Last November I went to the Veteran’s Day celebration at my grandkids school, which does an outstanding job. I sat next to this 102 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 had a grand time.
This link provides some more details about him.
1 of the few remaining survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor has died at 102
https://apnews.com/article/dick-higgins-pearl-harbor-survivor-dies-10e93bdb57168d091f2f5ebe85bbadca
Winston Churchill’s assessment of the attack is found on page 606 of The Grand Alliance.
“At this very moment I knew the United States was in the war, up to the neck and in to the death. So we had won after all!....England would live; Britain would live; The Commonwealth of Nations and the Empire would live. How long the war would last or in what fashion it would end, no man could tell, nor did I at this moment care….Many disasters, immeasurable cost, and tribulation lay ahead, but there was no doubt about the end….I had studied the American Civil War, fought out to the last desperate inch. American blood flowed in my veins. I thought of a remark which Edward Grey had made to me more than thirty years before that the United States is like a gigantic boiler. Once the fire is lighted under it there is no limit to the power it can generate. Being saturated and satiated with emotion and sensation, I went to bed and slept the Sleep of the saved and thankful”.
On Christmas Day 1941 Admiral Chester Nimitz arrived to take command at Pearl Harbor. When he arrived, he saw a sunken battle fleet and was assailed by a poisonous atmosphere from black oil, charred wood, burned paint, and rotting flesh. However, he found the general perception of disaster to be wrong. The dry-docks, repair shops, and tank farm were intact. The carriers, their escorts, and the submarines stood ready to take the offensive.
The tragedy of Pearl Harbor for the Japanese was that it required them to contend with the U.S. Navy from its forward base in Hawaii, rather than forcing their enemy to begin operations from the West coast. Japan achieved tactical victory but lost the opportunity for a strategic victory achieving control over much of the Pacific Ocean.
Nimitz immediately sent submarines into Japanese waters and conducted carrier operations thwarting Japanese initiatives. Admiral Raymond Spruance said of Nimitz, “The one big thing about him was that he was always ready to fight…. And he wanted officers who would push the fight to the Japanese”.
What a very special man. What a wonderful article.
Per the article, he’d only very recently entered hospice care.
RIP dear WWII vet.
BTTT!!!
On December 8th, 1941 there was more oil in Hawaii than in Japan. They never had a chance. They should have followed up with raids on oil handling facilities, and brought in their battleships - big guns - to shell Pearl until they were out of ammunition.
A Pyrrhic victory if ever there was one.
Half if this country doesn’t even know what this is about, or care.
Hell is going to rain down on the US in the not too distant future because of such ignorance of, and insensitivity to, history.
Unfortunately, I believe it will be well deserved.
fair winds and following seas, may God bless...
Sounds like Churchill felt like Christmas upon hearing of Pearl Harbor.
If you would like more information about what’s happening in Oregon, please FReepmail me. Please send me your name by FReepmail if you want to be on this list. I met a Pearl Harbor survivor in Burbank in the 80’s. He was on the USS Ralph Talbot during the attack. I always remember him telling me about a later battle when the ship was being shelled and he had been ordered to go down below. He said he was so scared that he froze for several seconds on the steps going down. Definitely the greatest generation.