December 7, 1941. It's been 67 years since Japan attacked us at Pearl Harbor, an act that launched us into WWII. Hundreds-of-thousands of brave American men gave their lives fighting in far-off places with names most Americans had never heard of. (it cost me an uncle and 2 cousins) Their country called on them and they went. In fact, the overwhelming majority didn't even wait to be called, they just went down and signed up. What ever happened to that America?
September 11, 2001. It's been seven years since the Moose-lamb towelheads attacked us in NYC and Washington, DC using pretty much the same sneaky tactics. In 1941 it was our military that was the target, in 2001 it was innocent civilians. Yet, we seem to still believe in having a so-called open society, a society that for some odd reason allows just about anybody to walk into our country without us ever really knowing their true intentions. Maybe we should study the Boy Scout motto more closely.
Let us never forget that freedom is not free...
8 comments:
A dear member of this community sent me an American flag that had flown over the American embassy in Baghdad, Iraq on the 65th anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day on December 7, 2006. I shall always treasure that flag because it represents what every male member of my family was fighting for while serving in World War II. My dad was in the Navy in the Pacific. One of his brothers was in the D-Day invasion and went on to serve in the Korean War and to retire as a Chief Warrant Officer. His other brother served in North Africa and was in the Italian campaign. My mother's younger brother was in the OSS and was in China, India, South and Central America doing God knows what. Her older brother was an Army engineer and worked building the Burma Road. Several of my mother's women relatives worked at the North American Aviation plant in Grand Prairie, Texas building the P-51 Mustang fighter plane.
You know, these guys didn't make a big deal about their service. They were the children of the Great Depression and were accustomed to hardship and privation. They went off to war, got the job done and came home to go back to work and make a good life for their families. The thing was that they were welcomed home as heroes. The disservice we did to our military men who served in Vietnam is a national disgrace. Our Vietnam veterans deserve better than they got from the American public.
Having spent many a Sunday morning quietly eating breakfast on Navy mess decks, December 7th takes me back every year.
Having never been under actual fire, I cannot imagine what it must have been like to have your ship shot out from under you.
Your ship is your friend, your enemy, part of your family, it's your home town. It is your home. If someone attacks that home, and kills one of your friends, or your brothers, it's a double shot that it happened in your home.
I can't even imagine.
My thanks go out to all the veterans here, not just the squids.
Shift colors, underway.
Anybody notice that it is Sunday morning?
Thus far I have been afraid to turn on the news to see if there is anything that I really don't want to see.
On Dec 7, 1941 I had a great-uncle on Johnson Island in the south Pacific. Grandpa was a signalman at Pearl harbor. Grandpa survived and by the end of the war came back to San Diego and was an instructor preparing for the main Island invasion. Uncle Dale survived 3 1/2 years as a POW and died less than 6 months after coming home to his wife & 3 kids.
Interestingly, this morning marks the 5th anniversary of Grandpa's passing. He died a little after 10 Mountain time. Which should be about 7 a.m. Hawaii time. We believe that his buddies came to pick him up.
Not to break the solemnity of this thread, but this is too funny to pass up and shows the intestinal fortitude of some of our servicemen...coupled with a morbid sense of humor.
T-shirt on a Marine who lost both legs in Iraq in 2006....
Front: Marine for Sale
Back: 40% off - some assembly required
During W.W.II the Japanese decided not to invade America because they knew most Americans were ARMED !
Admiral Yamamoto who crafted the attack on Pearl Harbor had attended Harvard (1919-1921) and was Naval Attache to the U. S. (1925-28) Most of our Navy was destroyed at Pearl Harbor and our Army had been deprived of funding and was ill prepared to defend the country.
It was reported that when asked why Japan did not follow up the Pearl Harbor attack with an invasion of the U. S. Mainland, his reply was that he had lived in the U.S. and knew that almost all households had guns!
We were to be in Pearl Harbor this morning. At 7:55 a.m., the exact moment the Japanese attack began 67 years ago, a moment of silence was observed. For all those that died that day, and those that died since, we will never forget.
How ya feelin Lady-Bug? Gettin back to your old self? (i hope)
"It was reported that when asked why Japan did not follow up the Pearl Harbor attack with an invasion of the U. S. Mainland, his reply was that he had lived in the U.S. and knew that almost all households had guns!"
The japanese back then talked in poetry. It seems like every quote attributed to them was spoken very beutifully.
Yamamoto was one of the best.
I bleieve the quote that you refer to was the one where he worried that there would be "a rifle behind every blade of grass" on the mainland of the "sleeping giant" that he feared that he ahd awakened.
He was right. And he still would be. Today, there would be a lot more people willing to surrender, but there would be MORE guns than back int he 40's. Anyone wanting to put a hurt on America had better remember what white americans did to my ancestors back in the day. We are a mean, dirty, fighting bunch of scrappers, and WILL win no matter the cost.
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