Free Republic

See the PDF file.

Dick Higgins, the Bend resident and Pearl Harbor survivor whose public appearances and first-person recollections of that infamous day – Dec. 7, 1941 – became ever more special with every day, week and year, passed away early Tuesday at the age of 102, his grieving yet grateful family announced."Gramps went home to be with Jesus this morning. He was a humble, generous, funny and loving husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather and friend. This community has celebrated and honored him and we are forever grateful for the impact he has made on all of us. At 102 years old, we have...

This year I went to the Veteran’s Day celebration at my grandkids school, which does an outstanding job. I sat next to a 103 year old survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack. He was a PBY crewman, and somehow made it through the entire war. These reconnaissance aircraft were so vulnerable, that the squadron in the Guadalcanal area said their call sign of NNOK stood for “notify next of kin”. Neither of us could hear that well even with hearing aids, but we two Navy men had a grand time.Winston Churchill’s assessment of the attack is found on page 606...

It was a moment of humiliation for Moscow. The headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet – a building of elegant white columns overlooking the Crimean port of Sevastopol – was ablaze. Smoke billowed into a blue sky. First one, and then a second Storm Shadow missile slammed into its roof. Video captured the impact: a precise, deadly, thunderous strike. The attack on 22 September killed 34 officers, including Viktor Sokolov, the fleet’s commander, according to Ukraine. Russia denied this, releasing footage of Sokolov, suggesting he was still alive. Whatever the truth of the admiral’s fate, the blow deep into enemy...

One enduring conspiracy theory is that Franklin Delano Roosevelt, George Marshall and Cordell Hull had foreknowledge of a potentially devastating Pearl Harbor attack and used the event to precipitate U.S. participation in WW II. In general revisionists start with the determination that the Japanese had to fire the first shot in order for the Administration to get the backing of the American people. Next looking backwards, they piece together specific data points to prove these men must have known the attack was coming.However, they have had to ignore the fact that these men were living into history. The information the...

Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN) Wednesday on CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time” likened the January 6 Capitol Hill riot to the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

On the morning of December 7th, 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked, marking the beginning of the United States’ war against Japan. @USSArizona marked the occasion with a series of “as it happened” tweets... However, earlier in the day during the live “as it happened” tweets, there was a problem that’s being looked into.

I think that the lesson of Pearl Harbor is one of resilience...

Pinehurst, N.C. — A local survivor of Pearl Harbor has spent a lifetime making sure people don't forget the terror that killed so many of his comrades. Roy "Swede" Boreen, 96, escaped a ship where more than 440 sailors were killed. He has lived in Pinehurst for more than 30 years, and Wednesday the community rallied around him in tribute. At age 21, Boreen prepared to die a terrible death, coated in oil, bobbing in sea water. Minutes earlier, he'd looked out a porthole aboard the U.S.S. Oklahoma.

For a younger generation, the “where were you when” moment is September 11, 2001, an atrocity that prompted comparisons with Pearl Harbor, whose survivors were preparing to mark the 60th anniversary of the attacks that year. The two cataclysms had much in common—they were unexpected, horrific, and destroyed thousands of lives—but they also quickly took on the character of their very different cultural epochs. Pearl Harbor aroused American resolve that channeled itself into a unified war effort, one that would produce an industrial war-making machine such as the world has never seen—just what was needed to win a war such...

<p>Europe’s highest court on Tuesday struck down an international agreement that had made it easy for companies to move people’s digital data between the European Union and the United States.</p> <p>The ruling, by the European Court of Justice, could make it more difficult for global technology giants — including the likes of Amazon and Apple, Google and Facebook — to collect and mine online information from their millions of users in the 28-member European Union.</p>

First speaking to the choir at a roundtable discussion attended by area female political leaders, they then moved over to the party’s campaign headquarters on Fitch Street. Schultz, a congresswoman from Florida, said when she returns home to her district, “no one asks us when are we going to get back to investigating Benghazi; no one asks us when the heck are you finally going to sue Barack Obama; no one says please vote for the 57th time to repeal the Affordable Care Act and take my health care away, yet those are the things that reach the top of...

