Remembering Pearl Harbor

[fuzzis]

I was going to say that I didn't have any connection to Pearl Harbor, but that's not true. Because of Pearl Harbor, both of my grandfathers went off to war, albeit in Europe.

Bless those who fought...and continue to do so.

fuzzis

[aaron]

I really wonder if American society has it in them to go through something like that again. I had watched war movies before, but the first few minutes of Saving Private Ryan made the experience real.

[fuzzis]

I really wonder if American society has it in them to go through something like that again. I had watched war movies before, but the first few minutes of Saving Private Ryan made the experience real.

Neither of my grandfathers talked much about WWII...GrandpaC was an ambulance driver, so I imagine that was pretty traumatic for him. GrandpaA talked a little bit about it, and I remember him choking up as he listed the names of his friends who were killed.

I appreciate things like the Veteran's History Project, although the process of story-telling and reclamation of voice is an interest of mine anyway, because I think it's important for us to know those things before the stories are gone.

fuzzis

[zorro]

National Geographic's "Remembering Pearl Harbor": http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/pearlharbor/

[aaron]

Along this same topic (but kind of a side-track), here are some pictures I just ran across of America before Pearl Harbor...in Kodak KodaChrome (color)

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/12/7/04913/9030

[Astra]

My great-grandfather served in Europe during WWII. Every once in a while a story comes out, but I know there's more to it than he will talk about. I hope someday I will get to find out the rest.

I'm usually not the sensitive type (bring on the Tarantino!) but "Saving Private Ryan" hit me hard, even though I watched it on a tiny screen. It really drove home that connection that when I see those old people wearing their caps emblazoned with their units and ships around Veteran's Day... that this was what they did. I have a serious aversion to WWII-based ground combat games as well.

The movie "Pearl Harbor" was terrible, but the (improbable) scene of the crewmembers' hands reaching out of a hole in one of the sinking ships haunted me for a long time. Reminded me of the (also dramatized) shot in "Apollo 13" of a crewmember in the Apollo 1 capsule banging on the window as fire engulfed the pad.

I guess it doesn't help knowing that they were mostly my age or younger. I grew up thinking that "veterans" were people who served mostly in WWII or Korea or Vietnam... now I see kids who graduated high school years after me with the label. I see those same people around town and see goofy kids who should be at a football game, not shooting at people or being shot at, or worse, getting killed.

[Hermione]

I'm grateful to see our veterans getting the respect they deserve. When the boys of my generation came home, it wasn't the case.

requiescat in pace, Uncle Dewey -- survivor of the USS Intrepid

[58ford]

both my grand fathers were in Europe Durring WWII, one was a marine & the other was a consciencious objector, he volunteered for the Corps of Engineers & did extensive survey work in France & Italy, He served his country, but was a devout Christian & refused to carry a weapon.
My Great uncle was in the pacific, and to his dying day he said it was a shame we only had the two bombs. He was injured & returned to combat 4 times.

[fuzzis]

both my grand fathers were in Europe Durring WWII, one was a marine & the other was a consciencious objector, he volunteered for the Corps of Engineers & did extensive survey work in France & Italy, He served his country, but was a devout Christian & refused to carry a weapon.
My Great uncle was in the pacific, and to his dying day he said it was a shame we only had the two bombs. He was injured & returned to combat 4 times.

The X-boy's paternal grandfather was a survivor of the Bataan Death March. He was one of the ones rescued during The Great Raid. He would talk about starving...getting a cup of rice, and how when he was rescued he was only something like 85 lbs.

The history teacher on my team in Reno had another Bataan Death March survivor come and talk to the 8th graders. Unfortunately he was not a very dynamic speaker, which wasn't good for 8th graders. The pictures, though, were always good for 10 minutes of awed silence.

fuzzis

fuzzis

[big john]

the time is right now,its been right for a long time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPYmIQXZ-nk

we need to kill all those against america,the ones who hate america and freedom,the leaders of old would know what to do,they would know who the enemy is and they would put a stop to them swiftly.This is not the america it was.

[58ford]

Many are under the false impression that America has lost the resolve it once had before Vietnam and the present whatever in Iraq.

They are so wrong. When the right time is right, there is no doubt in my mind that America can and will unleash an unearthly hell on any who push her over the line.
Dennis Miller said, "The rest of the world neeeds to realize that, though the US may have a long fuse, at the end of the day it's attached to a really big bomb."

[big john]

For some reason, none of ya'll youtube links are working on my box. all I get is the home page for youtube.

bj, looks like we'll wait until someone else throws the first nuclear punch, then katie bar the door. We don't have the force level to fight and win in the whole damn middle east at once with conventional weapons.

When it starts it will be unlike anything ever imagined by mankind before.
The earth will shutter if not fall off her axles, altogether.It wont work on my computer sometimes,i can log out then come back and it will work sometimes not.

maybe your right,i am not for nukes,if we were to put about 350,000 troops in iraq and get their gov.,police and military set up in a couple of months and give them the freedom to do it at any cost,that wouldn't work? would it make our military too thin in other parts of the world?I really don't know.it pisses me off cause i feel like we are going at it half assed,like our troops are nothing but targets,I say seek and destroy and get the hell out.YESTERDAY!

[big john]

go to youtube type in iraq,click on soldiers crying for their life in iraq.
That the way i came across it.

