Two dates which will live in infamy

The Sarasota Herald Tribune ^ | 12/7/05 | By LAURA GREEN

[standingfirm]

SARASOTA COUNTY -- It was a secret attack, the most horrific in the nation's history. Thousands died. It led to accusations of intelligence failures, and pushed the nation into war.

For most high school students, that description could mean only one thing: the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

But it also matches another seminal moment in U.S. history: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which happened 64 years ago today.

For many students, Pearl Harbor has become a footnote, another date to memorize, if students know about it at all.

"One of the first things I ask is, 'Do you know what happened Dec. 7, 1941?' Out of a class out of 32, I'll be lucky if I get 10," said retired Capt. Bob O'Neill of Bradenton, who fished bodies out of Pearl Harbor after the devastating attack and keeps the event alive by speaking to classrooms around the area.

While the parallels between the two events would seem to help today's students relate to Pearl Harbor, students struggle to make the connection.

Jared McCarthy, a junior at the Sarasota Military Academy, sees a "little bit" in common between Sept. 11 and Dec. 7. "Not much really."

He pauses before coming to this conclusion: "Both of them, somebody else didn't like us."

There are differences between the two events, to be sure.

Pearl Harbor happened in Hawaii, then just a U.S. territory, far away from the U.S. mainland.

The Sept. 11 targets were New York City, the symbolic and actual center of American commerce, and Washington, D.C., the seat of government. The attacks played out on national television, literally bringing the fear and violence into American homes.

Another important difference was the aggressor, said Richard M. Swier, a retired Army lieutenant colonel.

In Pearl Harbor, "it was one armed force against another armed force," he said.

In 9/11, a rogue militia little-known to most Americans attacked civilians.

That's why Swier believes 9/11 will remain longer in the American psyche.

Worth David, a North Port High School history teacher, said the problem with Pearl Harbor isn't a lack of historical significance. In a nation that has reduced Presidents Day to a department store white sale, Pearl Harbor is a victim of timing.

"I think Pearl Harbor's problem in terms of history is that it's between Thanksgiving and Christmas," David said.

While he calls Pearl Harbor "an enormous event," hehe acknowledges he won't be doing anything special to recognize the anniversary today for his students.

He'll wait till Memorial Day, a more convenient time in the school calendar, to recognize veterans, he said.

Sarasota Military Academy has invited O'Neill to address the cadets at their morning formation today.

Col. Bill Brockman, a retired paratrooper who served in Vietnam and is an instructor at the school, said hearing from someone who experienced an event helps students connect.

O'Neill plans to tell them about the moment the bombs started to fall, when he rushed to the roof of the administration building at Pearl Harbor only to find the machines guns weren't loaded.

He'll describe the numbness he felt that day, riding in a boat, claiming the bodies of his colleagues out of a pool of water and oil.

If the images stick with them, O'Neill will feel he has done his part.

"Students have got to be taught this because this can happen again," O'Neill said.

But then, they already know that.

[standingfirm]

Let's never forget.....

[TheRobb7]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1535158/posts?page=9#9

[Semper Paratus]

More and more Americans agree with Bluto's version of Pearl Harbor.

[Calpernia]

[No Blue States]

Let Pearl Harbor be a lesson to those who would attack the USA. Remember Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

A memorial thread:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1535616/posts

Has some links to memorial websites.

[Experiment 6-2-6]

Would that be whereTHE GERMANS bombed Pearl Harbor?

[KosmicKitty]

My father was on the USS Solace - he ran the engine room. He was on deck during most of the attack. Saw the Arizona & West Virginia get hit and go down. Saw a kamikaze pilot fly by so close he could see the man's face. After the attack, his ship pulled the bodies out of the harbor. When they ran out of room in the morgue, the stacked the bodies in the hallways.

He sat next to me on 9/11, watching the towers fall, and he said that it was nothing like Pearl Harbor. The 9/11 attacks were much worse. Pearl Harbor was a military to military attack designed to destroy the US Navy fleet, 9/11 was designed to kill as many civilians as possible.

We should not forget either.

He rarely talks about Pearl Harbor, I've only heard his story 3 times. Unlike some recent presidential candidates, real heroes don't talk about it

[Semper Paratus]

Would that be whereTHE GERMANS bombed Pearl Harbor?

You're on a roll!

[wtc911]

Does your dad remember Joe Hydrusko, also of the USS Solace? Joe was a hero that day and in the days immediately following. I knew him growing up (he gave me my first job). He was larger than life to us.

[KosmicKitty]

From NJ?

Yes, he says he remembers him (No good stories though G)

[KosmicKitty]

Oops, one more thing

Is Joe still with us??

If so, ask him if he remembers Harold Eliason, though I think his shipmates used to call him Swede. I believe he was a CPO at the time.

[wtc911]

Joe Hyrdusko was from NY. He took the Solace's Captain's gig into the fight and rescued over 100 sailors from the burning waters. He heard tapping from inside the hull of the Oklahoma and organized a team to cut through the hull whilr the attack was still going on. Over the next 36 hours they pulled over thirty men from the battleship. His name was put into consideration for the CMH nearly forty years later, right before his death.

The USS Oklahoma website has his pic and story.

He and his wife Helen bought a canal front restaurant in Massapequa, LI after the war (Dick & Dora's). They lived above it and ran it until his death. My first job was as a busboy there in the 60s. Joe was friends with my grandfather. They were both US Navy boxers (actually my grand dad was USMC in WW1 but it's all the same) and told great stories whenever they got together.

Joe was a class act all the way.

[KosmicKitty]

Wow, too bad he's died.

My dad has spoken so little about Pearl Harbor that I have never heard that story before. He never has really said what he and his shipmates did!!