Remember Pearl Harbor Today

[MuggsyB]

80 yrs isn't a very long period of time.  Obviously we will never have a war like WW2 again but this country really needs to come together and stop destroying itself from within.  My great gramps left and commanded an LST from Pearl Harbor about  a year after the attack.  He was 25 and many of the sailors on his ship were 17 year old kids.  He had literally zero military experience but because he took an ROTC class in college he begged a Naval office to join the Navy before he assumed he would be drafted. 

Anyway, I'm sure many Scoopers have family stories connected to Pearl Harbor.  Today should be a day we remember those lost and celebrate what we achieved as a nation after Dec 7th, 1941.  This is a remarkable country we live in and don't ever forget that.  This world would be vastly different if it was not for our great men and women and those subsequent years.

[MU82]

"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."

-- Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (reportedly from personal diary entry on December 7, 1941)

Personal note: My dad was not at Pearl Harbor, but he did join the Army in 1944, and went on to serve under Patton in the Battle of the Bulge. I think of him every day. He was my hero, and for far more that what he did for our country.

[pbiflyer]

Spent last night at a Pearl Harbor event, with 25 WWII vets, including my father. It was pretty damn impressive talking to those folks. The 101 year old cracked me up with his humor. Touching stories from marines and a paratrooper. Pretty bad ass people, without any of them having to tell you they were bad ass.
The group that did the event: https://vhvlife.com/

And an interview from last year with one of the vets at the event. Strangely enough, my dad delivered his counterparts to Okinawa. He was really interesting to talk to. A precursor to the Seals.
https://archive.storycorps.org/interviews/veterans-homefront-voiceswwii-veteran-harvey-middleman-interviewed-by-northeast-high-school-jrotc-battalion-cadet-commander/

[HouWarrior]

My Uncle, who passed a few years ago, was at Pearl Harbor during the attack.

Stationed at Wheeler field as an army air corps tech sargeant, Uncle Bob, would remind us that actually the very first Jap bombs fell at Wheeler.  For many years, he'd laugh and tell me that he spent most of the attack ducking under a fire truck, while Zeroes and Vals flew overhead. He would never expand on this much, other than to say all of them were blown away by the sheer amount of resulting destruction, death and carnage.

Wheeler was hit pretty hard and he was reported missing in action, for many weeks, while my Minnesota Grandma could only cry herself to sleep every night (my mom was still at home).  Uncle Bob later claimed he simply hadn't any time to report in to HQ that he was ok, as they worked 16-18 hour days in the days and weeks following. The US acted on the presumption that the Dec 7 attack was a precursor to a Jap landing and physical attack on the islands; massive defensive preparations were needed.

My Uncle eventually checked in, Grandma never fully forgave him for her time of uncertainty, and Bob followed the war out to its island hopping stops. He always claimed his time in the Gilberts was toughest.

I had to smile when a Tyler Texas newspaper did a Dec 7 front page story on him on a few years ago. Gone was the self -effacing truth of hiding under a fire truck and old man Uncle Bob simply explained to the paper how every man jumped into the fray and "relied on the extensive training they were given". Bob, and to a man, those of his generation, refuse any greatest generation BS or hero talk as they insist such must always be reserved for those who didn't come home.

Pearl Harbor was the "9/11" moment for those of a couple of previous generations (mine was the Kennedy killing in 1963).

Fortunately, I knew well those who lived and fought in WW1 (both grandpas) , WW2 (dad, uncles, family friends, etc), and Vietnam (my cousins and many friends) . INMHO the participants should remain my best source for views/opinions on those events and those of us not alive or significantly subsequent to the events should not rewrite, add or detract.

All due respect Mugs, Uncle Bob dodging Jap bombs 80 years ago would have seen no connection to us coming together, or not, in 2021.
History should be left in its own moment

[Mutaman]

War might been very different if the Enterprise had not been delayed by bad weather and had been at Pearl on 12/7 as scheduled.

For the next few months it was "The Enterprise versus Japan" which culminated in the victory at Midway. ( With a little help from The Yorktown).
"She participated in more major actions of the war against Japan than any other United States ship. These actions included the attack on Pearl Harbor — 18 Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers of her Air Group arrived over the harbor during the attack; seven were shot down with eight airmen killed and two wounded, making her the only American aircraft carrier with men at Pearl Harbor during the attack and the first to sustain casualties during the Pacific War[3] — the Battle of Midway, the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, various other air-sea engagements during the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Enterprise earned 20 battle stars, the most for any U.S. warship in World War II, and was the most decorated U.S. ship of World War II. She was also the first American ship to sink a full-sized enemy warship after the Pacific War had been declared when her aircraft sank the Japanese submarine I-70 on 10 December 1941.[4] On three occasions during the war, the Japanese announced that she had been sunk in battle, inspiring her nickname "The Grey Ghost". By the end of the war, her planes and guns had downed 911 enemy planes, sunk 71 ships, and damaged or destroyed 192 more.[5]"
Wiki

Despite efforts made by the public after the war to turn Enterprise into a museum ship, Enterprise was ultimately scrapped from 1958 to 1960. 
Her nameplate is kept in a nice little park in River Vale new Jersey, and her  bell resides at the U.S. Naval Academy, where it is traditionally rung only after Midshipmen victories over West Point.

