Dec. 7th 1941 - 67 yrs today

Started by JAFO78, December 07, 2008, 11:35:43 AM

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JAFO78

67 years ago today Japan attacked the U.S. Bases in Hawaii. That day changed many lives here in the U.S. and world wide. Many gave their lives during that day and during World War two. Here is a link to a story in today's Honolulu newspaper.

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20081207/NEWS08/812070382/1001

Please take time to reflect on those people. I had a teacher in high school, Navy JROTC instructor who served on the USS Nevada on that morning. He would give a speech every year about that day. All the history teachers would send their students to hear his story. I was saddened to hear two years ago that he had passed away a few years ago. Thank you LCDR Roy Johnson for touching our lives.
JAFO

NIN

I had a lady in my CAP squadron here in NH who was a teenager living at Pearl Harbor (dad was a naval officer) in 1941.  She told the story of eating breakfast and having Japanese planes fly low-level over her house at the start of the attack.

Utterly amazing and entrancing lady.


Darin Ninness, Col, CAP
I have no responsibilities whatsoever
I like to have Difficult Adult Conversations™
The contents of this post are Copyright © 2007-2024 by NIN. All rights are reserved. Specific permission is given to quote this post here on CAP-Talk only.

Fifinella

Thanks for sharing that article with us.

Until recently, the Doolittle Raider goblets were housed at USAFA (see article here: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=15406)

Although it's nice that the Raiders are now being honored at the Nat'l Museum of the AF, it's also a shame that the goblets are no longer at USAFA.  I remember seeing them as a cadet, learning about what they commemorated, and being impacted by the Raiders' heroism.  Every year the Raiders would come to the Academy for their ceremony, and the cadets who had the opportunity to escort them said it was a very significant experience they've never forgotten.  So, in that sense, it's a shame that that opportunity for impact upon future generations of officers has been lost.

Regardless, "Here's a toast..."
Judy LaValley, Maj, CAP
Asst. DCP, LAWG
SWR-LA-001
GRW #2753

Major Carrales

7 December 1941 is one of those times when the history of the US was set on a new path.  Only that time it was a path to WAR to vindicate American honor and avenge the deaths of so many.  When we emmerged from that WAR, we were poised for greatness as a Super POWER, a responsibiloty we still hold today.  The day must never be forgotten...those that fell, fought and survived should be honored for all time.
"We have been given the power to change CAP, let's keep the momentum going!"

Major Joe Ely "Sparky" Carrales, CAP
Commander
Coastal Bend Cadet Squadron
SWR-TX-454

Cecil DP

While on staff at NERSC we had a Seminar Leader who was staioned aboard a ship at Pearl Harbor. He was a patient at USNH Pearl at the time otherwise he would have been sunk on the Nevada.
Michael P. McEleney
LtCol CAP
MSG  USA Retired
GRW#436 Feb 85

Camas

A young 22-year-old woman was on her way home to Ewa just to the west of Pearl Harbor early that Sunday morning. As she headed west adjacent to where the battleships were docked the planes came in and started their attack. It was all this young lady could do to get home safely; not only for herself but for her unborn child due in January. Well, she survived and gave birth to her child a month later - and here I am today! Mom turns 90 next spring.

Johnny Yuma

As an aside, I read somewhere that the remaining Bataan Death march survivors have decided to discontinue their regular reunions as there are too few left who are healthy enough to travel. If I can find a link I'll post.

IIRC, we've also got just 1 or 2 WW1 vets left in the US and probably fewer than 50 in the entire world.

Some folks call it tragic that we're losing so many older vets, but time waits for none.
"And Saint Attila raised the Holy Hand Grenade up on high saying, "Oh Lord, Bless us this Holy Hand Grenade, and with it smash our enemies to tiny bits. And the Lord did grin, and the people did feast upon the lambs, and stoats, and orangutans, and breakfast cereals, and lima bean-"

" Skip a bit, brother."

"And then the Lord spake, saying: "First, shalt thou take out the holy pin. Then shalt thou count to three. No more, no less. "Three" shall be the number of the counting, and the number of the counting shall be three. "Four" shalt thou not count, and neither count thou two, execpting that thou then goest on to three. Five is RIGHT OUT. Once the number three, being the third number be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade to-wards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuffit. Amen."

Armaments Chapter One, verses nine through twenty-seven:

JAFO78

Quote from: Cecil DP on December 07, 2008, 03:52:29 PM
While on staff at NERSC we had a Seminar Leader who was staioned aboard a ship at Pearl Harbor. He was a patient at USNH Pearl at the time otherwise he would have been sunk on the Nevada.

