December 7, 1941
 

I was stationed on Oahu about 10 years ago. One morning over Veterans Day weekend at about 6:30 am we were able to go out to the Arizona Memorial and raise some US flags before it was open to the public. The memorial is always awe inspiring but at that hour the silence was deafening.

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Wow, that's very cool. I bet that was a solemn moment.

Thanks, Baz. RIP to all lost on that day, and in the years that followed.

Lest We Forget 7 December 1941
 

Lest We Forget...

From the Pacific War Online Encyclopedia"

The United States suffered 111,000 men & women killed or missing in the Pacific theater. 250,000 wounded.

The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia: Casualties

My older brother was born on this day in 1941. My Dad was on active duty in the Army at the time. I was born about 2 years later, closer to the end of that terrible war. I have always felt like I inherited the soul of a soldier lost in that war. Never had any interest in war history, except for WWII, which has always fascinated me.
Now, some 75 years on, I have a grandson with the same WWII fixation...

Thanks for those photos and memories, Matt. And especially for your service.

My father had just joined the Navy 2 years prior, and was stationed on the cruiser Helena, which was hit but not sunk...
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Here is his account of that morning's events.......

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He retired in 1959 after a twenty year stint, which included serving during Korea.

Certainly not forgotten here.

The ship is still releasing fuel oil into the water there 75 years later. It’s (to me) a reminder that it really wasn’t all that long ago when I see those little rainbow-colored circles on the water’s surface when I go.

Amazing place. And sobering.

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My aunt turned 95 yesterday, she'd just turned 16 when the bombs were falling on Pearl Harbor.
I can't imagine being a teenager during the ensuing years.
I visited the Memorial when we went to Hawaii back in the '80's before we had kids. I could have spent all day there.

Just wow...what a precious family letter.

Equally inspiring is the USS Utah Memorial, which is located on the north side of Ford Island. For those that do not know, Ford Island is located in the middle of Pearl Harbor. It has Navy housing, a Brig, and a large number of hangars/work buildings. In the photo below you can see officer housing directly across the street from the memorial's parking area. I'm pretty sure you can't get out there w/o a DOD ID or on a tour.

On board the Utah is a Sailor who was carrying the cremated remains of one of his twin daughters. The sailor and the urn remain there today.

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https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2019/12/07/dld-the-uss-utah-the-forgotten-battleship-of-pearl-harbor/#.X85qCNhKhPY

Thank you, Baz. I got busy this morning with meetings and frankly forgot the import of this day.

To my two great uncles who were Navy Chiefs at the time and served well and true in the Pacific on destroyers. They were funny and smart, easy men for a boy to fall in love with, delighted they were mine.

To my Grandfather, who left his car repair business in Oakland and became a Warrant Officer Electrician in the Navy, serving on the USS Breton honorably and well. He was also funny and smart. I have never laughed with more glee than as a child listening to he and his brothers telling stories around the dining room table.

To my wife's step father, a man I greatly admired, who left the University of Pennsylvania for Great Lakes and Navy flight school. He told me: "The flying was easy, the instruments stuff wasn't." I have his flight log book. He was right.

He left flight school and served on PT boats in the South Pacific well and honorably as an enlisted navigator.

A remarkable, kind man.

His boat:

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With my son, Jack:

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He loved Jack and left him some remarkable shotguns and other items.

RIP all you Navy Brethren mentioned above.

Then to all who serve and have served: Salute.

A day that changed the world.

I honestly can't even imagine the horror of that day. We lived in Waipahu, HI when they were filming Tora Tora Tora and we could watch the explosions in Pearl Harbor from our front porch. There were many airplanes flying over in formation. There was no doubt we we not under attack and it was all make believe, but it made it easy to understand some tiny little part of the power of the Japanese attack.

Don't forget it was not just Pearl Harbor that was attacked that day. They attacked the Philippines, American Midway, Wake and Guam Islands, British Hong Kong and Malaya. Some were technically on December 8th due to the international date line, but in real time it was all pretty much at once.

.........7 days later......Hitler declared war on us as well.

Thanks, Barry for posting this thread and a huge debt of gratitude to all the sons and daughters who sacrificed so much for the future of the Republic and the freedoms that we enjoy today.

My grandfather was a survivor aboard the W. Virginia. Just recently found this while cleaning out my dads workshop:

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^^^^^
that is the coolest thing!

people always think it ended with the Enola Gay, but actually it ended with Operation Blacklist

It is. Ashtray.

Perfect.

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Dad was a Seabee during his stint. He told me a story of bumping into someone accidentally in a crosswalk in Honolulu. He looked up to apologize and was amazed to see his own younger brother Sam, who had grown up in a separate household. Dad (when he was about two years old) and his two siblings were orphaned by the Flu epidemic, and they all went to different relatives.

Dad had never mentioned anything about the war with my family until he was in his late 90's, and then the stories flowed as clearly as if they had occurred the day before. Two of my Uncles on my mother's side served on the USS HORNET during the battle of Midway.

We lost him a little over 5 years ago---4 days after his 98th birthday.