Lest we forget.........and thank you.

12/7/41

I entered service in the US Air Force 12-7-1976, 41 years ago today.

Mom's recount of that day is so vivid, I used to find myself stopping on bright Sundays during Advent and thinking "This is what it was like."

Dad stayed glued to his radio. He could get stations on the west coast, the BBC, even Berlin if the condidtions were right. Everyone in the house knew this was deep doo-doo. Grandpa had fought for the Kaiser. The FBI had already been to the house. It was just a question of whether the family was going to the camps or the 3 boys shipped off to fight.

Sometime could you share a little more. That sounds like an interesting background. Thanks

Mom was the only child. Her dad had been a frat-brother of Curtis LeMay at Ohio State, and the two corresponded in the intervening years. Gramps was an executive with Formica. The news hit after church on Sunday. It had been a brisk bright Sunday. When the news hit, everyone went to their living rooms and sat and listened.

Dad's dad had emigrated in '23 with a wife and 1 son. He'd been conscripted after Verdun, and spent the war being shuttled up to the line only to be sent back to the rear, because his head was too big to fit in a gas mask. Dad and his brother had been born in Cincinnati. Grandpa was a had been a successful home builder, but the Crash had caused him to declare bankruptcy. In 1939, he'd gotten back on his feet enough to buy 300 acres on the north side of Cincinnati and build a self-sufficient farm. He'd been through two crashes by then and was not going to caught unprepared for the next one. The house had been picked up at auction from the bankruptcy sale of the Mosler (safe) estate. Grandpa had it moved, brick by brick out to the farm.

Dad was a bit of a radio buff. He had spent his formative years with his ear glued to a set. He had his own big floor standing Zenith next to his bed. From there, he'd listened to Hitler and Mussolini's speeches, The Hindenburg Disaster, and the Battle of Britain. He played center for the Mt Healthy High School varsity team and was a good left-handed pitcher for them in the spring.

The family was all-American and anti-Fascist. However, there was a lot of Bund activity in Mt Healthy in those days, so the family was getting it from both ends. Dad had gone along on the family trip back home in 1938, and witnessed book burnings and gotten on the wrong side of the Brown Shirts. They scared the piss out of him. The family lived in fear until they got back to New York. It turns out the local Bund had been feeding reports back, and Gramps had gotten the hard sell to stay and build housing for the Wehrmacht. He tried to say no politely, and that didn't work, so they beat it home as quick as they could. Back home, they caught the suspicion of the FBI.

Everything stopped for my folks on December 7. Life changed irrevocably. Mom's dad got a deferrment as he was now a top manager for a war-related industry. Dad's two brother both went to the Pacific. Dad went in towards the end and was on the boat, heading for the invasion of Japan in August '45. He laid off Okinawa for 2 weeks and then got shipped to Korea. If you remember the unseen character, Sparky, on M.A.S.H-- that's my dad. One cousin went into the OSS and CIA. An uncle made the mistake of flipping off Hitler back in Munich. He spent 10 years in hiding. He lost a son on the Eastern front. He was a pilot that got shot down over Russian lines. He was shot by the Gestapo when he got back.

My dad was in the navy. He was a radioman and was on duty at Bainbridge Island Naval Base in Port Angeles, WA when it happened. He said he went from bored and half asleep to full alert within 10 seconds when the radios went nuts.
He and Mom had planned to get married the next summer. With the uncertainty of war, they got married 3 weeks later, on the 27th, in a small chapel on base. As it happened, he was stateside the entire war and he and Mom were able to be together for most of it.

My first marriage took place on 7 December. It was a bomb too....and definitely won't "live in infamy!"

76th anniversary. I was four years old. By the end of the war, when the grown ups just called it "Pearl" us kids knew what they were talking about.

My late stepmother was the daughter of missionaries in the Philippines when the war began, and was a three-year old participant in the Bataan death march. Her father died as a captive. When they returned to the States she was in the habit of licking her plate clean and that jabit took a while to be broken.

Years ago I tried to encourage her to write her memoir on the subject. She chose to try to forget it instead, not wanting to relive it all. That I can understand.

She passed a week before Christmas two years ago.

Got my flag out.. My Dad was on a DD steaming toward Pearl that day...and saw the carnage when they arrived,

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

Admiral Yamamoto understood us. The liberals never will ......

I still have my folk's 48 star flag. It is good shape, but I am afraid to risk it outdoors.

I was born in 1950. I can remember, well into the 1960's, when Dec. 7 was still a very revered day. It was a pretty big deal to a lot of folks, and those old enough to remember could tell you exactly where they were, and what they were doing.

We another obama in office back then >tips that war was near.


In the newly revealed 20-page memo from FDR's declassified FBI file, the Office of Naval Intelligence on December 4 warned, "In anticipation of open conflict with this country, Japan is vigorously utilizing every available agency to secure military, naval and commercial information, paying particular attention to the West Coast, the Panama Canal and the Territory of Hawaii."


The memo, published in the new book December 1941: 31 Days that Changed America and Saved the World went on to say that the Japanese were collecting "detailed technical information" that would be specifically used by its ......blah blah wolf wolf..

Thankful for the "Greatest Generation". If not for them we would all be speaking Japanese or German. Or both!

They made many sacrifices we probably could not imagine. My Grandpa served in the Army during the war. Would not talk about it much. But I will never forget him or the REAL MEN who gave us everything we have.

And here our country all tattered and torn is in need of good strong American's to stand and defend her once again. Can we
survive another obama or clinton?

Dad was in Bakersfield, California at the time and volunteered ten days afterwards.

Heck of a story, shaman. Thanks for sharing.

My uncle was a Marine at Pearl Harbor that morning. He was on the USS Helena when the bombing started. The Helena was hit hard and he ended up swimming. He was picked up by the USS St Louis and immediately manned an anti-aircraft gun as the St Louis headed out of Pearl during the attack.

He ended up back on the Helena after it was patched up and fought on Guadalcanal. He was a tough bastard back then and remained a tough bastard until the day he died. He lived the way he wanted to live...he always had an open beer in the truck with him and for whatever reason no cop would ever ticket him. Scared the piss out of us when we were kids (especially with the pictures he'd show every so often from Guadalcanal, where his entrenching tool was well used) and now that we are all adults, he earns our respect every day. He died about 20 years ago and when my cousins went through the medals, pictures and memorabilia he had stored away in shoe boxes they were stunned at how humble he had actually been.

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When Jeremy Clarkson did a special on the Victoria Cross he said he and his wife found out her father had gotten the VC......after he died. Never said a word.

Everyone needs an uncle like yours.

Dad was all ready in the Army. A very convincing judge had told him he could go to jail, or go in the army. I don't even know what the offense was. He was on leave in New York City. The MP's were running around dragging all the guys out of the bars and cat houses and throwing them on the beach, and the rumors were running rampant that an East Coast invasion was forthcoming. He filled sandbags and did guard duty for two straight weeks. Dad's first weapon of war was an entrenching tool.

Tora, Tora, Tora.

Anyone know where we can stream the movie for free?

And we sank every God Dam Japanese ship that was in on the raid.

I had an uncle who was there on the Medusa. That was a repair ship that was tied up to another ship they were repairing. They were well off to the side of most of the action. They were armed with only 1 machine gun but managed to splash at least 1 Jap plane. They had a couple men hurt but nothing serious.