Lest we forget

[skeets]

December 7 1941, a day that will live forever in infamy. May God bless those that keep America safe.
All gave some, some gave all

 

[Yooper]

Amen to that, Skeets! In the neighborhood where I grew up, one survived Normandy and one survived the Bataan death march. I will not forget.

 

[Creature Meadow]

I concur, remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

My dad would have turned 100 today.

He was in the NAVY in Pensacola, celebrating his birthday and the neighbors ran over and said, "Turn on your radio! The Japs just bombed Pearl Harbor!"

Within a couple months he headed out to the Pacific for the duration of the Pacific war.

It was against security regs to verbally disclose you location. All mail heading stateside was read by Government Censors. Knowing this, my dad had two 8x11 maps of the Pacific, one which he took and one he left with mom. He would poke one pinhole in the map over his location and that hole would poke through the letter. She would put a pin through the same hole in the letter and see his location on the map as they moved from island to island. Throughout the war, she was able to keep track of where he was.

Ray

 

[skeets]

Dad was in the Pacific as well in the Army. He had a company of islanders and they were dropped off and swam island to island before the troops landed, gathering recon. He never talked about it much, but something might be on TV he would comment on it, and we picked up things, you know how kids are.;ittle pictures big ears.... He never would talk about thing when we asked him, just how beautiful the island were and the fish , but he hated the Japs with a passion

 

[CaveCreekRay]

The brutality of the Japanese military during the late 30's and 1940's was horrific.

None of that is taught in school today. Fact: Our educational system has intentionally ignored much of world history. High school textbooks today have two paragraphs on WWII and one of them deals with the dropping of the atomic bomb. Nothing is mentioned about the 1.5 million leaflets urging the Japanese to leave Hiroshima and Nagasaki because a terrible new bomb will soon destroy them.

My dad was always close to the front keeping recon cameras loaded with film and operating for the aerial recon flights. You had to have room on an island to build an airstrip or take an island with one already there. Some of the large islands they were on still had leftover Japanese soldiers dug into caves.

As a photographer, my dad had a collection of great war images captured by him or his friends throughout the pacific. One of the most memorable was one handed to him when working with Bob Hope, Jerry Colona and crew... Bob and crew tried to bring a little of home to far away places. Those who traveled with Bob were witness to the effect it had on our guys, thousand of miles from home.

Many people today do not realize that we were well into WWII in Europe before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The thought of fighting a massive war on two fronts is something that many today do not completely understand. Almost the entire world was involved.

Ray

 

[OldeEnglish]

Dad was in the Pacific as well in the Army. He had a company of islanders and they were dropped off and swam island to island before the troops landed, gathering recon. He never talked about it much, but something might be on TV he would comment on it, and we picked up things, you know how kids are.;ittle pictures big ears.... He never would talk about thing when we asked him, just how beautiful the island were and the fish , but he hated the Japs with a passion

My grandfather was the same, never talked about it. His famous comment about Japanese cars rusting so fast was.... They rust because they have that Japanese steel, it still has that crap on it from the A bomb so paint won't stick to it.

Tough breed, in my eyes the toughest. When I hear kids or complain about how rough their life is today being oppressed or what ever they call it, I say call me when you have to lie about your age to join a war because that's your best option in life at that time.

 

[cerlawson]

How many here know what the letters GI stand for? My older brother was in the Army and I asked him that in one of the letters were were asked to write to servicemen for morale purposes. "Government Issued" was stamped on his clothes when he was inducted by the draft. At age 13 on this date and so after that then we kids did our part by collecting scrap tires, metal, etc. to be recycled. In shop class we made models of various aircraft to be used by gunners for identifying friend or foe. Later when I was in service, I learned those were not very useful, because they shot at anything coming close.

How about gas rationing? Switching to kerosene after the car started on gasoline worked but smokey.

 

[Ridger]

Truly the Greatest Generation!

 

[Lil Foot]

I had an uncle (apparently the luckiest man who ever lived) who left home & joined the Navy at 16. He was a cook's helper on the battleship Arizona on Dec 7th. He had been sent with some other seaman to pickup some fresh fruit on the other side of the island when the attack hit. While returning, he & his mates were drafted to help hump ammo for an anti-aircraft battery & fight fires. By the time he got back to the harbor, it was all over.
He had several assignments after that, and eventually got a leave to visit home, after which he would report to his new ship. While returning, he missed a train connection and missed the sailing of his new ship. He was re-assigned to some other ship.
The ship he missed sailing on was the Indianapolis, on it's way to deliver the first a-bomb to Tinian.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Wow! That guy was lucky...

The Indianapolis was one of the biggest NAVY disasters and a truly sad day for those who survived the war. They all died so close to the cessation of hostilities and then to not be able to get rescued... so sad.

Ray

 

[sawmill]

I was born December 7th, 1941. My mother was on the delivery table and the hospital announced over the P A system that Pearl Harbor had just been attacked.

 

[Kubota_Man]

As my tag line says I'm an old Retired Army Guy.

During my time in service I was able to visit Tennessee the state where I was born. While there I was able to visit the man who raised my Mom although he was under no obligation to to so. He was a WWII Army Veteran. I come from a long line of military men mostly Army. Anyways I was talking to the man I called Grandpa on more of a level of Army guy to Army guy. He started to talk (for what I found out later for the first time since the war ended) about his time there in the war. I felt honored to be in that moment and time. He started to go into detail about what he had seen and done. after about a half an hour we were blocked from continuing our chat by my Aunt. She was concerned that bring up all of those memories was going to cause flashbacks and other issues. All he wanted to do was download and relieve himself of the burdens of a lifetime gone by. He never again talked about his time in service. He passed away this past summer still holding on to those things that haunted him. While being haunted by the things he had experienced he was also proud to have served with Honor the United States of America he didn't like to abbreviate his country to USA

 

[coachgeo]

There is an "understanding" of Valor long ago that is so missing today. Much respect to those who have fought so that so many here can be idiots.

 

[pendoreille]

My Daddy in law was a marine, an Iwo Jima Vet. Every Veterans Day for 30 some years I bought him lunch. I would invite different vets to come with us. I was Navy, Vietnam era. I was building a home for a vascular surgeon and he came, he served in the Navy hospital in Danang. We all talked, we were all blubbering....My daddy in law passed three years ago, almost 91. I miss him and those lunches a lot. He went to war, we won, he came home and even though he had half his face blown off he did not hold any animosities toward the Japanese people. The war was over. a Hero.

 

[skeets]

Happy belated Birthday there Sawmill

 

[pendoreille]

Sawmill...don't forget to eat strawberry-rhubarb pie, happy bday

 

[ehenry]

Me and my family will never forget. My Dad was a B24 pilot in the south pacific.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Awesome picture. Wonder how old he was then.

Most of those pilots were just kids. Many of the guys getting checked out in P-51's had under a hundred hours total going into combat. Some of the majors and colonels were in their 20's still. Just amazing.

Military training is unparalleled. To be able to take kids off the farm and in only a couple years experience, have them lead a bomber formation into hostile territory, that is just stunning. I am a product of that system and I still cannot believe what they were able to do in so short a time. And I enjoyed the luxury of peacetime.

Ray

 

[ehenry]

Pop was 23 when he went in to pilot training and 24 when he and his crew flew out of March Field in a brand new B24j headed to Australia.