Pearl Harbor commemoration to focus on US response

[Tab]

Source: Associated Press

HONOLULU – With an eye on the immediate aftermath of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, thousands of World War II veterans and other observers are expected on Sunday to commemorate the 67th anniversary of the devastating Japanese military raid.

The theme of the event — "Pacific War Memories: The Heroic Response to Pearl Harbor" — is something of a departure from the past.

Usually, the commemoration focuses on the attack on the USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor and several other installations on Oahu. But this year's remembrance ceremony will center more on the months following the raid, said Eileen Martinez, chief of interpretation for the National Park Service.

"We're moving into the Pacific War, the first strike back," she said.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081206/ap_on_re_us/pearl_harbor_anniversary

[zbdent]

1. when we retaliated against Mexico?

oh, wait ... that would have been with Bush in charge ...

[Richard Steele]

4. Damn, you beat me to it! nm

[SpiralHawk]

2. My old man was at Pearl Harbor that day...

Army Air Force, stationed at Hickham. He would never talk about it, or talk at all about the war. He just drank, like so many of his compatriot veterans. Not much understanding or counseling in those days during and after WWII. So many of the veterans just drank.

The drinking finally killed my old man, but not before he came to Full Realization of what a bunch of murderous "Grade-A assholes" the chickenhawk republicons are (Bush, Cheney, Delay, Lott, Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Hannity, Beck, etc. etc. ad nauseum) -- and how destructive their cowardly, stay-at-home war mongering is to the world.

R.I.P., Pop -- the best of your legacy is carried forward. The repblicon chickenhawks have been plucked and kicked to the netherworld where they belong...

[Dennis Donovan]

3. An old friend of mine (from 15 years ago) was on the USS Helena (CL-50)...

She was at 1010 Dock (across from Battleship Row and inboard of the USS Oglala). He told me that he, like so many others, thought the Army Air Corps was fucking around (something they did frequently around the Harbor). When he saw the torpedo impacts (and the water flumes shooting up) from the USS Oklahoma and USS West Virginia, he knew then that it wasn't the Army. About 30 seconds after that, he was knocked off his feet when a torpedo hit the Helena, got up and ran to his battle station. The Helena survived the day but was sunk later at the Battle of the Kula Gulf. The Oglala was sunk (not by a torpedo hitting her, but when the torpedo hit Helena, the concussion split her sides) but raised and served the remainder of the war, finally being scrapped in 1965.

You can imagine my rapt attention listening to him. Living history...

[TahitiNut]

5. My uncle was stationed with your dad, then. Army Air Corps at Hickham on that Sunday

He was an enlisted grunt and was slightly injured.

:toast:

[SpiralHawk]

8. A posthumous salute for Uncle Tahiti Nut (& my Pop and all the others who were threre)

[ohio2007]

10. A tribute to all those in peril at sea

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol3zgrD-gV0

[ohio2007]

6. What happened in the Pacific stayed in the Pacific

Same could be said for Europe.

Things got done


Your old man would understand

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnm-4kSLKdI
eom

[onager]

9. You're right about the not talking much.

I still remember coming home as a newly-promoted U.S. Marine Corporal.

The old man said, "Y'know, that's one rank I never held in the Army. I went from PFC straight to buck Sergeant."

"How did you do that?" I asked.

"All of our Sergeants were dead or wounded."

"Oh..."

He was in the Pacific, with the 43rd Infantry Division.

One thing he would talk about was ironic as hell--he always said the Japanese Gen. Yamashita got a raw deal. Yamashita was executed after the war, by an American court-martial, for atrocities committed by troops who weren't under his control. And IIRC, technically weren't even under his command.

Ironic, because one of Yamashita's soldiers nearly killed my old man with a hand grenade.

[neverforget]

7. My dad's cousin was killed on the USS Oklahoma. So very sad.

http://www.state.sd.us/military/VetAffairs/sdwwiimemorial/SubPages/profiles/Display.asp?P=910