Comments on: Remember Pearl Harbor: the 79th anniversary

By: Surellin

Surellin — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 02:06:31 +0000

I am of a generation, growing up in the early 60s, when everybody remembered and darned near everybody’s dad was a vet. I still put the flag up on Pearl Harbor Day and June 6 (Midway Day) because Dad was a Navy man. And my son (and in time, my grandchildren) will hear it too. Because I’m stubborn, I am. And tradition doesn’t become history until the last person to hear it from an eyewitness is dead.

By: Geoffrey Britain

Geoffrey Britain — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 04:26:18 +0000

My Dad enlisted in the army right out of high school in 1940. He convinced my very reluctant grandfather to sign permission for the enlistment papers by arguing that, “everyone knew that war was coming with Hitler and that he figured, if he got the training needed during peacetime his chances of surviving the coming war would be better than waiting to be drafted and given very little training, as had happened in WWI. Grandpa had no answer for that as he’d seen pics of WWI American troops training with wooden ‘rifles’ and being sent off to war having little to no time with actual rifles.

Dad fought in the 42 Alaskan campaign and saw combat on the Alaskan island of Attu. (“cold as a witches tit!”) After the fighting but while jap fighter bombers were still a threat, he remembered turning to a buddy and saying, “we’re going to win this war”.

His friend wondered what made him so sure? (it didn’t look very good for us in 42)

My Dad said he replied, “look at that mountain of supplies over there.”

His friend said, “what of it?”

“We’re making no effort to disguise it, if the japs bomb it, there’s plenty more to replace it.”

“So?”

“Some general said, it’s logistics that win wars and we’ve got a whole lot more than the japs do. We may not see it but I think he was right.”

By: Wild, wild west

Wild, wild west — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 03:56:12 +0000

My father joined the Navy at the tender age of 33 and ended up at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal with a Navy Chief from North Dakota named Don Olds. A few years ago, I learned somewhat by accident that the Chief’s brother Clifford had been killed at Pearl Harbor. But not the way the Navy told the family……

Story here. It is not for the faint of heart.

https://www.usswestvirginia.org/stories/story.php?id=23

By: Edward+R+Bonderenka

Edward+R+Bonderenka — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 03:22:42 +0000

The following is excerpted from a letter I transcribed for my friend Nate Weiser to a high school class that had asked him to relate his Pearl Harbor experience on Dec 7th, 1941.
Nate had a degree in education with a sports career and had worked his way through college in the depression.
His military career was somewhat unique in that he was both at Pearl and Normandy.
His commander at Pearl had given him permission to forgo mess duties as he pursued radio courses at the local college in Honolulu.
The mess sergeant saw Nate as a slacker for that. When the dishes rattled in the following story, he came out roaring at Nate for dropping them.
Nate and his two friends had been on a date the night before with some nurses.
He was stationed at Pearl in the Army Air Force and he was in radio.
My two friends and I were going to visit a friend later in the day who was in the Navy, and in Pearl Harbor for a short stay. We were in the Mess Hall around 7:50am Sunday morning. We were waiting in line for our Super Sunday Breakfast before we would go to see our friend when around 8:00am, give or take a few minutes, we heard a large noise that shook the building, and all the stacks of dishes that were on the table fell to the floor. The Mess Sergeant came out and was cussing everyone out. Right then, the second bomb fell and the table plus the food went crashing to the floor. I ran to the door and saw the Japanese Insignia on the aircraft and said to Don and Merrill, “Why are the Japanese planes here? This could be war!”
The planes were strafing all over the area. We were going to hide under the warehouse building next to the Mess Hall, but “Indian Joe”, a WW1 veteran told us to get going and try to go to the Residential Area, and go in between the buildings so we wouldn’t get hit. We saw the Number 1 hangar on the runway in flames. Half of it was full of ammunition (rumor had it that we were going to Wake Island in a very short time). They hit that hangar first, they knew what was in it. The planes on the ramp were tail to tail, all they did was strafe down the line and get two planes at a time. The reason they were tail to tail was so every Saturday morning the post could march in front of the commander before we had the weekend free. It was a miserable sight to see with us running for our lives. The planes flew so low that you could see some of the pilots red scarves and goggles. That sight I will never forget.
We finally got to the Residential Area and I went into one of the homes near Schofield Barracks. A sergeant lived there and had a couple of children. He told us to stay for a while and then go back to our base for instructions. It was thought that the Japanese might land and try to take the island over. The sergeant would get his company and go up into the mountains, and if the Japanese did invade, he told his wife what to do. We went back to the barracks, and each one of us got a .45 and a belt full of ammo. The second wave of planes was not as great as the first, but that evening it started to rain. The captain called us in his portable quarters and gave us a box about 8′ long, 6″ wide and 4 or 5″ high. He told us that in case of emergency, this would be our only communications between our squadron and Honolulu, so guard it with all our might. It was a transmitter and receiver, all in one! We were to be sure to let him know where we were at all times. We decided to head toward the mountain, but not too far from the runway, near the captain, and hid in case of invasion, but where the planes would not strafe us. Little did we realize that the water off the mountain (it being a very rainy night) would fill our foxhole. We had a very uncomfortable couple of nights. We were very happy to learn after a couple of days that there would be no invasion by the Japanese. All islands were in blackout nights from here on in. By 1943 I was a Staff Sergeant and I and two other Sgts were sent back to the States to go to OCS. (Nate was to be an officer but declined. Also, his two friends died in the attack). After one and a half months, I asked to be sent back to the Air Force.
I was then assigned to Jefferson Barracks in St.. Louis. From there I was assigned to Richmond, Va with the 365th Fighter Bomber Group, 386th Squadron . I was a Tech Sgt and communication chief for P-47 Thunderbolts in the 9th Air Force. We got an all expenses paid tour of Europe.
Nate got the Bronze Star in Europe. it was an award for an idea he had for aircraft radio that allowed them to turn around and get back in the fight quicker in the event of radio failure.
His friends from the night before didn’t make it through Dec 7th.
Nate passed shortly before his 99th birthday Dec 5th, 2016.
In case you don’t know, I’m proud to say he was my friend.

