We are going to this! So excited! Thanks for posting, this will help us plan.
God bless them.
I was in grade school in Philly during WWII
One of my class mates was evacuated along with his mother right after the Japs attacked
Time Magazine is doing a virtual reality feature with Lt. Jim Downing, who at 103 is believed to be the second oldest living survivor. He just published a book, The Other Side of Infamy, which makes him the oldest published male author in the world.
The Time piece is here and looks really cool: http://time.com/4578865/meet-pearl-harbor-veteran-virtual-reality/?xid=fbshare
Visited Pearl Harbor this summer, fulfilling one of the items on my bucket list. Wish I had gone years earlier; strangely enough, I spent 21 years in the Air Force and never came close to the islands, not even for a TDY. One of my good friends was assigned to Hickam AFB twice; obviously, I made some enemies at the Air Force Personnel Center.
All Americans should make the trip to Pearl Harbor. Regardless of background, you come away with a new appreciation of just how fragile and fleeting our freedom would be without the men and women who wear the nation’s uniform. The world changed forever on that Sunday morning in December 75 years ago, and many of those who fought back that morning were only 19 or 20 years old, Naval reservists who had been called into service for only a short duration.
Most were unaware that their previous CINCPAC, Admiral Richardson, had lobbied vigorously for a return of the fleet to San Diego, feeling it was too exposed in Hawaii. For his efforts, Richardson was fired, and the inevitable march towards military disaster began. The armed forces were, of course, much smaller in 1941. To boost enlistments, the Navy allowed brothers to enlist and serve together. There were more than 30 sets of brothers on the Arizona alone; 23 died when the battleship blew up, in the opening moments of the battle.
During my travels around Oahu, I visited Bellows Air Force Station, which is now a military recreation area. Outside the Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) equipment rental facility, there is a small marble tablet honoring three Army Air Corps pilots who drove to Bellows on December 7, 1941, and tried to get airborne in their P-40s to challenge the Japanese. One was killed on the ground; another was shot down and had to swim back to shore; the third, Lt George Whiteman, was hit by a burst from a Zero just as he became airborne; he tried to make an emergency landing on the beach but crashed and burned to death in the cockpit.
His mother received word of his loss at the family home in Missouri later that evening. Amazingly, she agreed to meet with a local reporter and told him she understood why her son died and reminded him that many more families would have to make the same sacrifice to win the war.
It was a different time, and we were different people. The few remaining survivors, along with those who have passed on, are deserving of our eternal thanks and gratitude. They saved western civilization, and on many days, I believe we are unworthy of their sacrifice.
My Dad fought in the Pacific after Pearl Harbor.
Ping.
Thanks for this post. I’ve recorded a Pearl Harbor special that was on the History Channel earlier tonight. Last week they had a program about the USS Arizona. The National Park Service used a special ROV to go inside the battleship as no one is allowed inside the ship. In one room, the camera on the ROV filmed a Naval uniform hanging neatly on a hanger, as if it had just been put there yesterday.
Id just like to say THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH to each and every WW2 vet. THANK YOU! You saved our country, and pretty much the entire world. We almost lost the country these past 8 years but now there’s a chance it can be saved, restored, rebuilt again. THANK YOU for your service!
Bad weather there, over 5” of rain in Honolulu i hear, maybe up to 30” of snow on the Big Island at the observatory.
You wander around and expect to see something, but it is all cleaned away. Stand on a spot where a Zero would likely have strafed you, nothing. Weird.
Wonderful for those that could make the trip.
I recommend visiting Pearl Harbor and the Arizona memorial. I imagine the ship is still bleeding oil.
local radio advertising about anniversary of Pearl Harbor events do not even mention that it was the Japanese that attacked on December 7th 1941
