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A War Story for the Ages. March 31st, 1943, British India. Headed to Pyinmana, Burma, to destroy a bridge, the American B-24 bombers were intercepted by Japanese fighter pilots. With the plane going down and Japanese fighter pilots attacking the parachuting airmen, Owen J. Bagget did what no man had done before or since. It must take some sharp shooting and nerves of unbending steel to keep straight aim in the face of certain death, but he managed to shoot and kill the enemy fighter pilot with none other than a .45 caliber M1911 pistol. Whether a testament to sharp...

Swordfish pilot Jock Moffat – credited with launching the torpedo which crippled the Bismarck in 1941 – has died at the age of 97. The Scotsman, who always played down his role in the attack, was a lifelong champion of naval aviation and friend of the Fleet Air Arm. 2016 ends for Naval aviation as it began – with the loss of one of its greatest heroes. After the passing of legendary test pilot Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown early in the year, the Fleet Air Arm community now mourns for Lt Cdr John ‘Jock’ Moffat – the man credited with crippling...

ST. LOUIS • Lyle J. Bouck Jr., a Sunset Hills chiropractor whose platoon played a notable role in the Battle of the Bulge, died Friday. He was 92. “He was at home, right up until the last,” said Diane Bouck Simcik, a daughter. She said the former prisoner of war fell ill on Tuesday. She said he had pneumonia and was congested and weak. In April, Dr. Bouck and his young caretaker were the subjects of a front-page story in the Post-Dispatch about aging at home. He was healthy but couldn’t move on his own anymore. Dr. Bouck was a...

Wednesday, December 07, 2016 A Date That Will Live Forever in Infamy Posted by Daniel Greenfield Naval Base Bombed, Shinto Worshipers Fear Backlash - New York Times - December 8 1941 A day after planes passed over their peaceful village on the way to attack the Naval Station at Pearl Harbor, local fishermen are still picking up the pieces. "I don't know what any of this is about," a man who would only give his name as Paji said, holding the remains of a net which he had used to earn a living. "All I know is that the killing...

This Jake Tapper interview with Lt. Jim Downing, 103, is tremendous.

Seventy-five years ago on Dec. 7, shortly before 8 a.m., hundreds of Japanese aircraft dove from the sky in a surprise bombing attack on a United States naval base in Hawaii, killing more than 2,400 Americans. The attack on Pearl Harbor shocked and outraged the nation and led it into war at a time when Congress and the American people had been split on the response to an already embattled world. News articles from Dec. 8 reflected a sudden shift in the national mood. According to New York Times articles from Dec. 9 and 10, 1941, thousands of men rushed...

When John D. Anderson reached his battle station in the USS Arizona's No. 4 turret that morning, he realized the gigantic guns could do nothing against the swarms of attacking Japanese airplanes. But his twin brother, Delbert "Jake" Anderson, was manning an antiaircraft gun out on deck, and was in the thick of the action. "He needs help," John told his turret commander, and asked if could join his brother. Both men were 24. The sons of a judge, they were born in Verona, N.D., in 1917. Both had joined the Navy in 1936. John was a boatswain's mate second...

Pearl Harbor Published December 06, 2016 Associated Press Facebook Twitter livefyre Email Print Now Playing Pearl Harbor survivor marks 75 years since attack Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won't apologize for Japan's attack when he visits the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor later this month, the government spokesman said Tuesday. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that "the purpose of the upcoming visit is to pay respects for the war dead and not to offer an apology." Abe announced late Monday that he would have a summit meeting with President Barack Obama in Hawaii and visit Pearl Harbor. He...

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said during a press conference Monday it was natural for World War II veterans to be “embittered” about Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Pearl Harbor, but they should get over it for the sake of America. It was announced Monday that Abe will be the first Japanese leader to visit Pearl Harbor since it was hit by a surprise attack that killed 2,403 Americans and brought the U.S. into World War II. The visit reciprocates President Barack Obama’s visit to Hiroshima earlier this year for the anniversary of the atomic bomb attack...

December 5, 2016 – In this episode we meet 103-year-old Lt. Jim Downing, the second-oldest survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack, who will speak at the 75th commemoration in Hawaii on December 7th, 2016. Jim not only witnessed his ship, USS West Virginia, go up in flames on that day of infamy, but he later served in the Korean War, and in 1956 stumbled into the H-Bomb test at Bikini Atoll. A man of great faith and soon to be the oldest male author in the Guinness Book of World Records, Jim Downing is also a spiritual leader with The Navigators,...

