lump in your throat and bring a tear to your eyes.

As FDR said, it is truly a day "which will live in infamy", at least in my mind!

God Bless all of the good people who still fight for our freedom!

Ken

[1931 flamingo]

Amen.
Paul in CT

[Lawson Cox]

Does America have the will power to do it again in similar circumstances? What about manufacturing capacity? Pray that it never happens again. But you can bet your sweet bippy that it will, again and again. Man never learns how to live with his fellow man.

[Ol' Ron]

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Hope we never have to find out. We found the enemy and they are us.

[Dave72dt]

My father spent much of the war there, arriving shortly after the attack. I don't know much of what he did or saw there, but talked very little of it. We tried to get him to go with us to visit the island after Mom passed but he refused. He passed about 6 months later. We went back 4 years later and I made it a point to visit the few places he had mentioned.

[JM 35 Sedan]

Thanks for the post Hoop. There are not that many survivors left according to the news report I watched this morning. I think America would still have the will to defend the homeland but we definitely do not have the manufacturing capacity to quickly build a war machine as we did during WWII. Maybe with the super weapons we have today we would not need a huge manufacturing capability.

[Binx]

Both of my grandfathers had stories to tell about this date. One was a civilian contractor at Schofield Barracks during the attack and later enlisted for the duration. The other was kicked out of the navy for being underage when his mother tracked him down on the Arizona in 1925-ish. Ensign Arleigh Burke was his boss.

[Bill S]

We do not have the leaders that are willing to use the big stick like we use to have. Look at the conflicts we have had the since 1950. We lost a lot lives and never finished the job. Should we have been there in the 1st place.

[Binx]

Kens 34 PU, the bullet holes are still in the buildings today. A lasting reminder to never forget.

Lonnie

[Clem Clement]

I served in HQ PACAF (Hq, Pacific Air Force) for 3 years. Every morning as we entered that building we passed bullet holes made on Dec 7,1941. They we intentionally left unrepaired less we forget. I've flown from Wheeler Field and visited the Arizona Memorial where the ooil still bubbled to the serface reminding us all of those lost. War is so awfull
clem clement

[Ralph Moore]

Every American should have to go and visit the Arizona Memorial. As Kens 34 said, it's a sobering experience.

Lest we forget.

[David J]

The bandaged up guy gotz this right

Originally Posted by Hoop

Fly your flag.

[Frank Miller]

I think I was more in awe standing on the deck of the Missouri. Looking at the guns imagining them being fired. Then imagining just as big a gun being fired back. It was rather scary.
The V8 Times has written some good articles on Ford's involvement in the war. Not only were whole factories built but so were whole towns to meet the needs of the people running them. Planes were redesigned for assembly line manufacturing before they could even be built. I do not think this country has what it takes to endure a war on this scale again. Power goes out for 4 days and everyone is yelling and screaming looking for someone to blame.

[Junknshit]

Shame to say, but I believe that if we were attacked again, all the gov. people would go into hiding. I don't mean planning (if they are even capable of that) I mean hiding. It would be left to us to do something, then when it was over, and we won (if you can call it that) they would come out of hiding and take credit for everything.
just my opinion.
I wish nothing but the best this holiday season to all service members, past and present, and their families. and THANK YOU!!

You're right on Ol' Ron

[Lawrie]

We visited the Arizona memorial in 04,spent up in the store there,bought a few trinkets and a VERY nice book on the event,A veteran who was at Pearl harbour signed it for me.

The Us president and his wife had just visited and he told me he got told off by
the secrete service guys for trying to move in on her, as he said,
we talked to him for a while,he was a real laugh.
His name was Bill Cope, he was a B17 pilot.
Lawrie

[39portlander]

Good thread Hoop! As a former Marine 1982-86, I will never forget. Have never been to Pearl, but that and Normandy are on my bucket list.

As I tore down my 39 pickup and pieces of dirt and rusty parts fell into my hand's more that once I thought, the guy who installed this could have fought on D Day. My restoration will make me remember and my grandson and nephews to learn and never forget

[Shadetree]

Somewhere I read this: For several days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, pecking noises could be heard from those trapped in capsized ships and living in an air bubble. The hulls of the ships were so thick that nothing could be done to rescue them. What a horrific death that would have been.
God bless those that served during this horrible time in history and every other war with terrible atrocities..
Shadetree

[41Fordor]

[Old Henry]

[Kens 34 PU]

Originally Posted by 39portlander

Good thread Hoop! As a former Marine 1982-86, I will never forget. Have never been to Pearl, but that and Normandy are on my bucket list.

