Posted on 12/07/2004 11:58:09 AM PST by LouAvul
For years, Randy Bond heard his father, Paul, tell the story of Pearl Harbor, how the young Navy man was in the shower when the first explosions rocked the island of Oahu, how he ran outside naked and stood mesmerized as planes buzzed overhead and explosions filled the morning sky, as men and women died en masse.
When his father died in 1989, Randy Bond was left with those memories. As more and more witnesses to the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Hawaii that triggered the United States' entry into World War II succumb to illness and old age, he and others like him have embraced the obligation to keep that story alive.
With an average of 1,056 World War II veterans dying every day in the United States, Bond and countless other relatives throughout the nation are speaking up for a generation that more and more is unable to speak for itself.
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For years, he heard about a small piece of a downed Japanese bomber that Paul Bond had snipped off and saved while on patrol the day after the Pearl Harbor attacks.
But over the decades, some family members lost track of the item, which can be held in the palm of one's hand, until Randy Bond tracked it down a year ago.
"It made me cry the first time I held it," he said, eyeing the piece of history while sitting at his dining room table. "I had heard the story for so long that I was almost jaded, but when I saw this it really hit me how important it was."
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
My Dad found a 7.7mm machine gun bullet in the sand at PH in 1942 and carried it for good luck until his death in 83. The slug had a bent nose and was obviously a ricochet
Adm Halsey upon seeing the wreckage on 8 Dec 41. "After we're done with them, the Japanese language will only be spoken in HELL!"
A great uncle of mine was on board the Maryland when the attack occurred. He lied about his age to get into the Navy and that's where he ended up on that day.
I met a Pearl Harbor survivor in Maryland in my teens that was a friend of my grandmothers. He wrote his memory of that morning on Ford Island on several sheets of small yellow paper that are part of my prized pocessions along with a U.S.S Arizona pin from the 1930's.
He also had a neck chain with a 7.5 m bullet that had been bronzed from that morning. The "stuff" that the WWII generation had is something I'm not sure we could muster again as a nation. I witnessed a bit of it after 9/11 but it faded quickly also. It's certainly there in a significant part of our nation but not to the extent that it was there in '41.
My dad was of this generation, tho he didn't serve at Pearl. He was born in 1906 was was actually a little too old to step forward after the attack. He had flying experience so he became a civilian pilot for the Army Air Force, flying C-46s over the Hump in the CBI Campaign. He died in 1966 when I was still in high school.
I'm not really generally into creating more holidays, but the survivors and relatives are all going to be gone soon and I think we need to make PH day a national holiday to keep the memory alive. No one really remembers Armistice Day here because it's not a holiday. In England, they remember.
my grandfather was a kicker in a C-47 flying over the hump
Armistice Day was primarily a day set aside to honor veterans of World War I, but in 1954, after World War II had required the greatest mobilization of soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen in the Nation's history; after American forces had fought aggression in Korea, the 83rd Congress, at the urging of the veterans service organizations, amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word "Armistice" and inserting in lieu thereof the word "Veterans. " With the approval of this legislation (Public Law 380) on June 1, 1954, November 11th became a day to honor American veterans of all wars.
Dad flew 25 missions and on his return from # 25, was involved in a crash landing and was treated for burns. He never got Vet's benefits because he was a civilian pilot.
bump for publicity
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