Pearl Harbor: The Truth Preview TV-PG Watch a preview for “Pearl Harbor: The Truth,” premiering Sunday, December 4, at 10/9c. HISTORY Honors Pearl Harbor. Duration: 0m 30s

It was an emotional homecoming for dozens of Pearl Harbor survivors and WWII veterans at Honolulu International Airport Saturday afternoon. Live bands, hula dancers and other military servicemen and women gathered around Gate 18 to help welcome our nation's bravest. "I just want thank them for their time and what they've done to sacrifice for this nation," said Joshua Carmack, USN Chief Petty Officer. Each hero was escorted from the plane down an isle of hugs, handshakes and aloha. American Airlines sponsored the round-trip 75th Pearl Harbor Commemoration Flight, from Los Angeles to Honolulu, which hosted approximately 120 Pearl Harbor...

“If these people are radicalized and they don’t support the United States and they are disloyal to the United States as a matter of principle, fine. It’s their right, and it’s our right and obligation to segregate them from the normal community for the duration of the conflict.”Thus spoke retired General Wesley Clark, a former Democratic Party presidential candidate, in an interview on MSNBC this past Friday.Back in 2004, Clark, the former supreme allied commander of NATO, was harshly critical of what he considered the Bush administration's excessive response to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center towers...

World War II veteran Francis Robert "Frank" Royal made a fateful trip to the National Museum of World War II Aviation in Colorado Springs. "Having had a life long interest in flying, I had to come see what they had," he told Fox 31. Royal served as a squadron commander of the 39th Pursuit Squadron, 5th Army Air Corps in Papua New Guinea. He flew the P-38 Lockheed Lightning in combat. The Germans called it the fork-tailed devil, "It was a real godsend. From a pilot's standpoint it was great," Royal said. So there it was, in the museum. A...

PRANJANI, Serbia -- The sky was black with the billowing smoke of the downed B-17 bombers and the canopies of Allied Airmen parachuting to an unknown fate behind Nazi lines in German-occupied Serbia. This is the sight the villagers of Pranjani remember from the late summer of 1944. Operation Halyard was an Office of Strategic Services mission to rescue more than 500 Allied Airmen who were scattered around a mountainous region in Serbia after their bombers were shot down by the Germans in WWII. It remains the largest rescue operation of American Airmen in history. The U.S. State Department, U.S....

The Army deployed 65 infantry divisions for the Second World War. Each was a small town with its own equivalents for community services plus eight categories of combat arms. Units such as artillery, engineering, and heavy weapons engaged the enemy directly. Yet of all categories, the foot soldier faced the greatest hazard with the least chance of reward. Except for the Purple Heart and the coveted Combat Infantryman’s Badge, recognition often eluded them because so few came through to testify to the valor of the many. The infantryman confronted the most dismal fate of all whose duty was uninterrupted by...

MAINESTATEGOP AND THE NEW ENGLAND ALLIANCE FOR LIBERTY AND FREE MARKETS PRESENTS A NEW BLOG  EVENTS IN HUMAN HISTORY BY KYLE WEISSMAN  We've had many history articles on our blog, The story of The Battle Of Lepanto being our best one, we've had many requests for more history related articles. So, we're presenting a new blog, EVENTS IN HUMAN HISTORY by our very own Kyle Weissman.  Kyle Weissman is one of our original founders of the New England Alliance For Liberty and Free Markets, He has been very very active in the free state movement in New Hampshire and...

The Battle of Athens TN, August 1-2, 1946 On 1-2 August 1946, some Americans, brutalized by their county government, used armed force to overturn it. These Americans wanted honest, open elections. For years they had asked for state or Federal election monitors to prevent vote fraud -- forged ballots, secret ballot counts, and intimidation by armed sheriff's deputies -- by the local political boss. They got no help. These Americans' absolute refusal to knuckle-under had been hardened by service in World War II. Having fought to free other countries from murderous regimes, they rejected vicious abuse by their county government....

It's always wonderful when karma comes calling at the right time, and for one school principal along with his band of bratty cheerleaders, that day came just at the right time. They thought no one would find out about the sick thing they did to World War II veterans, but once the word got out, the backlash was so enormous, it went on to make national news. On September 30, 12 cheerleaders from Cornell High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, decided to take a knee during the national anthem. While we’ve gotten used to these disgusting displays of disrespect across...

Jimmy Stewart suffered such extreme PTSD after being a fighter pilot in World War II that he acted out his mental distress during 'It's a Wonderful Life'. Stewart played George Bailey in the classic movie and channeled his anger and guilt into the scenes where he rages at his family. Stewart was haunted by 'a thousand black memories' from his time as an Air Force commanding officer that he took with him back to Hollywood after the war. Pilots who flew with him said that became 'Flak Happy' during World War II, a term to describe what is now known...