Remembering a day that will live in infamy *UPDATED*
Bookworm on Dec 07 2009 at 9:10 am | Filed under: World War II
One of the most emotionally charged experiences I’ve ever had was standing in the Hawaiian sunlight, watching drop after drop of oil rise up from the USS Arizona. The past was not past — it was there, in front of me, in the water, still moving.
Let’s remember today those who died on December 7, 1941, and those who lived and fought and bled and died in the ensuing years, all to make the world safe for democracy.
UPDATE: Read about the last survivor Pearl Harbor Medal of Honor winner here. I was about to say that they don’t make them like that anymore, and then I stopped myself. They do, and they’re still in America’s military. Fortunately, not all are called to serve under such overwhelming circumstances.
UPDATE II: No surprise that some of my favorite bloggers haven’t forgotten what today is either:
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Linked.
Thank you.
Not exactly Pearl Harbor, but close enough. Something to think about, in any case.
http://nooilforpacifists.blogspot.com/2009/12/qotd_06.html
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Observe today:
http://www.google.com
vs
http://www.bing.com
That’s why I use Bing as my home page now. They seem to remember that they are an American company.
Book, I had the opportunity to serve with, and get to know, a Pearl Harbor survivor in the mid-60s. He was in the signal tower when the attack occurred. The signal tower controlled ship traffic into and out of Pearl, and sat on top of a huge water tank. So, he had a prime birds-eye view of the whole thing.
As you know, from time immemorial, Navies have used flag hoists to signal between ships. There was a sequence of flags that stood for “air raid”; but the signalmen on duty could not remember the sequence under the pressure of the moment, so they hoisted the alphabetical flags that spelled out “Air Raid”. I doubt seriously that anyone was in doubt about the status, or was focused on the signal tower at that time.
My wife remembers what she was doing when the news came over of the attack. I don’t recall. I am sure that on a Sunday afternoon I was very busy playing cowboys and Indians. Not long after that our games became Marines vs Japs.
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I didn’t find out until after my mother’s death that she had a boyfriend who went down with the Arizona. Our aunt told us the special nickname the sailor had given my mother. I think we discovered a letter from the sailor in a scrapbook that our grandmother saved. One of the secrets that went down with the ship, I guess- at least as regards our mother not telling us anything.
With the theme of secrets and ships going down, here are two videos that reflect that time. Here is a WW2 cartoon that warns that “Loose Lips Sink Ships.” Or at least one of the headers talks about loose lips. Whatever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjRPY8Op8Xc
Here is a Portuguese group interpreting Duke Ellington’s “A Slip of the Lip Can Sink a Ship. YouTube does not have the Ellington version, but tonight I am listening to an Ellington CD that contains the Ellington version of the song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yjd9NVF0FYA
If you see a bunch of gobbletygook at the top of the posting, it is because if I delete it, the links go rogue:http://http://
I didn’t find out until after my mother’s death that she had a boyfriend who went down with the Arizona. Our aunt told us the special nickname the sailor had given my mother. I think we discovered a letter from the sailor in a scrapbook that our grandmother saved. One of the secrets that went down with the ship, I guess- at least as regards our mother not telling us anything.
With the theme of secrets and ships going down, here are two videos that reflect that time. Here is a WW2 cartoon that warns that “Loose Lips Sink Ships.” Or at least one of the headers talks about loose lips. Whatever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjRPY8Op8Xc
Here is a Portuguese group interpreting Duke Ellington’s “A Slip of the Lip Can Sink a Ship. YouTube does not have the Ellington version, but tonight I am listening to an Ellington CD that contains the Ellington version of the song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yjd9NVF0FYA
tried with deleting the gobbletygook.
With the theme of secrets and ships going down, here are two videos that reflect that time. Here is a WW2 cartoon that warns that “Loose Lips Sink Ships.” Or at least one of the headers talks about loose lips. Whatever
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjRPY8Op8Xc
Here is a Portuguese group interpreting Duke Ellington’s “A Slip of the Lip Can Sink a Ship. YouTube does not have the Ellington version, but tonight I am listening to an Ellington CD that contains the Ellington version of the song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yjd9NVF0FYA
tried with deleting the gobbletygook.
tried by stripping out http//: out of URL out of both
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