Posted on 12/06/2001 6:42:38 AM PST by Uncle George
Dec. 7, 1941 I was 10 years old and having fun running my toy putt-putt boat in the bath tub, you remember those steam boats you put a candle under the boiler and they run around making a loud putt-put noise. My mother came in very excited and told me Japan had bombed us at Pearl Harbor. I ran out in the front yard and many neighbors were outside loudly talking of the attack and we kids were scanning the skys for enemy airplanes because there was talk of Japan invading California and we were in the center of California. Everyone was frightened just as we were September 11, 2001. I have seen the "Sleeping Giant" awakened for the second time and I pray the Country will respond as it did in 1941. We had many less fifth column cells then but they were curtailed quickly then as our President is attempting to control these now. I remember the first soldier killed that was close to our family was my sisters boyfriend who enlisted quickly and died in battle early in the war. I remember her playing a little phonograph record he sent her as he left the U.S. We would all listen to him laughing and telling jokes and the tears would flow as we realized he and thousands more were dieing to protect this Country. Many Americans felt as we did because we took the loss of our loved ones, rationing of everything, around the clock war defence jobs without grumbling or complain. My father worked as a boiler fireman in a sawmill, lumber was a very essential product for defence. I witnessed an awakened giant in 1941 that that drew a Country together into an unbeatable force of all races and creeds that was to be my America for the rest of my life. I pray this Giant of today is the same that awakened on December 7, 1941.
I was 9 years old and did not really understand the gravity of the situation even though I knew it was deadly serious.
I was only 10 but I started to realize the impact of war when I saw families grieving the death of their son killed in battle.
I was pilot Strategic Air mCommand B-36 carrying hydrogen bombs. Quite awsome.
Most people do no realize how close we came to war during the cold war. They were scared of us if they were at least half bright..!!
Flight class 56H. Served 1954 - 1957. Stationed at Walker AFB Roswell NM.
Do you remember?
Dec 11, 1942 was just short of 3 years before I was born. But my mother was standing out on her lanai watching the Japanese airplanes bomb the ships where so many of her friends were assigned. And my Dad, a day later, was hauling his submarine out of Manila and heading for deep waters.
My best friend in high school has a December 7 birthday. But, he was born about three or four years after I was.
Before the button, there was a block of oleo and some powder. The white oleo, it looked like lard, was warmed and the orange powder was hand mixed with a big spoon. When it was close to being all the same color, it was sorta shaped and put in the ice box. We would get, don't know how often, little round things, about the size of a dime, and would be able to go to Pittsburgh to Isaly's and get butter. We had a rather large family, so we were allowed more than one pound of real butter.
12 years before I was born, but my Mother once told me she was at her parent's home when the news came on the radio.
With the exception of one, my grandparents were still in High School at the time.
So few veterans of WW2 are still alive, my brother in law, who served in England in WW2, passed away a few years ago.
Not sure where I was at the time - I used to think I was Josef Stalin in my previous life but I think Hillary has a better claim...
Heck, my dad wasn't born until the next month, January 1942 and mom wasn't born until November of 1943, so I guess I wasn't even a dream yet.....lol
You have to be well into your 30's to have even been born during Viet Nam, much less WWII.
How many are still around who remember?
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