As I tore down my 39 pickup and pieces of dirt and rusty parts fell into my hand's more that once I thought, the guy who installed this could have fought on D Day. My restoration will make me remember and my grandson and nephews to learn and never forget

Kaneohe Marine base got hit pretty hard on that day too! God bless you jarheads for everything you did in the Pacific theatre! The biggest asswhooping you guys ever took was in 1966 when the Wheeler Field Packers beat you guys 35-0 in Military little league football! I was #71 on your program and #1 in Wheeler's heart!

Thanks for your service!

Ken

[deuce lover]

My uncle (Gilbert Tefft)who was the 2nd pilot(employed March 1930) for Hawaiian Airlines (Interisland Airways)was in his plane at the end of the runway with a full load of passengers ready for take off. He couldn't believe what he was seeing(runway being bombed) and managed to get to the terminal and unload his passengers safely.Later that evening he returned to see the damage.The whole side of his aircraft including where he was sitting was shot full of bullet holes.

[Clem Clement]

The History Channel just ran a pearl Harbor piece. Lest we forget. FDR, the cripple, performed magnificanlty that day in motivating America into action. We were so fortunite to have him as President. And the millions of Americans who saved America for us.
Clem

[COE Dan]

I'm currently assigned to Hickam Field...spent all day with family at the Pearl Harbor memorial ceremony and paid my respects at the Arizona and the Utah...most people don't know the USS Utah is still on the bottom on the West side of Ford Island. Numerous Pearl Harbor survivors attended...very honored to witness it...pictures can't capture the experience...

[Hoop]

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Although the fighting had started years before both in Europe and Asia, it was Pearl Harbor that ignited WORLD War 2. The terror that the Japanese had unleashed on China spilled over onto the entire Pacific rim.

Pearl Harbor signaled the start of years of suffering and fear for many more people than just the Americans. The Philippines was immediately attacked and took the full brunt of a Japanese invasion and occupation. British and Dutch territories came under attack and fell.

I suspect that very few of us Americans are fully aware of the danger that the Australians, for example, faced. While America had been attacked at Hawaii, the threat of an actual invasion of the mainland, though feared, was far from ever being considered by Japan. However, on February 19, 1942, the port of Darwin, one of Australians major mainland cities, was attacked and bombed in force. It is termed by many as "Australia's Pearl Harbor." The fear of a Japanese invasion was very real and if not for a split vote in their military planning would have happened. Darwin was bombed, though less intensely, 58 more times in 1942 and 1943.

We were not alone.




So, there. You just received more information on the war in the Pacific than is being taught in schools throughout America today.

(Oops, that might be misconstrued as political ... not pure fact.)

[39portlander]

Hoop your right on the mark. I'm glad I went to school when I did, if you had a question you had an uncle or neighbor who could tell you first hand because they lived it.

No internet or media to put a one sided, anti-American view on a subject back then.

[31chevy]

I remember my Grandfather telling my dad & my uncles at family get togethers that the United States woud be defeated from the inside out not from the outside in, I think that is what is happening today thanks to our politicians. I was seven years old setting with my Great Grandfather listening to the radio on December 7th Sunday afternoon waiting for Mom to get dinner ready when the broadcast was made about Pearl Harbor, I can still picture it today.
Gary.

[Ralph Moore]

My Aunt was a prisioner of war in the Phillipines, Her and her Mother and sister were on a ship headed for the U.S. when the Japanese attacked Pearl. They were diverted to the P.I. and were there when the Japanese took over.
She and others were recently(last two or three years) finally recognized by the U.S. Gov't. as former POW's.
She told me once of the atrocities committed by the Japanese soldiers that held them.

[wga]

Served by last 2 years stationed at Pearl. Oil still raises from the USS Arizona, still carried as an active ship by the US Navy. From the deck of the USS Missouri where the surrender was signed, and a couple of pics of Pearl Harbor.

[TonyM]

Originally Posted by Shadetree

Somewhere I read this: For several days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, pecking noises could be heard from those trapped in capsized ships and living in an air bubble. The hulls of the ships were so thick that nothing could be done to rescue them. What a horrific death that would have been.
God bless those that served during this horrible time in history and every other war with terrible atrocities..
Shadetree

Rescuers could cut throught the hull with torches, but the risk of killing trapped survivors with fumes from the cutting torch was great.

