Posted on 12/07/2006 10:02:53 AM PST by Greystoke
Kenneth M. Taylor, 86, an Army Air Forces pilot who managed to get airborne under fire near Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and shot down at least two Japanese attacking aircraft, died Nov. 25 at an assisted living residence in Tucson. He had been ill since hip surgery two years ago.
He was a new second lieutenant on his first assignment, posted in April 1941 to Wheeler Army Airfield in Honolulu. A week before the Japanese attacked,
(Excerpt) Read more at wilmingtonstar.com ...
There are still plenty of men around--Many of them are presently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The problem is the castrati posing as leaders in DC.
65TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR
>>>>>>>..........<<<<<<
Hear Hear!
Headline from Dec 8, 1941:
"Pearl Harbor Study Group States War Is Unwinnable"
The bipartisan PHSG today released a report saying that war with Japan is unwinnable.
It said that Japan now controls most of the Pacific and any American response would only bring Germany into the War. It encouraged American efforts to get Japan to talk with its neighbors and to encourage the Chinese, Filipinos, East Indians, New Guineans, and Australians to start a regional dialogue.
"President Roosevelt must learn to listen and get off his hardheaded mantra about "the inevitable victory" said James Baker and Lee Hamilton, the report authors, who will be writing similar such reports for the next 70 years.
Thank you ... I'm really tired of the "we don't have any real men anymore" drivel.
The proponents of same are welcome to kindly shut the f@#$ up.
So was he the one portrayed by Ben Affleck in that God-awful Pearl Harbor movie?
What an insult that would have been.
RIP, Ken. You'll be missed.
Would to God we continue to produce tens of millions like him.
The Greatest Generation!
The article I read in the Post said that he thought the movie was a piece of crap and wanted nothing to do with it.
Ken Taylor was a technical advisor for the movie "Tora, Tora, Tora". He was not consulted for "Pearl Harbor" and thought the movie was garbage according to his son retired Brig. Gen Ken Taylor Jr.
Taylor was a new 2nd Lt just assigned to Pearl Harbor in April 41'. When he and Welch took off from Haleiwa airfield without orders the morning of December 7, 1941 it was 2 fueled but not fully armed P-40's vs well over 100 Japanese aircraft. They soon ran out of ammunition and had to land at Wheeler airfield to rearm. Taylor was wounded and bleeding. Senior officers chewed them both out and ordered them to stay on the ground.
At that point Japanese aircraft attacked Wheeler airfield again and the officers scattered. Taylor and Welch took off despite being strafed by Zeroes where Taylor was wounded again.
Taylor was credited with 2 kills that day and thought he got 2 more. Welch was credited with 4. The Japanese lost 29 aircraft on December 7, 1941 and Taylor and Welch accounted for over 20% of that total between them.
For their actions at Pearl Harbor they both earned the Distinguished Service Cross. They were denied the Medal of Honor because they attacked without orders and this has never been rectified.
I never saw that movie, but I know in Tora, Tora, Tora they show the scenes with the 2 pilots getting to the scene aloft, they do have talking parts, but I don't know if they mention the names.
I think THAT movie is on sometime today, but I'm not sure when and where.
It'll be 'on' my DVD player ... uncut, with no commercials.
;'}
TTT is the ONLY Pearl Harbor movie.
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