Click Here
Posted on 12/06/2006 5:16:05 PM PST by bnelson44
(Excerpt) Read more at defenselink.mil ...
15 minutes until the Moment of Silence in memory of the attack on Pearl Harbor . . .
Uhhh .... my little town in the Shenandoah Valley has a nice old German restaurant ... and a nice new Japanese restaurant. Saurkraut & beer, sushi & sake indeed ... Of course, the 'official' language in both places is English.
So there's that, at least.
..this attack is largely forgotten by the majority of Americans, and FReepers.
Bump to the very top for memories.
btt
Amen.
061206-N-4965F-001 Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (Dec. 6, 2006) - The city lights of Aiea, Hawaii, is the backdrop forUSS Arizona Memorial the morning prior to the joint U.S. Navy/National Park Service ceremony commemorating the 65th Anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. More than 1,500 Pearl Harbor survivors, their families and friends from around the nation will join more than 2,000 distinguished guests and the general public for the annual observance. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class James E. Foehl (RELEASED)
Pearl Harbor survivor John A. Rauschkolb, 85, right, meets for the first time former Japanese Navy aviator Takeshi Maeda, 85, during the opening ceremony for Pearl Harbor's 65th anniversary symposium at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort, Sunday, Dec. 3, 2006 in Honolulu. Maeda's torpedo plane bombed the USS West Virginia which Rauschkolb was aboard on on Dec. 7, 1941. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)
I'll be interested to see what my Brad was/wasn't taught at school today.....
Survivors honor Pearl Harbor victims
AUDREY McAVOY, Associated Press Writer
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061207/ap_on_re_us/pearl_harbor_remembered_4
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii - Nearly 500 survivors of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor were here Thursday to honor those who died in the surprise attack 65 years ago.
Many veterans were treating the gathering as their last, uncertain whether they would be alive or healthy enough to travel to Hawaii for the next big memoria, the 70th anniversary, in five years.
"Sixty-five years later, there's not too many of us left," said Don Stratton, a seaman 1st class who was aboard the USS Arizona on Dec. 7, 1941. "In another five years I'll be 89. The good lord willing, I might be able to make it. If so, I'll probably be here. I might not even be around. Who knows. Only the good Lord knows."
Survivors, family members and others gathered for the commemoration were to observe a moment of silence at 7:55 a.m., the minute planes began bombing Pearl Harbor 65 years ago.
A priest was to give a Hawaiian blessing and Marines will perform a rifle salute.
Stratton and other survivors were to board a boat to the white memorial straddling the sunken hull of the Arizona, where they will lay wreaths and lei in honor of the dead.
The Arizona sank in less than nine minutes after a 1,760 pound armor-piercing bomb struck the battleship's deck and hit its ammunition magazine, igniting flames that engulfed the ship.
More people died on the Arizona than any other ship as 1,177 servicemen, or about 80 percent of its crew, perished.
Altogether, the surprise attack killed 2,390 Americans and injured 1,178.
Twelve ships sank and nine vessels were heavily damaged. Over 320 U.S. aircraft were destroyed or heavily damaged by the time the invading planes were done sweeping over military bases from Wheeler Field to Kaneohe Naval Air Station.
Japanese veterans who participated in the attack as navigators and pilots will also pay their respects, offering flowers at the Arizona memorial for the American and Japanese who died.
Some Japanese veterans and American survivors have reconciled in the decades since.
Japanese dive bomber pilot Zenji Abe has apologized to American survivors for the sudden attack, ashamed his government failed to deliver a declaration of war in time for the assault.
The Japanese aviators who carried out the attack thought the declaration had already been made by the time they started bombing, Abe has said.
Visiting the Arizona Memorial was one of the most moving experiences of my life.
The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world. I'm with you on that.
There is a lesson here. The Japanese were as fanatical to their emperor as the Muzzie terrorists are to their Moon God.
We didn't pussyfoot around, we bombed them into submission.
So, do they hate us today? No, they are now one of our biggest allies. We were able to show them how wrong their beliefs were. But it was because we had the strength of our convictions that it happened.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.
If I didn't belong to FR, I wouldn't be reminded by any of media that today is Pearl Harbor day.
What a shame!
This day has a doubly solemn meaning to me. Ironically, my father, who was a Navy veteran, died on this day in 1999.
I was a child when I heard FDR announce this on the radio; I can still "hear" his voice.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.