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Posted on 03/06/2017 6:00:09 PM PST by laurenmarlowe
Historical note: the base is named for Lt George Whiteman, one of the first American aviators to die in World War II. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Whiteman and two other pilots drove to Bellows Field, an auxiliary strip, hoping to find I damaged P-40s so they could launch and take the fight to the enemy.
Unfortunately, they arrived at Bellows as it came under Japanese attack. One of Whiteman’s comrades was killed by enemy machine gun fire before he could reach the cockpit. Whiteman became airborne briefly, but Japanese Zeroes riddled his plane with bullets. Whiteman attempted a crash landing on the beach but died in the effort. The third pilot was also shot down and despite his wounds, managed to swim to shore.
Whiteman’s family in Missouri learned that night of his sacrifice. His mother agreed to an interview with the local paper, telling the reporter that more families would have to sacrifice their sons to defeat our enemies. It was a remarkable display of grit and patriotism under the most difficult conditions.
And sadly, the Whiteman family would make further sacrifices in the defense of freedom. One of George Whiteman’s brothers died in combat in Korea, a decade later.
Evening, Lauren, Kathy!
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Greetings to all at the Canteen!
To all our military men and women, past and present,
Howdy, Feathers!
Glad y’all had some nice weather. I gather you went outside for a while to enjoy it?
It was warm here but really windy ahead of a storm system moving our way. Still got outside for a bit.
Howdy, PRO.
In a bit late and probably missed ya. Hope you and your son had a grand time over the weekend.
Howdy, Kathy.
Hope today has been one of few corrections!
Howdy, LUV.
How’d your day go? A good one, I hope.
Hey, there, radu! It was a good unproductive day...that’s the best kind for me! :)
Hope you had a good day, too! Is the weather warming up finally? How are all the “kids”? =^..^=
Son and I had a great time this weekend "saving the world" again, LOL.
Our snow is all gone finally, sunny skies but still too cold for me.
You and the nice kittehs have a good day?
Ah, a lazy day. Those are among the best. :-)
Decent day here. Warm but windy and cloudy. I still spent time outside piddling around with flower beds just because it was nice to be out with things springing back to life. Lots of daffodils blooming now and the peach tree has started to bloom.
kittehs are fine. All are asleep but now that I’ve said it, they’ll all wake up. LOL
LOL! We figured since you were absent the past couple of days, you two were having a blast. Is the game as good as you expected?
Hallelujah for that snow being gone at last. You’ve had snow on the ground for months. Now if you could just get some warmth. Shouldn’t be long now.
Whose kittehs are you referring to? Nice? Not these heatherns! LOL! They’ve been little terrorists today but are asleep for now. They get wound up when a storm front is closing in and the wind roars outside and today was no exception.
I’m pretty sure they read minds!
Sounds like you had the same weather we did, only it got up into the 80s here, which was a little warmer than I like it in early March. Still 72. And I think the wind has died down, thank goodness. At least the sand didn’t blow, but we’ve been under fire warnings for a week. Our humidity is so low.
Glad you could get out into your gardens! It’s cheery to see things blooming again, huh! How is hubby’s noggin tonight. ;)
They do read minds. It can be uncanny at times. But so far, they’re still asleep so whispering it in my mind as I typed must have worked. LOL
80s IS a bit warm for March. Hope it isn’t a harbinger of what’s to come this summer down there. We hit 70 today and that was comfy enough. Would have been nicer if there’d been some sunshine to go with it.
Have there been any wildfires down there yet. There were a few around TN over the weekend. Nothing really big but all were started by stupidity. It’s still dry and it was windy and you just don’t burn brush in those conditions.
Hubby’s noggin must be hurting. He was out working in the garage for a bit, then came in and hit the recliner without saying a word. Still there.
I hope he feels better soon! Probably a pretty good clip he got from that mirror!
We haven’t had any fires close by, but up in the Lubbock area...2 hours north, where our friends who had the eye doc appt live...there were some. One in Sundown, Tx, north of Lubbock burned about 1000 acres and came very close to the town. They had to evacuate a lot of folks. But they got it stopped. Thank God!
I hope TN doesn’t have any more bad ones like last year...and I REALLY hope we both get more rain soon!
Good health report....glad the heart is doing its job well.
I hope he feels better soon too. He has a nice goose egg and that’s gotta hurt.
It sounds like both states are getting off to a rough start this year. We both need rain. We’re a little over 3 inches down from what we had this time last year. We hope for a decent amount tomorrow when the storms come through.
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