[iheartellisons]

To all those who were stuck in the USS Arizona, to all those who fought in air or land, to all those who helped in any way possible...may your courage and service be remembered today

The finest tribute we can pay
Unto our hero dead to-day,
Is not a rose wreath, white and red,
In memory of the blood they shed;
It is to stand beside each mound,
Each couch of consecrated ground,
And pledge ourselves as warriors true
Unto the work they died to do.

Into God's valleys where they lie
At rest, beneath the open sky,
Triumphant now o'er every foe,
As living tributes let us go.
No wreath of rose or immortelles
Or spoken word or tolling bells
Will do to-day, unless we give
Our pledge that liberty shall live.

Our hearts must be the roses red
We place above our hero dead;
To-day beside their graves we must
Renew allegiance to their trust;
Must bare our heads and humbly say
We hold the flag as dear as they,
And stand, as once they stood, to die
To keep the Stars and Stripes on high.

The finest tribute we can pay
Unto our hero dead to-day
Is not of speech or roses red,
But living, throbbing hearts instead,
That shall renew the pledge they sealed
With death upon the battlefield;
That freedom's flag shall bear no stain
And free men wear no tyrant's chain.

- Edgar G.

[selmore]

WWII Hollywood Heros.....yeah I wonder where todays are too..:(

Alec Guinness (Star Wars) operated a British Royal Navy landing craft on D-Day.

James Doohan ("Scotty" on Star Trek) landed in Normandy with the U. S. Army on D-Day.

Donald Pleasance (The Great Escape) really was an R. A. F. pilot who was shot down, held prisoner and tortured by the Germans.

David Niven was a Sandhurst graduate and Lt. Colonel of the British Commandos in Normandy.

James Stewart Entered the Army Air Force as a private and worked his way to the rank of Colonel. During World War II, Stewart served as a bomber pilot, his service record crediting him with leading more than 20 missions over Germany, and taking part in hundreds of air strikes during his tour of duty.
Stewart earned the Air Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross, France's Croix de Guerre,and 7 Battle Stars during World War II.
In peace time, Stewart continued to be an active member of the Air Force as a reservist, reaching the rank of Brigadier General before retiring in the late 1950s.

Clark Gable (Mega-Movie Star when war broke out) Although he was beyond the draft age at the time the U.S. entered WW II, Clark Gable enlisted as a private in the AAF on Aug. 12, 1942 at Los Angeles.
He attended the Officers' CandidateSchool at Miami Beach, FL. and graduated as a second lieutenant on Oct. 28, 1942.
He then attended aerial gunnery school and in Feb. 1943 he was assigned to the 351st Bomb Group at Polebrook where flew operational missions over Europe in B-17s.
Capt.. Gable returned to the U.S. in Oct. 1943 and was relieved from active duty as a major on Jun. 12, 1944 at his own request, since he was over-age for combat.

Charlton Heston was an Army Air Corps Sergeant in Kodiak.

Ernest Borgnine was a U. S. Navy Gunners Mate 1935-1945.

Charles Durning was a U. S. Army Ranger at Normandy earning a Silver Star and awarded the Purple Heart.

Charles Bronson was a tail gunner in the Army Air Corps, more specifically on B-29's in the 20th Air Force out of Guam, Tinian, and Saipan

George C. Scott was a decorated U. S. Marine.

Eddie Albert (Green Acres TV) was awarded a Bronze Star for his heroic action as a U. S. Naval officer aiding Marines at the horrific battle on the island of Tarawa in the Pacific Nov. 1943.

Brian Keith served as a U.S. Marine rear gunner in several actions against the Japanese on Rabal in the Pacific.

Lee Marvin was a U.S. Marine on Saipan during the Marianas campaign when he was wounded earning the Purple Heart.

John Russell: In 1942, he enlisted in the Marine Corps where he received a battlefield commission and was wounded and highly decorated for valor at Guadalcanal.

Robert Ryan was a U. S. Marine who served with the O. S. S. in Yugoslavia.

Tyrone Power (an established movie star when Pearl Harbor was bombed) joined the U.S. Marines, was a pilot flying supplies into, and wounded Marines out of, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Audie Murphy, little 5'5" tall 110 pound guy from Texas who played cowboy parts: Most Decorated serviceman of WWII and earned: Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, 2 Silver Star Medals, Legion of Meri t, 2 Bronze Star Medals with "V", 2 Purple Hearts, U.S. Army Outstanding Civilian Service Medal, Good Conduct Medal, 2 Distinguished Unit Emblems, American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with One Silver Star, Four Bronze Service Stars (representing nine campaigns) and one Bronze Arrowhead (representing assault landing at Sicily and Southern France) World War II Victory Medal Army of Occupation Medal with Germany Clasp, Armed Forces Reserve Medal, Combat Infantry Badge, Marksman Badge with Rifle Bar, Expert Badge with Bayonet Bar, French Fourragere in Colors of the Croix de Guerre, French Legion of Honor, Grade of Chevalier, French Croix de Guerre With Silver Star, French Croix de Guerre with Palm, Medal of Liberated France, Belgian Croix de Guerre 1940 Palm.

[Conveyor Belt]

My grandfather was a cook in the Army in Europe. My wife's grandfather was a tank driver. My wife's grandfather is still alive, but he doesn't talk about it.