OT - Pearl Harbor Anniversary

Submitted by canzior on December 7th, 2018 at 9:01 AM

"Today is a day that will live in infamy..."  I work for a Naval Contractor and we do a lot of submarine work. It's an important day across the Navy of course, and the country, to remember the tragedy from 77 years ago. 

Yessir

December 7th, 2018 at 10:27 PM ^

You are ignorant. 

Many of my family, dad and uncles, fought in the war.  They never felt that gave them the OK to call them the word you used. 

Save all your "I fought so I can say what I want" bullshit. 

My guess is you regularly use the N word too.  

You are ignorant. 

 

scfanblue

December 7th, 2018 at 9:12 AM ^

It was the beginning of an ever changing nation and world. The island hopping campaign was absolutely brutal across the Pacific. 

1VaBlue1

December 7th, 2018 at 9:26 AM ^

I've travelled to Pearl Harbor on many occasions for work, and was even able to take the MGoWife with me.  It's a fantastic place to visit!  The memorial begins with a movie presentation that grabs you by the scruff and says THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED.  It doesn't spare sentiment for the many Japanese visitors, either.  The Memorial itself is sobering.

While there, take a tour through the USS Bowfin, also.  I have Dolphins (qualified in submarines) from my time on a fast attack, and I'll give all the credit to the guys that served in those boats during the war.  ALL the credit - I had it easy...

Also worth a visit - the Cemetery of the Pacific.  National cemeteries that honor our war dead are always a reverent place, and this one is no exception.

1VaBlue1

December 7th, 2018 at 11:18 AM ^

No worries about Putin, Xtra - all of the 637 boats have long since been decommissioned and cut into razor blades.  I'm old, but not as old as MGrowOld...

Actually, it's a damn shame that there are no tour boats (like the Bowfin) made out of decomm'd nuc boats (other than the Nautilus).  Having one of the old '41 for freedom' boomers or a fast attack (or two) would show the stark difference in technology between them and the WWII boats.

maizenbluenc

December 7th, 2018 at 10:34 AM ^

Yes - it was interesting how many Japanese visitors there were What was also interesting is after exiting the movie, how every American lined up to get on the boat out to the Arizona passing the Sailor (and thanking him), and every Japanese person lined up passing the Park Service Ranger.

The 9/11 Twin Towers memorial is a very similar experience.

Yessir

December 7th, 2018 at 8:38 PM ^

Appreciate both of your replies in this thread. 

It's really something to listen to military survivors and what they went through.  I remember listening to a survivor saying 'there wasn't time to be afraid'  Every once in a while I really understand what they went through. 

Also, my wife is Japanese.  Her mother and father were interned at age 3 and 5.  They had nothing after years in camp. No home.  My wife's dad(RIP) was in the Army during the Korean War. 

I'm kind of surprised that Dec 7th is still talked about as much as it is when 9-11 already seems to me to be less and less every year. 

So thankful for our military.  

 

 

 

xtramelanin

December 7th, 2018 at 9:30 AM ^

i always remember my dad telling me about how he and some buddies were playing cards and had the radio on in the background when the news of the attack was broadcast.  many of us can relate a little bit b/c of 9/11, but what they all went through and then the immediate plunge into WWII was 1,000 X more chaotic.    

waliwiz1

December 7th, 2018 at 9:31 AM ^

Nothing can describe the pain and suffering that occured at Pearl Harbor that day. The sacrifices made by the men and women who lived and died there are beyond description, which is why a lot of men won't talk about their war experiences. They were too horrific to put into words and people who who have not lived through a war are actually unable to comprehend what it is actually like.

The men and women who have entered our military service are owed such a huge debt for securing our freedom and country is such that it can't be repaid. How can you put a price on dying for us, or losing a limb or suffering through PTSD.

Heroes all at Pearl that day

harmon40

December 7th, 2018 at 10:40 AM ^

My mother's uncle was a Marine and fought in the Pacific. When we visited his farm as kids we saw captured Japanese flags hanging in his garage. Naturally we wanted to hear everything. Just as naturally he wasn't willing to say anything.

