Pearl Harbor and Ford Island (comments on a pulled thread).

[7thson]

Couple things. I was stationed at Pearl from 1991 to 1993 on the USS Chosin. During times when the ship went into the yards, the command had us sleeping in barracks at Ford Island. This was the early 90's and I do not recall a sign or anything signifying historical significance. When my wife came over from CONUS to visit, we toured the Arizona Memorial. Looking at pictures on the wall, I noticed an aerial shot of the same barracks I was sleeping in.

The last time I was there in early 92 - and when I was in shape - I ran the perimeter road around the island - 3 miles. After doing that a few times, I ran it twice for six miles which was a big deal for me at the time.

Now get this. The ship is stationed at Pearl. While inport on the weekends, I would rent movies either from Tower Records or the exchange. Once I rented THE NAKED AND THE DEAD, based on the book by Norman Mailer. After reading the book I wanted to see how they handled the movie. I'm down in the berthing with one other guy - a young OS around 24 years old. The movie starts and it shows a naval battle - battleships shooting off and such. So he asks if this is a war movie? Yes. Which war? WW II. Where? Pacific theater. You ready for the next question? He asks who were we fighting? I turned and looked at him, saying we are stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and you don't know who we fought in WW II? His answer - hey, I'm not good at that history stuff! I just turned around to watch the movie and he left.

[UseYourHead]

Well then that's different!

[Hatteras]

World War II?!! Already? Who finally won World War I?

[wizr]

I learned a lot of history, language and music from the old cartoons.

[decimon]

First fireproof polar bears, and now this.

I don't want to get into the perfidy of polar bears but attacking Pearl Harbor from the Aleutians was how FDR framed the Japanese to get us into the war. George Bush Sr. was one of the pilots before he became a lizard and then President. Something like that.

[Hat-Trick]

So did he:

[skeeter]

Yesterday our local talk radio station did their annual 'lets hear from PH survivors' routine. What was different this year was most of the callers were women - wives & children of service members.

It brought home that there aren't too many PH soldiers & sailors around any more.

[IN Farm Girl]

I used to work the reference desk at a major US university's undergraduate library. One day, I had a guy come up and ask how to find information for a report he was doing on WWII. I suggested to him that WWII was a pretty broad topic and he might want to narrow it down to a specific area--say, Pearl Harbor--and pare it down further from there.

The response I got? "Who's she?" I kid you not.

[zook]

Absolutely. I learned the basics of WWII (e.g., who fought who) at the age of 5 by watching Popeye and Bugs Bunny. I dare say that there isn't a single kids cartoon today that incorporates contemporary events.

[Martins kid]

I used to live near Pearl Harbor and every year would sit on the shore of Pearl Harbor during the memorial service. Such a beautiful peaceful place for a war to begin unannounced with such terrible violence. It is true that if you dig down into the sand lining the harbor a foot or so you will still find the burnt oily layer deposited during the attack. Being there touched me deeply and I'll never forget it.