It has been 77 years since The United States was forced into the Second World War by the Empire of Japan. The surprise attack on America’s pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was a despicable act that unified the entire nation to respond with all its might.
Earlier this week, the Defense Department’s POW/MIA Agency returned a sailor from the USS Oklahoma, Durell Wade, to his home in Mississippi for burial. Thanks to work of DNA experts and related families they have so far identified 186 individuals from the 400 from the Oklahoma who had been interred as unknown. More
While the attack on Pearl Harbor is often considered a smashing success for the Japanese, it failed spectacularly to achieve its true objectives. By not preventing the US Navy from taking to the seas and winning heroic victories while being outnumbered, the Japanese bought themselves about 6 months of conquest at the cost of steady defeat that followed . Watch
I figured the surprise attack by muzzies on 9/11 would be a wake-up call for Americans.
There are two days each year that should be remembered from WWII in the United States; Dec. 7th and June 6th. The beginning for us in the Pacific and the beginning of the end in Europe.
We can combine August 6th and August 9th and call it the day that can’t be repeated.
It was a brutal attack but one of desperation. They knew it was the only shot at keeping US out of the war and damaging its ability to respond. And frankly, while our response was quick and heroic the worst case would have been a couple more years in length as our ability to produce was intact and safe, and theirs was ultimately going to be destroyed. Only lack of will on our side would have allowed them victory.
Same with 9/11. We have the capability. Does our nation have the will to win?
LCD… the response to San Bernardino and Trump’s ban on muslims by leftists and judges should answer that.
I just watched John Ford’s “December 7” (which the left has branded a “propaganda film”.) The Navy squashed it because it told like it was. The chilling thing is the interaction with “Uncle Sam” (Walter Huston) and “Mr. C” as the latter is trying to get “US” to wake up and smell the Jap coffee that is coming. Very telling in today’s world. Substitute Islam, China or invading hordes and it still works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh5MldtX8lY
Had a great uncle who was at Pearl Harbor. He didn’t get back to the states until 44. When he did, they dropped him off at Mare island near Vallejo.
I still have the ship signal flags he took from that place. 4 flags. T. G. I. and F.
Went shopping with Mom today. She reminded me that my Uncle was at Pearl Harbor 77 years ago. I haven’t forgotten. No land lines, no cell phones, no nothing. They didn’t know for a long time if he was still alive. Loved him. He could tell a story. Died of a heart attack in Florida on a family vacation decades later. The Greatest Generation. Glad I still have a window into it with my sharp 93 year old Mother.
My mom was eleven in 1941. Her neighbors two doors away lost their son, Jack Hazelip Stevens, aboard the USS Arizona and remains there to this day.
Between USN Electronics school & Nuclear Power school I was stationed on a destroyer, DDG35, in the Atlantic, for six months. In the electronics division with me was a guy, Dan, who said his father was on a destroyer in the Pacific during WW2.
Dan said his father was continuously at sea for 11 months, never setting foot on land, before the ship anchored off an island for an afternoon where the crew was permitted to go ashore; grill some burgers, drink a few beers, etc. Then continuously back at sea for another 5 months until the ship was heavily damaged in a kamikaze attack, and the ship was in port for a couple of months in Austrailia for repairs. I can’t know for certain if Dan’s story about his father’s service was true, but it’s a heck of a story if true. An example of the urgency of duty in the Pacific during WW2.
To my surprise fourteen months later, June 1974, I was sent to PH, assigned to a sub operating out of Guam. A lot of the damage to buildings on Ford Island damaged during the Japanese attack was not fully repaired, only painted over, as a reminder of the attack. The buildings that I recall that still showed damage were the chow hall & the building where we had dental check ups done. And of course the USS Arizona was just off the east side of Ford Island. Many of the other buildings were built after the attack or after the war. I think the old hangars behind the barracks also had remaining damage, but they were no longer in use. There’s a museum in them now.