Pearl Harbor Day

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We as a nation are more worried about every bodies feelings than our past. Thank You for Your Service to all past and present service men and women. God Bless America.
 
The first thing I thought of when I woke up this morning. We all owe a world of thanks to all those who served in WW2 and to all who have served since to keep our freedom intact.

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With every little bit of history I've read...with ever recollection of what my parents, grandparents and their friends said about WWII...when I see evidence of the momentum imparted to our industry...when social impacts are mentioned...when politicians capitalize upon or lie about what others have said or done regarding the WWII.....

I realize I'll never get my head around the enormity of the Second World War.

I bought a book about the BCI and haven't read it yet.

I do realize that the sacrifices made by so many deserves more than us patting each other on the back because we regurgitate "Thank you for your service" slogans or parroting "everybody doesn't care except me" themed, self serving clap-trap.

Do I really need to put my flame suit on?

History demands we become smarter and more constructively and honestly involved than mere flag waving consumers.
 
Highly intelligent people start wars. Also, smarts has nothing to do with preventing wars. One can be dumb enough to avoid a war, or win a war.
 
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Originally Posted by PimTac
The first thing I thought of when I woke up this morning. We all owe a world of thanks to all those who served in WW2 and to all who have served since to keep our freedom intact.

🇺🇸

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My Dad spent WWII anchored in the Pacific ocean on a parts barge for cruisers, armed only with a .45 revolver. He survived because during the big typhoon, the barge weathered the storm by deploying two cruiser anchors. How about some other war stories.
 
A lesson learned by the radar operator that day was "don't assume".

The loss of ships that day was less important than first thought. (Loss of life was still incalculable). Battleships would no longer be the important ship to win the war. It had shifted to the carrier. I do not think any carriers were lost at Pearl Harbor.
 
Not only were the battleships becoming secondary to air power, most of the ones anchored at Pearl were already obsolete as front line warships. The ones that were raised still proved useful in shore bombardment later on. The carriers were indeed not at Pearl Harbor, they were busy ferrying planes to Wake and Midway IIRC. Those were the places that the coming Japanese attack was considered likely...

As far as the radar guys, I think they were largely in testing mode, and even if they had made more noise about an impending attack, it's hard to say if it would have made much difference as few fighters still would have gotten off the ground...
 
Originally Posted by CourierDriver
Originally Posted by PimTac
The first thing I thought of when I woke up this morning. We all owe a world of thanks to all those who served in WW2 and to all who have served since to keep our freedom intact.

🇺🇸

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My father was a civilian working at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard during WWII. On Sunday, December 7, 1941, he was called to come in. When he arrived, there was gunners outside his shop shooting at anything that flew. He helped carry dead and wounded into the shops and put out fires. When he went home that night he had to drive without headlights in the dark.
 
the 7 dec 41 japanese attacks were not only against hawaii; philippines, malaya and singapore were hit too. i spent most of my career in asia, memories of what the japanese did died slowly. my dad was an m.p. in europe, he landed on omaha beach early on 6/6/44 without a scratch. a high school classmate was a crewman on another landing craft on his trroopship, he was sent home badly wounded and later met my grandmother to tell her of her son. my dad's landing craft was milling around for awhile until it was ordered to just dump them anywhere on the beach and return to get more troops. he went in over his 6'2" head. a shorter guy grabbed him and they both went under until my dad pushed him off and got his footing. he never knew what happened to the short guy. by the time he got off the beach he had no ammo left for his carbine but had no memory of firing it. the rest of his war was spent directing traffic, chasing blackmarketers and collecting pows, until his scout car ran over a friendly landmine by mistake. he was ok but banged up. at v-e day he was offered a short ocs course as he had been trained in amphibious warfare, which he guessed meant a ticket to the japanese invasion. he declined, he used up all his luck at normandy, he explained.
 
Originally Posted by redbone3
My Dad spent WWII anchored in the Pacific ocean on a parts barge for cruisers, armed only with a .45 revolver. He survived because during the big typhoon, the barge weathered the storm by deploying two cruiser anchors. How about some other war stories.





No war stories from my Dad since he had a brain tumor in childhood and was ineligible to join. He did drive trucks that delivered stuff to the docks in Tacoma. Security was tight. We still have his security card somewhere.

The folks talked about the collection drives for pots and pans and anything metal for the war effort. Most items were rationed. In talking about this to our younger members of the family, they had no idea all this went on. Ration coupons for everyday goods like flour, butter, shoes and a long list of things.

The general public cooperated and lived without many things knowing that everything needed to be supplied to our military.

I did know a neighbor way back when who fought in Italy. He got tuberculosis from the damp conditions and commented on multiple shots in the rear for about 30 days as TB was rampant then.
 
My parents who were just young kids at the time, remember it like it was yesterday. My Mom's Aunt had a house that overlooked Pearl Harbor, and they watched the attack unfold. My Grandfather wasn't able to contact his sister to see if they were okay, until days later.

A date which will live in infamy.
 
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My father was an anti-aircraft gunner in the Philippines.

I was in Japan last year on the high speed train that goes to Hiroshima. There are my tourists on that train. I was there for business and traveling with my Japanese hosts and we got off a stop before Hiroshima. It's a strange emotional situation for me and maybe for others. It's a much different world today than it was back then. Not that it was that many years ago.

When people say, Never forget. I wonder what they mean. Hopefully, it's that war is [censored] and we don't want that again. Wonder what the Japanese school kids learn about Pearl Harbor.
 
Originally Posted by Leo99


When people say, Never forget. I wonder what they mean. Hopefully, it's that war is [censored] and we don't want that again.


It has always been my understanding that it means if history is forgotten, it is doomed to be repeated.
 
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