Despite these and other dangers, many men were rescued from capsized ships.

A good account of these rescues can be found in the book:

Trapped at Pearl Harbor--Escape from the Battleship Oklahoma

by Stephen Bower Young.

[Robert/Texas]

Interesting 31chevy. I was seven years old too at the time and in the 2nd grade. I clearly remember on Monday, December 8, waiting for the school door to open and the older kids told us that the Japs were coming and that all of us would die. Most of us were really scared and crying.

[c-gor]

Visited both the Schofield Barracks and the Arizona Memorial about 25 years ago. Had a chance to speak with a soldier at Schofield who told me of the Japanese attack and the damage to Wheeler Field. Those poor soldiers were massacred there. Today most folks have forgotten them as well as the Baatan Death March and other heinous acts by the Japanese, yet we buy Japanese cars and allow Toyota vehicles to race at NASCAR events. How Sad! Personally, I will never buy a Japanese vehicle.

[Junknshit]

Hows this for a good one?
Just about 25 years ago at the age of 45 I decided to go to college for Civil Eng. As with anything else, english and speech classes were required for a degree. In several of these classes was a Japanese woman of about 25 to 30 years old. Every paper she wrote or speech she gave was about how much the U.S. government still owed the japanese for bombing them. In my second year, I had finally had enough. After speeches were given, the prof. would ask for comments, and I contributed "I'm just about sick of hearing how much we owe the japanese, they bombed us first, we are still paying the survivors of families we interned, we rebuilt their country, we did not torture, starve or rape the people we interned. When are they going to understand that they started it by bombing us first?"

Prof: John, get out of the class now!
Me: Why, you asked for comments?
Prof: Because she has the right to say whatever she wants, it's known as freedom of speech.
Me: And what about my rights?
Prof: It doesn't matter, you are out for the rest of the quarter.

Went to the Dean. I was out for rest of quarter.
Funny thing is, I just heard basically the same thing just recently in a conversation. I just shook my head and walked away.

[c-gor]

This is great.

Tour boats ferry people out to the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii every thirty minutes. We just missed a ferry and had to wait thirty minutes. I went into a small gift shop to kill time. In the gift shop, I purchased a small book entitled, "Reflections on Pearl Harbor " by Admiral Chester Nimitz.

Sunday, December 7th, 1941--Admiral Chester Nimitz was attending a concert in Washington D.C. He was paged and told there was a phone call for him. When he answered the phone, it was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the phone. He told Admiral Nimitz that he (Nimitz) would now be the Commander of the Pacific Fleet.

Admiral Nimitz flew to Hawaii to assume command of the Pacific Fleet. He landed at Pearl Harbor on Christmas Eve, 1941. There was such a spirit of despair, dejection and defeat--you would have thought the Japanese had already won the war. On Christmas Day, 1941, Adm. Nimitz was given a boat tour of the destruction wrought on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Big sunken battleships and navy vessels cluttered the waters every where you looked.

As the tour boat returned to dock, the young helmsman of the boat asked, "Well Admiral, what do you think after seeing all this destruction?"
Admiral Nimitz's reply shocked everyone within the sound of his voice. Admiral Nimitz said, "The Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could ever make, or God was taking care of America . Which do you think it was?"

Shocked and surprised, the young helmsman asked, "What do mean by saying the Japanese made the three biggest mistakes an attack force ever made?" Nimitz explained,

Mistake number one: the Japanese attacked on Sunday morning. Nine out of every ten crewmen of those ships were ashore on leave. If those same ships had been lured to sea and been sunk--we would have lost 38,000 men instead of 3,800.

Mistake number two: when the Japanese saw all those battleships lined in a row, they got so carried away sinking those battleships, they never once bombed our dry docks opposite those ships. If they had destroyed our dry docks, we would have had to tow every one of those ships to America to be repaired. As it is now, the ships are in shallow water and can be raised. One tug can pull them over to the dry docks, and we can have them repaired and at sea by the time we could have towed them to America . And I already have crews ashore anxious to man those ships.

Mistake number three: every drop of fuel in the Pacific theater of war is in top of the ground storage tanks five miles away over that hill. One attack plane could have strafed those tanks and destroyed our fuel supply. That's why I say the Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could make or God was taking care of America .

