Seventy four years ago this great nation was thrust into the most destructive war in the history of mankind. We entered that war with slim hope and with the enemies of freedom knocking on victories doorstep. However within six months that had all changed. America rose up and showed the world how great we can be. We entered the Second World War barely able to survive an economic depression and barley able to defend ourselves, and emerged the most powerful nation in the world. Today we face terrorist enemies like ISIS who are nothing like the Axis powers we defeated during the Second World War. Seventy four years ago we fought and defeated three of the most powerful enemies of freedom the world had ever seen. In a total global war on the land, sea, and air we won. Today these cowards who seem to want to only attack innocent defenseless people have us floundering. That is not right. Remember Pearl Harbor today for many reasons. We must not forget the valor and sacrifice of that day, the victims and the survivors, and all of the greatest generation who served to defeat the Axis during the Second World War. But remember Pearl Harbor because it opened eyes once when they were closed. When there was little hope, we arose as a nation and became the bright shining torch of Liberty around the world that no one could defeat. That morning the Japanese woke the sleeping giant, it seems that he has fallen back into his slumber. Maybe it's time for him to wake up again. Never forget America.
You'll never see America coalesce around any fight like it did following Pearl Harbor, or hell, even 9/11. Or at least for very long. You know, because of imperialistic-guilt and how offensive it is to win a war and all.
As much as this galls me, I must agree with disgust. I believe it also has to do with people's attention spans as well as a lack of any interest in learning from our past history, or getting involved
Maybe it has to do with the sort of enemies we now face. Enemies that don't have a capital, don't have factories, don't value their own lives. There are no beaches of normandy or iwo jima to storm in the early 21st century. Might as well lament the lack of cavalry charges.
Met a fellow a few years back named Mack Abbott. He was there at Pearl Harbor and was on the last patrol at Okinawa when the Japanese surrendered. He wrote a book about it and it's fascinating. Not many folks can truthfully claim to have fired the first and last shots of WW2, but Abbott can.
I see where Mack died last year. Glad I got him to autograph my copy of his book. I'm normally not an autograph type of guy but he was a special breed of man.... Not many like him pass our way. He was also at Guadalcanal, Saipan,Iwo and several other engagements along the way and lived to tell.
I met a guy a couple of years ago with somewhat similar experiences. He trained the pilots for the Doolittle raid, and later developed the incendiary bombs used on Japan. He was assigned to Admiral Nimitz's staff and designed his HQ on Wake Island. Just to keep from being bored, he was a naval aviator who kept current the whole war. This story was written up in the Bristol Newspaper.
The stories some of these people have to tell would just be ridiculous if they weren't absolutely 100% true.
In 1975 we played the university of Hawaii on Dec. 6. On Sunday Dec. 7th, the Navy gave us a tour of the USS Arizona. Even today it is without doubt the most humbling experience of my life. My uncle was also on the USS Tennessee when Pearl Harbor was attacked. He never would talk about that day.
I've been reading a book called "An American Pigboat goes to War" off and on in the lab during processes. The bravery of the US submariners who got in those outdated and primitive boats is astounding. And those subs were all that were holding the Japanese navy at bay for awhile.
On a certain level, I understand the reluctance to talk about those things but as the last of the WW2 vets die, their untold stories die with them and that is a terrible shame. I'm so grateful to those men and women who held off the Nazis and the Japanese at the same time (and did it conclusively in four years...)... Every time some 85+ year old man is putting along in traffic or holding up the line at the grocery store or whatever I have always tried to be a bit more patient with them as I could just see one of them running out of a landing craft into an MG40 making hamburger out of their buddies or huddled up in some foxhole on a godforsaken pacific island... Or worse...
If you've ever seen a B-17 or any of the other lighter bombers of the war (B-25's Marauders etc) you'll gain a real appreciation of why so many died... Sherman tanks are a whole other level....
The Sherman was grand compared to the Stuarts and Lees. My grandfather grew up with a kid who was blown up at Kaserine, he thought it nothing less than murder to send those boys out there and telling them that their equipment was on par with any in the world
The crazy thing is, in the scheme of the war not very many Americans died. Hell, more Americans have died on our own soil from firearms since 2001 than died in WW2.