By: M Williams

M Williams — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 02:21:56 +0000

If you have an interest in the War in the Pacific, I cannot recommend highly enough Ian Toll’s trilogy, the final book just published.
I think some folks kind of reflexively steer away from ‘war’ stories. But this is so much more than that. I particularly like how Toll weaves into the narrative how/what the leadership on both sides (US and Japan) were thinking.

By: Rufus T. Firefly

Rufus T. Firefly — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 02:08:53 +0000

M Williams,

Hard men make soft times,
Soft times make weak men,
Weak men make hard times,
Hard times make hard men.

rinse, repeat

By: Geoffrey Britain

Geoffrey Britain — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 00:07:26 +0000

Cornhead,

“I asked the Chinese guy about Hong Kong and the lack of freedom in China. He said people don’t care as long as they are making money and can go on vacations.”

Bread and Circuses…

By: Geoffrey Britain

Geoffrey Britain — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 00:03:25 +0000

They fought for, died and sacrificed so that freedom would survive. Once again we are faced with that test.

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” Abraham Lincoln

By: PA+Cat

PA+Cat — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 23:55:33 +0000

My dad was in the Army rather than the Navy in WWII– he entered in early 1942 and became a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne. His war included the invasion of Sicily and the Battle of the Bulge as well as D-Day. Although he wasn’t at Pearl Harbor on 12/7/41, he did think of the attack as the reason he went off to war. He sometimes hummed a song (written about 10 days after the bombs fell) titled “Remember Pearl Harbor.” Here are the lyrics:

History in every century records an act that lives forevermore.
We’ll recall, as into line we fall,
The thing that happened on Hawaii’s shore.

Let’s remember Pearl Harbor
As we go to meet the foe.
Let’s remember Pearl Harbor
As we did the Alamo.
We will always remember how they died for Liberty.
Let’s remember Pearl Harbor
And go on to victory.

And here is a link to the original Sammy Kaye version of the song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9y3_cl5_SQ&ab_channel=SammyKaye%26HisOrchestra-Topic

As for the ongoing loss of WWII veterans, too many of them died at relatively early ages after 1945. My dad died suddenly of a heart attack when I was only 15– the medical examiner told my mother that it was most likely a delayed reaction to combat stress. He was only 51 when he died– 20 years younger than I am now. I still miss him more than I can say.

By: om

om — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 23:50:50 +0000

SHIREHOME:

Your father, RIP, was on the USS Raleigh? Berthed in F12 next to the USS Utah?