I've never forgotten what I read in that little book. It is still an
inspiration as I reflect upon it. In jest, I might suggest that because Admiral Nimitz was a Texan, born and raised in Fredericksburg , Texas --he was a born optimist. But anyway you look at it--Admiral Nimitz was able to see a silver lining in a situation and circumstance where everyone else saw only despair and defeatism.



President Roosevelt had chosen the right man for the right job. We desperately needed a leader that could see silver linings in the midst of the clouds of dejection, despair and defeat.



There is a reason that our national motto is, IN GOD WE TRUST.

[estout81]

junknshit,
I read your post and agree it is a sad state of affairs we are in! It's only free speech when it is the opposing side! I wonder sometimes why I spent two hitchs in the AF.('59-'67)
Em

[Junknshit]

From Dec. 7th to Dec. 24th to fly to Hawaii. Seems like a lot of briefing in an emergency.

I never wonder about the time I spent in the Navy. It was for a great cause at the time.

[Clem Clement]

COE Dan,
I enjoyed my 3 years at Hickam. I was in the PACAF Command Center. I flew Gooney Birds around the islands. That was '65-67. Before Ft. Derussy added the big hotel. I undertand the PCT is no more? After HA it was backto 'Nam for another tour.
Clem

[HOTROD_WILLIE]

Originally Posted by Ol' Ron

Hope we never have to find out. We found the enemy and they are us.

What are you say???????????

[Harms Way]

My folks met after the war,.. But as I remember them telling it, Mom heard about it when she came out of Church that Sunday morning,... Dad was getting ready to take my grandparents for a Sunday ride in the country, when it came in on the radio,...

Tho we didn't always see eye to eye (especially when I was a teen),.. He was my hero, and my best friend,..

Dec. 7, 1941,... Truly a date that will live in infamy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VqQAf74fsE

If you will indulge me,....A little something about my Dad,...

My Father, met the call of duty,... With the U.S. Army 6th. Inf., 63 Reg. They hit the beaches at Lingayen Gulf, Luzon on "D"day,.. And seen some of the most intense fighting in the Pacific,... Including the bloody Battle of Lone Tree Hill,... Overtaking and securing Maffin Bay,... engagements in Places like Cabanatuan hills,.... The battle at Muñoz, where this infantry outfit stopped and destroyed a column of Jap Tanks. The Raid at Cabanatuan.

Pushing there way into Dingalan Bay and Baler Bay,..isolating enemy forces in southern Luzon. Then on to the triumphant return into Bataan..... Then cracking the Shimbu Line northeast of Manila.

Pushing on, they took Mount Mataba ,... Mount Pacawagan.., Bolog,.. Lane's Ridge & Mount Santo Domingo, then Kiangan,.... Dads outfit holds the record, still unbroken. for continuous combat with an enemy force,....

If you ever met my Dad,... you would never imagine what he had gone through,... Dad was one of the most Humble men I had ever known. I love and miss you Dad,... your still are,.. and will forever be my hero,.. you kept me between the lines when it was my time to come home. And I feel honored to have been your Son.

"MABUHAY"

A very,..very rare sight,... I mounted these for Dad not long before he passed away, before that, they stayed in a box in the back of his top dresser drawer. I displayed them at his funeral, And just about everyone except Mom and us kids,... had no idea they existed,.. and had never seen them before.

As I was standing and talking to Dad's dearest old Army buddy "Uncle Bob Z", We were looking at the medals,... And Bob said,.. "Wheres the other Bronze Star ?",.. I told him this was the only one I ever knew of,... But when I was looking at Dads DD-214, It did mention a second Bronze Star that was respectfully declined.

Well your Dad was put in for two, one unit citation, and one for individual merit,... He always said he didn't want that one,.. and he wouldn't take it,.... Bob looked down at his shoes for a moment as he put his hand on the edge of Dads casket.

He was red eyed when he looked back up at me and said,... Do you know why ol' Hack and Tex and I have stayed in touch with your Dad,.. and call him from time to time after all these years ?,.... I said,.. no, not really, I just thought you were all Army buddy's,......

He looked at Dad, shook his head,... and after a little silence he said,.."It's because of that second Bronze Star, that he respectfully declined",.... Bob put his hand on Dads,... And just stared at him for a little while,.... Then he looked up at me,.. shook my hand in silence, and left for the night.

I never found out the details,....

[wga]

Hot Rod Willie - regarding this phrase: "we have found the enemy and they is us"
If my memory serves correctly, from the Pogo comic strip by Walt Kelly.
Ol Ron, perfect...