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Where we were when Pearl Harbor was attacked
World Defense Review ^ | December 2, 2005 | W. Thomas Smith, Jr.

Posted on 12/02/2005 5:57:53 AM PST by Moonraker

On December 7, future U.S. President George H.W. Bush was a 17-year-old student and captain of the baseball team at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. "I remember it well," he says. "We had just left church and started to walk across campus when someone shouted out, 'Pearl Harbor's been bombed.'"

On his 18th birthday, the following June, Bush signed up to become a Naval aviator. He completed flight school and earned his commission a few days before his 19th birthday making him the youngest aviator in the Navy at that time.

(Excerpt) Read more at worlddefensereview.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News
KEYWORDS: 1941; army; attack; buckley; bush; destroyer; division; dole; harbor; ii; navy; pearl; pearlharbor; seal; seals; tuskegee; war; world; wwii
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To: Gay State Conservative
In fact,JFK was,IMO,the last prominent (influential) democRAT to be worthy of the respect of today's Republicans/ conservatives.

I agree with you. For some insight into JFK before he became famous, try and read a copy of a book that he actually wrote: "Why England Slept" (1940). It's eerily contemporary to the mistakes made leading up to the war on terrorism. It's easy to see where the backbone came from to deal with the Cuban Missile Crisis.

61 posted on 12/02/2005 8:23:54 AM PST by elbucko
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To: PeterFinn

I have a friend, Ken Kreese who was aboard a destroyer in Pearl as the attack went on. His ship was not hit, and he said to me what haunts him to this day was watching the jap planes strafing the sailors in the water.


62 posted on 12/02/2005 8:26:50 AM PST by stumpy
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To: Moonraker
My wife's grandparents were stationed at Pearl and living off-base when the attack took place. He was a Chief in the Navy and she was at home with their first child, my wife's uncle. The grandmother remembers looking out the windows and seeing all of these planes flying around and hubby telling her it was probably some training activities - until the first explosions began to be heard!


This lovely woman had such a great spirit and love of Christ. Every year, our church would honor those veterans serving our country and she was always asked to tell her story about that Sunday morning so long ago. Today, she is in heaven teaching the angels how to play baseball.

63 posted on 12/02/2005 8:26:56 AM PST by jettester (I got paid to break 'em - not fly 'em)
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To: Gay State Conservative
In fact,JFK was,IMO,the last prominent (influential) democRAT to be worthy of the respect of today's Republicans/ conservatives.

What about Sam Nunn and Henry "Scoop" Jackson? They, AFAIK, didn't bed anything in a skirt, including mobster's girlfriends and foreign agents. JFK, in that respect, was if anything worse than BJC. (But much better in other ways of course).

64 posted on 12/02/2005 8:30:48 AM PST by El Gato
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To: A.A. Cunningham
7:00 AM Pearl - 12:00 PM Boston

Yes. I am aware. I only meant that I would have expected him to have been leaving church on a Sunday morning in 1941 much earlier in the morning than 1 or 2 pm...which is probably the earliest that the news would have reached the East Coast in 1941.

65 posted on 12/02/2005 8:33:24 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (This is my tagline. There are many like it but this one is mine.)
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To: Moonraker

I recall in the late 30s my Father calling FDR a lying SOB when he kept saying he would NEVER draft American boys to fight in a foreign war.


66 posted on 12/02/2005 8:34:29 AM PST by cynicom
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To: Moonraker

My Dad joined the Coast Guard in 1939. He was stateside when Pearl Harbor got bombed, but shortly thereafter, he was assigned to an attack transport ship & served at Amchitka, Tarawa, Kwajalein.
I need to ask him where he was when he first heard the news.


67 posted on 12/02/2005 9:49:29 AM PST by texianyankee
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To: squarebarb
I was fifteen years old and in school assembly when we listened very respectfully to President Roosevelt very forcefully ask the Congress of the United States to declare "that a state of war has existed between the United States of America and the Empire of Japan" from that moment Dec.7th 1941!

I waited until I was seventeen got my Daddy to sign a release so I could join the Navy on Sept.7th 1943.Boarded a train(my first train ride)wound up in San Diego Cal. U.S.N.T.S.

I was born Aug.21,1926 and since no extra gasoline was available had to wait for the Navy recruiter to come to our little town to offer me opportunity to sign up.

I did try to join when I turned sixteen by writing a letter to the Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox(as an English class project)but was courteously rejected after his letter thanked me for my patriotism.