[MuggsyB]

My Uncle, who passed a few years ago, was at Pearl Harbor during the attack.

Stationed at Wheeler field as an army air corps tech sargeant, Uncle Bob, would remind us that actually the very first Jap bombs fell at Wheeler.  For many years, he'd laugh and tell me that he spent most of the attack ducking under a fire truck, while Zeroes and Vals flew overhead. He would never expand on this much, other than to say all of them were blown away by the sheer amount of resulting destruction, death and carnage.

Wheeler was hit pretty hard and he was reported missing in action, for many weeks, while my Minnesota Grandma could only cry herself to sleep every night (my mom was still at home).  Uncle Bob later claimed he simply hadn't any time to report in to HQ that he was ok, as they worked 16-18 hour days in the days and weeks following. The US acted on the presumption that the Dec 7 attack was a precursor to a Jap landing and physical attack on the islands; massive defensive preparations were needed.

My Uncle eventually checked in, Grandma never fully forgave him for her time of uncertainty, and Bob followed the war out to its island hopping stops. He always claimed his time in the Gilberts was toughest.

I had to smile when a Tyler Texas newspaper did a Dec 7 front page story on him on a few years ago. Gone was the self -effacing truth of hiding under a fire truck and old man Uncle Bob simply explained to the paper how every man jumped into the fray and "relied on the extensive training they were given". Bob, and to a man, those of his generation, refuse any greatest generation BS or hero talk as they insist such must always be reserved for those who didn't come home.

Pearl Harbor was the "9/11" moment for those of a couple of previous generations (mine was the Kennedy killing in 1963).

Fortunately, I knew well those who lived and fought in WW1 (both grandpas) , WW2 (dad, uncles, family friends, etc), and Vietnam (my cousins and many friends) . INMHO the participants should remain my best source for views/opinions on those events and those of us not alive or significantly subsequent to the events should not rewrite, add or detract.

All due respect Mugs, Uncle Bob dodging Jap bombs 80 years ago would have seen no connection to us coming together, or not, in 2021.
History should be left in its own moment

Ty and your uncle but I disagree that our history shouldn't lead to more unity. 

[MuggsyB]

Spent last night at a Pearl Harbor event, with 25 WWII vets, including my father. It was pretty damn impressive talking to those folks. The 101 year old cracked me up with his humor. Touching stories from marines and a paratrooper. Pretty bad ass people, without any of them having to tell you they were bad ass.
The group that did the event: https://vhvlife.com/

And an interview from last year with one of the vets at the event. Strangely enough, my dad delivered his counterparts to Okinawa. He was really interesting to talk to. A precursor to the Seals.
https://archive.storycorps.org/interviews/veterans-homefront-voiceswwii-veteran-harvey-middleman-interviewed-by-northeast-high-school-jrotc-battalion-cadet-commander/

AWESOME!!  Tremendous props to you dad!!

[HouWarrior]

Ty and your uncle but I disagree that our history shouldn't lead to more unity.

Mugs, You are being trite and lacking in depth/learning.

 US history contains as much division as it does unity. Talk with a Civil war buff or one deeply involved in Civil rights and theirs is a tale of deep division and strife.

Pearl Harbor did, in fact, bring an emergency unity, but likely not in the way you understand it.  Dec 7 1941 brought unity to a still open issue then dividing the USA, namely war neutrality embodied in Charles Lindbergh's America First faction vs.  pro war interventionists like FDR....both of whom were mostly debating whether the USA military should be sent to Europe (many here still felt burned over our troops going there in WW1).

Pearl Harbor unified us all to war and vengeance against the Japanese. There was extreme hatred of the "Japs" and a desire to avenge this deplorable attack. In the USA we even interred US born Japanese in camps as purported "security threats". We unified, yes, but mostly out of a uniform desire to get back at our attackers.

Curiously, after the attack, USA only first declared war on Japan. Whether the USA would declare war on Germany was still an open issue, until stupid Uncle Adolf jumped the gun and Germany declared war on the USA, then we declared war vs. Germany, in response.

Yes we unified to make war in WW2. Those who actually fought in war, and most post war historians do not glory in such unity or in the making of war. War is not unity ....its extreme disunity leading to the hate and killing of fellow humans. War is a cautionary tale in support of keeping the peace and not killing each other.

Please be a better student of history.

[Mutaman]

We unified, yes, but mostly out of a uniform desire to get back at our attackers.

"(Admiral Bill ) Halsey and Enterprise slipped back into Pearl Harbor on the evening of December 8. Surveying the wreckage of the Pacific Fleet, he remarked, "Before we're through with them, the Japanese language will be spoken only in hell."

[Jockey]

Pearl Harbor unified us all to war and vengeance against the Japanese. There was extreme hatred of the "Japs" and a desire to avenge this deplorable attack. In the USA we even interred US born Japanese in camps as purported "security threats". We unified, yes, but mostly out of a uniform desire to get back at our attackers.

The fact that they looked different didn't hurt the cause of unity.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Well said Hou