Remember Pearl Harbor

[Blaine]

I read they disbanded the Pearl Harbor Survivor's Society....not enough left to keep it going . We are just about out of people that actually remember, and just not think of it once a year. "If we don't remember history, we are doomed to repeat it"

[Pitchy]

Makes ya feel old huh bro.

[gak]

I saw a program the other day explaining how and why the memorial in Pearl Harbor is designed and laid out the way it is--for the first time (for me). Very interesting, poignant and sobering. Yes, never forget.

[rock-steady]

I read somewhere that the USS Arizona was still leaking fuel oil. Legend has it that it will continue to leak oil until the last survivor passes away.

Today, a section of US Highway in my county is being named in honor a Pearl Harbor survivor.

When I was in elementary school, our custodian was a survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack. He was wounded in the leg and walked with a limp. He had tattoos down both arms. Cool old fellow, he was.

[Ji in Hawaii]

They are having funeral services here this week. Two Pearl Harbor survivors who've passed on are having their ashes interned in the Arizona to join their fallen shipmates 70 years later.

[AJMD429]

Saw a patient yesterday who was there. He was just a kid in the Navy, and hadn't shot rifles yet, but they told him to leave the bridge where he was training (ship couldn't go anywhere anyway) and go on-dock to shoot at airplanes. Unfortunately, he was handed a .30 Carbine, and had to have someone show him how to shoot it. He doubts he got any planes. Too bad he didn't have a Garand. He did say the boat had some mounted .50 BMG's and was blazing away perhaps with some success.

[Ben_Rumson]

Here's one to think about...Things were so dire in the early weeks after the attack that the first thing Navy divers were sent down to retrieve was badly needed ammo.... With the threat of air raids at any minute...these unsung heroes went down in the oil soaked waters and inside of wrecked ships and boats, all day long and for weeks on end, bumping into rotting corpses... to feel their way through the pitch blackness, cutting away deck after deck to reach the magazines...Some even had unexploded Japanese torpedoes to contend with.... As has been pointed out before, it was lucky that the navy’s maintenance shops were left intact...

[Griff]

A sad day in history. Not unique by any means, and as humans, I'm afraid that we're doomed to repeat it. Good that some still remember and honor those lost.

[AJMD429]

With the threat of air raids at any minute...these unsung heroes went down in the oil soaked waters and inside of wrecked ships and boats, all day long and for weeks on end, bumping into rotting corpses... to feel their way through the pitch blackness, cutting away deck after deck to reach the magazines...Some even had unexploded Japanese torpedoes to contend with....

Never knew that. Any books on it ? would be fascinating reading...!

[Rube Burrows]

Been watching some good shows on History about it like every year.

Thanks to the men and women who served.

[Leverluver]

The passage of time is inevitable and memories become second and third hand rather than first hand. I recall the same thing said about the Muese-Argonne (who will tell our tale?) when there was no one left that was there. Hopefully there are enough sons and daughters (and grandsons and granddaughters) that will not allow the present and future PC historians to fog the truth. I recall when the Enola-Gay exibit was painted over with fuzzy PC wording. Fortunately Col Tibbets lived a long life and sounded the alarm. Thankfully, he was not a man that would tollerate such nonsense. A salute to all, past, present, and future that serve.

[Ben_Rumson]

Doc... Here's sort of a book report I posted awhile back... http://www.levergunscommunity.com/viewt ... or#p336443

I have the book floating around here somewhere... I'll send it to you to read if you'd like...PM me if interested..
Edit: Google "Pearl Harbor salvage operations" you'll find plenty of info and pictures... Some of the pages are better than others providing more technical details..How do you plug up the damage from six torpedoe hits?...They made it up as they went along!

[DunRanull]

Here's to the old guys, our fathers and grandfathers who lived and died for their country- their homes and their people. God bless and keep them all In Blessed Memory!
I knew two old guys who were actually AT Pearl during the raid, both stationed on the Arizona. One was in the brig for drinkin and fightin so he wasnt available and he never lived that down. The other guy did what he could and lived out the day but never really recovered from it. I got this man's ww2 .45 auto, a Remington IIRC, from his son. The man's memories finally overtook him and he ended his pain with a pistol.

[madman4570]

Prayers up!
God Bless

[6pt-sika]

When I was 10 or 12 I can still remmeber my dad telling me that he was laying on the floor in his parents living room listening to the radio when the announcement about the bombing pf Pearl Harbor was announced !

He says it stuck out in his mind because it was 5 days before his sixth birthday !

[Ben_Rumson]

I asked my Mom about it... Mom heard it on the radio...Dad was out duck hunting with a buddy... Mom was scared and walked over to be with Grand Pa...My middle name comes from the son Gramps had fall in the Battle of Normandy.... Mom said when my uncle's body came home after the war to be buried...There were so many hearses at the graveyard bringing the men home that the line stretched clear out of the place and were backed up on the road...Don't know how long that went on...

[1894c]

never forget...

[El Chivo]

I watched Tora Tora Tora as usual but this year I also watched some of the documentary footage - including my favorite sidebar of the war - the death of Yammamoto.

[gak]

Realizing ultimately death is death, the really hard stories are of those given no chance--in the holds of ships like the Arizona, or sinking off Normandy from the weight of their own gear or in LCs or tanks in the water before they could even fire a shot, or Merchant Marine ships in the north Atlantic. My father knew one such (Normandy)--was the hardest for him to talk about, along with his brother, an aviator injured over Europe later dying from his wounds. As a bomber instructor pilot throughout the war thankfully Dad never saw combat, but short on B-29 pilots in the Pacific Theatre, was on his way in transport to Guam for such duty when the war ended. Hard to believe now within the context of Vietnam and the Middle East wars, but WWII lasted (for the U.S./declarations) "only" 3-3/4 years,...but must have seemed an eternity then.

[Blaine]

Realizing ultimately death is death, the really hard stories are of those given no chance--in the holds of ships like the Arizona, or sinking off Normandy from the weight of their own gear or in LCs or tanks in the water before they could even fire a shot, or Merchant Marine ships in the north Atlantic. My father knew one such (Normandy)--was the hardest for him to talk about, along with his brother, an aviator injured over Europe later dying from his wounds. As a bomber instructor pilot throughout the war thankfully Dad never saw combat, but short on B-29 pilots in the Pacific Theatre, was on his way in transport to Guam for such duty when the war ended. Hard to believe now within the context of Vietnam and the Middle East wars, but WWII lasted (for the U.S./declarations) "only" 3-3/4 years,...but must have seemed an eternity then.

No mid-tour leaves, and the enlistment was for The Duration + 1 Day.

[samb]

Had a great Layover in Honalulu December 5th. Had the pleasure of bumping into a survivor of the attack; TSgt Alexander S Dyga. Got his autograph and a photo with him, and thanked him for sharing his story and service. He was a Mule skinner in the Army near Schofield Barracks. Was cleaning stables as a Pfc when the attack started. I snagged a photocopy of a couple newspaper articles he had, describing the attack in his own words. He said he huddled under a water trough throught the attack. What a precious man, he was orphaned at the age of ten, in 1934, and joined the army when he turned 18 in April of 1941. http://classified.post-gazette.com/deta ... d=16751531

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsbu ... &width=720