That made me feel real good!

68 posted on 12/02/2005 10:02:19 AM PST by VOYAGER (M<)
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To: Moonraker

The womb


69 posted on 12/02/2005 10:06:51 AM PST by bert (K.E. ; N.P . Peta girls end up as spinsters)
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To: Moonraker
I was sitting in my wicker stroller while my Mom and I were at Charlie Em's butcher shop picking up some cold cuts for a late lunch.I loved the butcher shop, sawdust on the floor,wonderful smells in the air,and Charlie always gave me a slice of salami.

That day everybody was excitedly talking about Pearl Harbor,lots of them didn't know where it was. My Mom ,who had a keen sense of history leaned over and told me to remember this day because we were in the war. I was 2 and a half but I can remember it like it was yesterday.

Lots of things have changed though and the butcher doesn't give me free salami anymore either.

70 posted on 12/02/2005 11:23:15 AM PST by oldsalt (There's no such thing as a free lunch.)
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To: VOYAGER

Enjoyed reading your personal story. Thanks for sharing it and thanks for your service.


71 posted on 12/02/2005 12:13:33 PM PST by texianyankee
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To: Moonraker

I was coming out of church. I was 6 at the time and I remember a women coming up and telling us about the attack. Obviously, I did not know where Pearl Harbor was or even where Hawaii was.


72 posted on 12/02/2005 12:26:28 PM PST by Uncle Hal
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To: GreyFriar

Thanks for the ping. I heard President Roosevelt announce it on radio.


73 posted on 12/02/2005 1:27:00 PM PST by zot (GWB -- four more years!)
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To: Moonraker

I was nearly nine years old and living in San
Francisco having arrived from China on a Japanese
ship, no less! (Tatsuta Maru).

I recall that some Chinese Americans wore signs
around their necks saying "I AM CHINESE NOT JAPANESE"
when they ventured outside of Chinatown as tempers were
running high and several Asians were beaten up because they were
suspected of being Japanese.


74 posted on 12/02/2005 7:49:29 PM PST by albee ("Those that bite the hand that feeds them will lick the boot that kicks them!" - Eric Hoffer)
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To: COBOL2Java
My mom was a single girl living with a friend in a bungalow somewhere around the base of Diamond Head. It was a small island and young, attractive single women had no trouble socializing. Lots of young, single military men and she knew many of them. She was up and about that Sunday morning and heard the announcement over the radio:"This is not an exercise. Repeat, this is not an exercise." Went out on the lanai and watched in total disbelief as the bombing took place.
75 posted on 12/02/2005 8:05:55 PM PST by ArmyTeach (Pray daily for our troops...)
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To: G.Mason
I always have a way of commemorating the day at work - ask the soldiers what is the significance of this date.
My dad was a submarine skipper with his sub (Sculpin) in Manila. It was assumed that the first attack would be at Manila, so all subs were completely ready to pull out with a 30 days supply of rations. But Pearl was bombed and the ships pulled out of Manila. My dad found that his sub had a 30 day's supply of SPAM - the kind that comes in cans. He lived on coffee and Hershey bars for the next 30 days and never allowed Spam in our house. The young officer who stocked the Spam never heard the end of it, I'll bet.
76 posted on 12/02/2005 8:14:48 PM PST by ArmyTeach (Pray daily for our troops...)
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To: A.A. Cunningham
7:00 AM Pearl - 12 PM Boston

My Dad, who's gone now, said that he was studying with his fellow engineering students up at Penn State. When they heard over the radio that Pearl Harbor was bombed, it was a very sobering moment. "We knew we were going to war," my Dad said.

My Dad and his mates joined the ROTC program as the school put them on an accelerated program so they could graduate early. Then my Dad went on active duty in the US-Army Air Force.

77 posted on 12/02/2005 11:14:50 PM PST by Ciexyz (Let us always remember, the Lord is in control.)
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To: Moonraker

My Dad always liked to recall Pearl Harbor when December 7th rolled around every year. I used to call him and ask, "By the way, Dad, what were you doing back on Dec. 7, 1941?" He loved to reminisce. The media, newsbroadcasts used to make a big deal out of the date, now they hardly mark it at all.


78 posted on 12/02/2005 11:17:11 PM PST by Ciexyz (Let us always remember, the Lord is in control.)
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To: ArmyTeach
Very interesting. Thanks for that.





79 posted on 12/03/2005 1:40:05 AM PST by G.Mason (You don't recycle Democrats, you bury them.)
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