"You don't wanna hear that shit," was all we could ever get out of him.

maizenbluenc

December 7th, 2018 at 9:37 AM ^

Here's a good oral history on what it was like to be on the Nevada from USNI:

https://www.navalhistory.org/2018/12/06/the-sinking-of-the-uss-nevada-bb-36?fbclid=IwAR1VWnwHkpaq93yQ-NitvOtgZ9n3kwGtH2P7XUK4EEflggxkNGrCA6eOd0s

Der Alte

December 7th, 2018 at 10:08 AM ^

I visited Pearl in 1986, in connection with a UM Alumni tour to Hawaii for the UM - Hawaii football game (some kid by the name of Harbaugh was the starting QB). That Sunday, which happened to be December 7th and the 45th anniversary of the attack, was a memorable day to visit Pearl Harbor. Ford Island hosted military bands playing 1940s music, model WW II aircraft with knowledgeable resource persons to talk about them, and a large contingent of Pearl Harbor survivors, who of course planned their reunion for that time. These old gentlemen all wore blue garrison caps embroidered with the names of their ships. I spoke with one survivor whose cap said "USS Detroit," and several others who talked about that fateful Sunday morning.

One survivor said he was on the main deck of his ship when the Japanese planes appeared. He ran below to get his buddy to come up on deck so the two of them could "wave at the Japanese pilots as they flew by." Only after his buddy appeared on deck did the two of them realize the Japanese visit was something less than friendly. That's how unprepared we were as a nation on that Sunday morning seventy-seven years ago. But we did make up for it --- big time.

Anyway, I urge everyone who has not yet visited Pearl and the USS Arizona Memorial to add them to his or her "bucket list." 

JFW

December 7th, 2018 at 10:23 AM ^

"Anyway, I urge everyone who has not yet visited Pearl and the USS Arizona Memorial to add them to his or her "bucket list." "

I would second this. I'm not sure what the state of the wreck is, but the Arizona isn't going to last forever. She may collapse in on herself. 

UMHX1992

December 7th, 2018 at 10:17 AM ^

The head of the team trying to break the Imperial Japanese Naval code was Captain Joe Rochefort, who was devastated by his failure to prevent the Pearl Harbor attack. He and his team broke the code the following summer, and the Navy was able to track with great accuracy the Japanese aircraft carrier task force heading toward Midway island. Military historian John Keegan calls this the greatest intelligence coup in the history of naval warfare. At the Battle of Midway, Navy pilots destroyed FOUR Japanese aircraft carriers. Dive-bomber pilot Dusty Kleiss himself had direct hits on two of the carriers. Much bloody fighting remained, but just months after Pearl Harbor, the tide had turned.

JFW

December 7th, 2018 at 10:19 AM ^

I went in the early 2000's. Very moving. We went one day and they had some of the last survivors from the day of the attack. Simply amazing, and a great honor and opportunity for me to hear it from their own mouths, in their own words. 

NFG

December 7th, 2018 at 10:26 AM ^

Visited the site in 2017. Wheeler Army Airfield too. An amazing experience. One fact to know is that it is free to enter the Pearl Harbor museum and landmark, not because it is a national park or historical site, but because it is a national cemetery. After walking through the USS Missouri, which is docked right next to the USS Arizona memorial, it is crazy to think that the Arizona was the same size and yet was blown into oblivion and now rests at the bottom of the harbor. Glad I have that scratched off my bucket list. Beaches of Normandy are next.

rob f

December 7th, 2018 at 10:43 AM ^

Thank a WWII Veteran today if you know one. There aren't very many left.

My Uncle Frank, who served in the Navy in the South Pacific from 1944-46, passed away this past March.  He, like so many other veterans of war, rarely ever talked about it.  My Grandpa (who served as an MP in Germany at the tail end of WWl) never talked to me about his experiences until a year or two before passing away 34 years ago when suddenly one day I asked him a simple single question and he opened up and talked for a couple hours about it, wiping tears at times but also showing me all his war souvenirs and telling me several funny stories to go along with the horrible ones.  I'll never ever forget that conversation.

As for Pearl Harbor, I definitely plan to visit some day to honor those brave men and women who were heroes on that fateful day.

Sam1863

December 7th, 2018 at 1:19 PM ^

Amen to this. I had four relatives (all gone now) who served in combat in WWII. My step-dad was a forward artillery observer in the ETO; one uncle was one of the original First Ranger Battalion (Darby's Rangers), which was wrecked in the Anzio Campaign; another uncle was a Marine on Guadalcanal, (he hated rice because he'd had to eat so much captured Japanese rice that the sight of it made him sick); and another uncle was in the 25th "Tropic Lightning" Division and was killed in the Philippines on St. Patrick's Day, 1945. I have the flag that covered his coffin.

Bless them all.

Giff4484

December 7th, 2018 at 10:58 AM ^

My grandfather won the Bronze star in the pacific. Never got to meet him as he passed away in the 60s when my mother was young. My mom finally gave me all his war medals. That generation saved the world.