Posted on 12/07/2014 2:33:08 PM PST by Sean_Anthony
The Greatest Generation
With each passing year, the reunion number is dwindling. The Pearl Harbor survivors are over 90 years old, and the members of that group that got together today in Hawaii numbered a little more than a dozen.
Today marks the 73rd Anniversary of the attack against Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, during which 2,400 sailors, Marines, and soldiers were killed. Some have called the reunion of the USS Arizona Reunion Association the last gathering of USS Arizona survivors, but the gathering doesn’t see this meeting as the last one, just yet. The USS Arizona was a battleship that was sank during the December 7, 1941 attack by the Japanese. The fallen vessel is now the home of the USS Arizona Memorial, an undersea grave site for the crewmembers that did not survive the attack.
Drinking from replicas of champagne glasses from the Arizona, the men are sharing a bottle of sparkling wine that was a gift to the survivors association from President Gerald Ford’s visit to Spain in 1975. When they arrived at Pearl Harbor, they received the “thank you” for their service they deserved, filled with military salutes, music from the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet Band and photos from tourists.
(Excerpt) Read more at canadafreepress.com ...
I have heard the AZ Memorial has been terribly neglected. That’s disgraceful.
My grandfather (RIP) was on the light cruiser U.S.S Honolulu docked at Pearl the morning of the attack. He was on the deck getting ready to take a launch to mass. He was just 21 years old. The ship was damaged from a near miss but was able to get out of the harbor. Later in the war it lost its bow to a Japamese torpedo. Unlike its sister ship the U.S.S Helena, the Honolulu was repaired several times and not sunk in the war. However, it had to be beached once near the end of the war to avoid sinking.
Grandpa had the presence of mind to take the ship’s Orders of the Day from the bulletin board. I still have it.
We were there 20 years ago and 95% of the people at the memorial were Japanese! They were being very respectful and were welcome but a few more Americans would have been nice. We saw the same thing at Punchbowl BTW (Cemetery of the Pacific).
My late Uncle Bill was an Army Air Corp mechanic stationed at Hickam Field on Dec.7th. He had hopes of becoming a pilot however a bullet wound to his knee ended that hope. He transferred out of the Air Corps and later served as a combat engineer in the Third Army under Patton. During The Battle of The Bulge his unit was pulling out of St. Vith when he was wounded again by German machine gun fire that hit him across his shoulders and upper back. That put him out of action and eventually out of combat. He used to joke “Between the Japs and the Krauts they sure didn’t want me flying a plane’’. Thanks Uncle Billy. Thank you for my freedom.
My father was there on December 7, 1941. He was an Ensign on the USS Phoenix. He said they just sat there for 30 minutes after the attack started waiting boilers to generate enough steam to get under way. They were sitting ducks, but because the Japs were concentrating on the battleships, the Phoenix which was a cruiser was able to leave Pearl Harbor and fight until the end.
Dad did not say a lot about the war , but he did say that the Phoenix was a great and lucky ship in our hands.
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