Posted on 12/07/2015 9:00:24 AM PST by Oldpuppymax
My family doctor was on duty at Pearl when the attack came. I never new that unail he was gone. He must have had some horrific memories.
I grew up around and noticed incredible men like those at Pearl Harbor, because my dad began taking me golfing with him when I was 12 years old, and therefore I actually related as well to my dad’s generation as to my own. The first man that I ever saw riding a golf cart did so because his health was permanently destroyed while serving as a brigade commander of the 41th infantry division in New Guinea. My Economics professor in college served in the first Navy UDT team operation. I would meet at the golf course one of the Flying Tigers. I often ended up as a dishwasher at the country club. When I noticed the chef always limped as he moved around the kitchen he saw my puzzled look and he told me he got the limp from a wound received when he was with the Rangers at Pointe De Hoc. There are more stories I could related and many more I have forgotten.
I have nearly completed and annual file of letters and Op-Ed’s dealing monthly with a prominent battle of WW II. A few get published in papers. I can usually count on Lars Larson to at least mention the battle I highlight for a month. Here is the one I did this year for Pearl Harbor.
The Tragedy of Pearl Harbor
For Pearl Harbor the Japanese forged a strategic weapon of six heavy carriers for a coordinated attack by 360 planes on Sunday December 7. Never before had any country executed and/or planned a raid by more than two carriers on any naval or land target. No inkling existed within any allied operational or intelligence community of a capability beyond the 21 torpedo bombers a British carrier used to attack the Italian Navy at Taranto.
On Christmas Day 1941 Admiral Chester Nimitz arrived to take command. When he arrived he saw a sunken battle fleet and was assailed by a poisonous atmosphere from black oil, charred wood, burned paint, and rotting flesh. However, he found the public’s perception was wrong. The carriers, their escorts, and the submarines stood ready to take the offensive.
The unexpected tragedy of Pearl Harbor for Japan required them to contend with the U.S. Navy from their forward base in Hawaii rather than forcing their enemy to begin operations from the West coast. The dry-dock, repair shops, and tank farm were intact. Nimitz immediately sent submarines into Japanese waters, and conducted carrier operations thwarting Japanese initiatives. Admiral Raymond Spruance said of Nimitz, “The one big thing about him was that he was always ready to fight….And he wanted officers who would push the fight to the Japaneseâ€.
I know a survivor of the Bataan death march and Japanese POW camps--he is still alive at 97 but unfortunately has dementia.
I remeber hearing a guy from my Vienam era talking about watching a movie about the Bataan Death March, when the senior NCO shouted, That is me. That is me. There I am.
The Bataan death march survivor was a professor at the college where I teach. When I was doing a segment on WWII in a world history class, I showed a photo from the Bataan death march and pointed out one of the men in the photo as a former professor at their campus (but retired before most of them were born).
Wow. What a disadvantage to live out a life devoid of even the memory of these men.
An exception to what I said in my previous post is my younger son was wished well for his coming enlistment in the Marine Corps by a family friend who landed among the first waves of Marines on Tarawa. I am so happy he was able to shake hands with one of those extraordinary men.
Your WWII experiences certainly out-weigh mine. I remember Pearl Harbour. It was sometime after one o’clock, central time, when John Charles Daly came on the radio and announcing that Japanese naval and air forces have bombed Pearl Harbour.
I went to the kitchen and asked Grandma, in my mind the fount of all knowledge, where Pearl Harbour was. To my surprise, she did not know, but asked me why my question. I answered that, Well, wherever it is, the Japs just bombed it. This, of course, got everyones attention, and we all spent the rest of the afternoon and evening listening to the radio.
I was seven months into my Fifth year at the time and never again did I ever wonder where Pearl Harbour was. Some things are never forgotten.
Two Uncles served (both in CBI) and one Aunt (in the WACs). My Dad was killed in 1938, so he missed the Big Show.
Thank you for your memories. I remember my high school world history teacher telling us about being at Pearl Harbor on Dec 7. He was in the Navy and assigned to the destroyer USS Shaw. His enlistment was ending in a month or so, and he had been transferred from the ship to an on shore admin unit to wait for a ship to take him back to the mainland and discharge. He told us that he was very lucky because if he had not been transferred off the Shaw, he would have been with his shipmates bunked in the forward part of the ship that was blown off by the explosion that was captured on film.
Particularly for the pacific war there was a never ending list of questions. Nobody have ever heard of Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Tinian, Bougainville, etc. In fact even now when I used the spell check, it had never heard of Tinian.
Particularly for the pacific war there was a never ending list of questions.
Amen. Guadalcanal, particularly haunts me. That was a long, tough struggle.
you are welcome.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.