A date which will live in infamy

[weldingisfun]

Franklin D. Roosevelt to a Joint Session of the U.S. Congress on December 8, 1941, one day after the Empire of Japan's attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and the Japanese declaration of war on the United States and the British Empire. The name derives from the first line of the speech: Roosevelt describing the previous day as "a date which will live in infamy". Never forget.

 

[repete]

Always be ready to defend our nation.

 

[MossRoad]

Yep. Tomorrow is Pearl Harbor Day.

 

[Jim Nelson]

My 2 oldest brothers were both there, the oldest had been in the Navy over a year and his ship was re-provisioning and he had shore duty at the time. The second oldest had just finished boot camp in San Diego and had been shipped to Pearl to meet his assigned carrier when it made port. My oldest bro. came out with no problems but the younger was still aboard the transport ship and they were hit and during the rescue and fire fighting operations he was burned and received a Purple Heart.
The older bro. stayed in for 20 years and loved the life. The younger bro. stayed til the war was over and got out as soon as possible after that. Neither one would talk much about it and the only thing I really remember was the younger bro. saying that "All the Navy ever did was take a bunch of good young men and turn them into drunks".

 

[dragoneggs]

Pearl Harbor... was a wake up call for us. We rose triumphantly. Fought bravely prior and every war since. Wholesale support has dwindled each decade though. I am thankful that we have been recently striving to engage peacefully with strategic injections of force. WWWIII is not the solution, obviously.

Please give your vociferous thanks and well wishes to our troops abroad this holiday season.

 

[Frankenkubota]

My uncle was in the navy and stationed at Pearl Harbor but was not on board when it hit the fan. He survived.

50 years later I'm in HI on business, honest, and it was Sunday and I was bored so, why not go see Pearl harbor.

I asked the hotel guy how to go about seeing Pearl Harbor. I had a rental car and was all alone so no problem on my end.

He looked at me like I was nuts, more than normal. Then he asked me if I knew the date, I said no but I knew it was Sunday.

He said, not only is it December 7th, it's 2001 and it's the 60 anniversary of the attack and guess what, it's gonna be packed!

I went the next time, it's cool.

 

[oosik]

My father & uncle were both in WWll. Neither would talk about this time in their lives.

 

[nybirdman]

My father was stationed at Pearl Harbor for two years,I believe for the rebuild;strangely my birthday is Dec.7 but 1949.

 

[reb]

My uncle was stationed at Pearl Harbor then. He survived. He also survived the sinking of two ships later in the war.

It is sad that apparently the Pearl Harbor attack is no longer mentioned in schools.

 

[MossRoad]

My father was in college his sophomore year when he got drafted soon after the war started and ended up in Texas, Australia, New Guinea, and the Philippines. Combat engineering battalion. He said New Guinea was the most interesting; if the Japanese didn't kill you, the jungle would. He worked with the native peoples quite a bit. He had a bunch of photographs of everything, however, he gave them to a museum without asking us if we'd like some copies. He talked about it quite a bit with us over his life, but more detailed as we all got older. He said a day didn't go by where he didn't think of it well into his 70s when he passed away.

 

[oosik]

My uncle was in Hawaii, working for a private water well driller on that day. He was drafted into the Army. My father being a college graduate in biology was drafted into the Army also. He was stationed at Ft Dietrich, MD for his tour. My fathers location and duties were why he couldn't talk about his service.

 

[dragoneggs]

My father & uncle were both in WWll. Neither would talk about this time in their lives.

My uncle was in Hawaii, working for a private water well driller on that day. He was drafted into the Army. My father being a college graduate in biology was drafted into the Army also. He was stationed at Ft Dietrich, MD for his tour. My fathers location and duties were why he couldn't talk about his service.

My father was in Norway during the **** occupation during WWII. He didn't talk about it either. Late in his life, he shared with me a few experiences (not good). After he passed, I was talking to my mom and found out he never told her any of the stories he told me.

 

[bcp]

I probably heard the speech at the time, but I didn't understand English (or any language) yet.



Bruce

 

[/pine]

A little off topic from the attack at Pearl but...FWIW...
My dad was an American defender of Bataan and Corregidor...before he was captured his squad patrolled the jungle with Filipino guerrillas...for a period of several weeks they bivouacked with native Igorot tribesmen who actually practiced headhunting...the leader of the tribe they stayed with was actually an educated man that my dad played chess with during their stay...prior to the war the man had worked his way to the US and earned a college degree (not sure but I think it was at Cornell)...and returned to be chief of their group...
...These natives actually practiced headhunting and my dad had several shrunken heads that were later taken from him by his captors...he had actually witnessed the process of how the skulls were removed and the heads preserved with hair intact...
My father did not like to talk about the war very much but his experience in the jungles was one exception...after being captured he survived the death march and was a POW for the 3 remaining years of the war in labor camps in Japan...

 

[fried1765]

Yep. Tomorrow is Pearl Harbor Day.

"tomorrow" ?
THINK......TODAY !!!!!

 

[fried1765]

A little off topic from the attack at Pearl but...FWIW...
My dad was an American defender of Bataan and Corregidor...before he was captured his squad patrolled the jungle with Filipino guerrillas...for a period of several weeks they bivouacked with native Igorot tribesmen who actually practiced headhunting...the leader of the tribe they stayed with was actually an educated man that my dad played chess with during their stay...prior to the war the man had worked his way to the US and earned a college degree (not sure but I think it was at Cornell)...and returned to be chief of their group...
...These natives actually practiced headhunting and my dad had several shrunken heads that were later taken from him by his captors...he had actually witnessed the process of how the skulls were removed and the heads preserved with hair intact...
My father did not like to talk about the war very much but his experience in the jungles was one exception...after being captured he survived the death march and was a POW for the 3 remaining years of the war in labor camps in Japan...

I had the good fortune of doing the Corregidor island tour.
A moving explanation of history,..... extremely worthwhile.

 

[MossRoad]

"tomorrow" ?
THINK......TODAY !!!!!

fried1765,

I posted that yesterday on December 6th.

 

[dmccarty]

A really great book that uses operation research methods, as well as data that has been overlooked, to provide some interesting insight on the Pearl Harbor attack is, "Attack on Pearl Harbor, Strategy, Combat, Myths, Deceptions" by Alan D. Zimm.

Amazon.com: The Attack on Pearl Harbor: Strategy, Combat, Myths, Deceptions eBook: Zimm, Alan D.: Books

Later,
Dan

 

[ruffdog]

Grandpa was in WW1 and his job was to supply the front lines. Supplies went to the line and wounded soldiers came back. He saw all the aftermath of war and there are pictures. I'm not describing them here. He always talked how bad the mustard gas was and the affects. .....................:sigh::salute:

 

[the old grind]

The one uncle I never had entered the war late & right out of ROTC at MSU. (Go State!) Jim was in an armored cavalry 'advanced' unit barely over enemy lines and North of what would become the 'bulge' in the battle line with the German push in December '44

In early October Jim's unit of Shermans met a heavy force near Aachen, just over the Belgian border into Germany. He didn't survive. My (older) Brother was named after him and joined the Navy in '68. We still have him.