On Pearl Harbor Day, Campbell’s got in a lot of trouble when it tweeted out a picture of its SpaghettiOs mascot holding an American flag and asking people to "take a moment to remember #PearlHarbor with us." On NBC’s “New Year’s Eve with Carson Daly,” actress and comedienne Natasha Leggero disgustingly joked, “It sucks that the only survivors of Pearl Harbor are being mocked by the only food they can still chew” (video follows with transcript and commentary):

President Barack Obama’s Facebook page on Saturday posted a message honoring the dead from Pearl Harbor—accompanied by a picture of Obama descending the stairs next to the Pearl Harbor Memorial. The picture barely fits the name of the Arizona Memorial so it can frame Obama in the foreground. The post's statement reads: Today, with solemn pride and reverence, let us remember those who fought and died at Pearl Harbor, acknowledge everyone who carried their legacy forward, and reaffirm our commitment to upholding the ideals for which they served. President Obama

Naval Base Bombed, Shinto Worshipers Fear Backlash - New York Times - December 8 1941 ------------------- A day after planes passed over their peaceful village on the way to attack the Naval Station at Pearl Harbor, local fishermen are still picking up the pieces. "I don't know what any of this is about," a man who would only give his name as Paji said, holding the remains of a net which he had used to earn a living. "All I know is that the killing has to stop." In Washington, government officials urged the public to stay calm and not...

MILWAUKEE -- Frank Kruck was 7 when he saw his mother crying and fingering her rosary beads as she listened to the terrible news on the radio. The announcement on a Sunday morning in December 72 years ago: Japanese planes had attacked Pearl Harbor, ships were burning, sailors and soldiers were wounded and dying. Frank's mother was praying for his brother Gene, a sailor aboard the minesweeper USS Widgeon. It would be more than a week before the Western Union telegram was delivered to the Kruck family home in Waukesha: Gene was OK.

Even the mayor says his taxes are too high. Egg Harbor Township Mayor James "Sonny" McCullough is selling his waterfront home because he says he can´t afford the property taxes, according to a report by the Press of Atlantic City. McCullough, 71, said he has been priced out of the home by local rates and by a township-wide revaluation last year, the report said. "It´s more than what I can afford," the mayor told the newspaper. "It´s kind of disappointing. I thought I would be able to live and die in my home, but it´s gotten to the point where

Today is December 7th. 71 years ago, the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred, triggering the United States entry into World War 2. 71 years ago, Japanese bombs rained down on Pearl Harbor. The skies were filled with acrid smoke from flaming warships and burning planes. Within three hours, the attack was over. Three and a half years later, Pearl Harbor was avenged as a defeated Japan surrendered to American forces in Tokyo Bay. While many remember Pearl Harbor still to this day, many Americans are today clueless about what happened on that Sunday morning so long ago.

A group of Russia’s Pacific Fleet warships has arrived at the U.S. Pearl Harbor naval base to take part in the Rim of the Pacific international drills, a fleet spokesman said on Saturday. “During their long voyage from Vladivostok to Pearl Harbor, the warships’ crews held several firing drills, successfully destroying all the targets,” First-Rank Captain Roman Martov said. The naval task group comprising the Admiral Panteleyev destroyer, the tanker Boris Butoma and the Fotiy Krylov salvage tug sailed off Vladivostok in the Russian Far East on June 13 to head for the U.S. Hawaiian Islands where the RIMPAC-2012 large-scale...

CAM RANH BAY, VIETNAM (AP) — From the flight deck of the USNS Richard E. Byrd, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta could look out across Vietnam's Cam Ranh Bay towards the South China Sea. A day after laying out details of the Pentagon's new focus on the Asia-Pacific region, Panetta used a visit to Vietnam to restate the United States' intent to help allies in the region develop and enforce maritime rights in the sea, a waterway largely claimed by China. And he reflected on the significance of the harbor, which represents both a painful past for the American military,...