The Nevada was not sunk, she was hit and badly damaged. So she would not be sunk in the channel, the skipper gave the order to beach her at hospital point. My instructor was helping at the secondary helm, as the main helm area was damaged. He said it took at lest two or three sailors to steer the big battle ship. She repaired and fought to the end.

At the end of World War II, the Navy decided that Nevada was too old to be retained in the post-war fleet, so they assigned her to be a target ship in the Bikini atomic experiments of July 1946. After being hit by two atomic bombs, she was still afloat but heavily damaged and radioactive. She was decommissioned on 29 August 1946 and sunk during naval gunfire practice on 31 July 1948. This is from Wikipedia.org.

Please see this link for more information..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Nevada_(BB-36)
JAFO

Johnny Yuma

I found it:

Death March, Japanese camp survivors disband group
By Jose Katigbak
STAR Washington Bureau


WASHINGTON- A dwindling group of Bataan Death March and Japanese prison camp survivors disbanded itself for lack of able-bodied members after commemorating for the last time on Tuesday Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery, closing a 62-year-old-tradition.

Lester Tenney, 88, commander of the organization American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, told the Washington Post as few as 100 or so survivors of the World War II Death March were still alive and none had the energy or inclination to lead the group he has headed since May.

Tenney, who lives in San Diego, visited America's most hallowed ground a few miles from the Capitol and the White House to declare an end to the survivors' group and make one last appeal to Japan for an official apology that the group has demanded for more than six decades or compensation from Japanese companies that enslaved prisoners of war.

"I'm through," said Tenney, who has had triple bypass surgery and prostate cancer and suffers from irregular heartbeat. His other group members are worn out, sick and bent with age.

Also in attendance at the commemoration presided over by Vice President Dick Cheney were Filipino veterans Albert Bacani, 98, Joaquin Tejada, 85 and Guillermo Rumingan, 83.

They were accompanied by Eric Lachica, executive director of the American Coalition of Filipino Veterans (ACFV), which has been actively lobbying the US Congress for full veterans' benefits and recognition for the wartime services of about 18,000 Filipinos.

Tenney was 21 in April 1942 when about 12,000 US and 63,000 Filipino soldiers surrendered in Bataan. The following month allied forces also surrendered in Corregidor.

Japanese guards forcibly marched the prisoners through tropical heat with little or no food and water in one of the most brutal episodes in the annals of war, the Washington Post said.

It said Tenney barely escaped death when a guard on horseback slashed his back with a sword during the march, which lasted 12 days and covered 108 kilometers.

After the Death March he was put on one of the "hell ships" that transported prisoners to camps in Japan where he said he was enslaved for nearly three years in a coal mine owned by the Japanese company Mitsui.

When Tenney was liberated at the end of the war, he was 98 pounds, half his normal weight.


THE PHILIPPINE STAR
Vol XXIII No 109
Thursday, November 13, 2008
"And Saint Attila raised the Holy Hand Grenade up on high saying, "Oh Lord, Bless us this Holy Hand Grenade, and with it smash our enemies to tiny bits. And the Lord did grin, and the people did feast upon the lambs, and stoats, and orangutans, and breakfast cereals, and lima bean-"

" Skip a bit, brother."

"And then the Lord spake, saying: "First, shalt thou take out the holy pin. Then shalt thou count to three. No more, no less. "Three" shall be the number of the counting, and the number of the counting shall be three. "Four" shalt thou not count, and neither count thou two, execpting that thou then goest on to three. Five is RIGHT OUT. Once the number three, being the third number be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade to-wards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuffit. Amen."

Armaments Chapter One, verses nine through twenty-seven:

JohnKachenmeister

The passing of tjhe World War II Generation is a sad ending to a gallant story.  I'm just glad that my Dad talked to me about his wartime experiences as a bombarbier in B-29's before he died.

He never taled about the war until I came back from Vietnam.

After that, I could n't shut him up! :D
Another former CAP officer

Johnny Yuma

The Korean conflict vets aren't too far behind, considering a third of them or more were WW2 vets as well.
"And Saint Attila raised the Holy Hand Grenade up on high saying, "Oh Lord, Bless us this Holy Hand Grenade, and with it smash our enemies to tiny bits. And the Lord did grin, and the people did feast upon the lambs, and stoats, and orangutans, and breakfast cereals, and lima bean-"

" Skip a bit, brother."

"And then the Lord spake, saying: "First, shalt thou take out the holy pin. Then shalt thou count to three. No more, no less. "Three" shall be the number of the counting, and the number of the counting shall be three. "Four" shalt thou not count, and neither count thou two, execpting that thou then goest on to three. Five is RIGHT OUT. Once the number three, being the third number be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade to-wards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuffit. Amen."

Armaments Chapter One, verses nine through twenty-seven: