Where were you December 7, 1941?

Memories | Uncle George

[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.

[beekeeper]

I was three years old in Navy housing. My dad was gunnery officer on the Astoria with the carriers off Oahu. Astoria was later sunk at Iron Bottom Sound and he survived and fought the rest of the war on the Baltimore and CO of a troop ship.

I was playng in the back yard and zeros were going overhead and you could hear the explosions. My mom thought they were just exercises. She called in to complain that the trash had not been picked up. The operator chewed her out and told her that we were under attack. So she brough me inside.

We were among all the dependents that were shipped back to the States shortly thereafter.

[Silly]

Where were you December 7, 1941?

I don't have an alibi.

[Catspaw]

Was your dad in the Ploesti raid? What was the name of his plane?

I'd have to ask my Mom (Dad died five years ago). All I can remember is him talking about bombing ball bearing factories, having to protect the bombsight with his life, having the pilot (he was co-pilot) killed by shrapnel when they were flying back from a mission, and how he learned to drink cold coffee.

[Catspaw]

Real close to moms left breast as she was singing:"Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy......"

"A kid'll eat ivy, too--wouldn't you...."

[thesharkboy]

Click here for a roster of planes and pilots involved in Ploesti.

My uncle was in the "Sad Sack", and I remember his telling me that he was diverted to Cyprus that day after the bombing run.

[Tony in Hawaii]

Well, I was a little less than 20 years from making my debut, but my Dad was working as an engineer for Supermarine in England, builders of the Spitfire. He turned 35 the day the Germans invaded Russia, and he was sure that that marked the turning point of the war, since he believed nobody could defeat Russia.

Mom was 25 and a nurse in Austria, having made her way back home from England in 1939 via Spain, afraid she'd be interned if she didn't leave right away.

Of course, by 7 Dec 1941 they had been at war for over two years, so the date had less significance to them.

[Catspaw]

September 11th, 2001 - I was sitting at my desk at work starting my day, either skimming the web or checking my e-mail while listening to WLW radio (waiting for a favorite talk show to start). Heard that a plane had crashed into the Trade Center, immediately thought about the 1945 accident where the B-25 hit the Empire State Building (I'm a history buff). Thought it was a small plane until I heard them interviewing a witness on WLW/ABC News radio. He was going on about the burning building than then shouted "OH MY GOD!" as the second plane hit. After that nobody got any work done...

I had just gotten back from walking the dog, flipped on the tube while I was getting ready for work--I think it was NBC--and they cut away to show where a plane had crashed into the WTC. I thought it must've been a small plane & was digging around for a pair of clean socks...they were interviewing some NBC producer on the phone when the second plane hit...I screamed, "Oh, My God" repeatedly...then screamed, "Osama bin Laden--that SOB bin Laden." I woke up my hubby (he works 2nd shift) and he couldn't figure out why I was shaking and screaming until I pointed at the tube and said something incoherent.

I never realized what my parents, grandparents--heck, the whole country, if not the world--went through on December 7, 1941 until that day.

[janetgreen]

I don't really remember the exact day, I was not yet 4 years old then, but do remember the aftermath. We found out that my cousin had been killed on the West Virginia, so the family was in mourning.

Afterwards I remember the "blackouts" when my Mom put dark shades over the windows at night. San Pedro California is a port city, and it was rumored that Japanese submarines were out there lurking. One night there was actually gunfire from the Fort McArthur gun battery, and it could be seen in the sky overhead. They presumably were firing out to sea.

Patriotism was high then, like now. Soon afterwards I remember that some of my Japanese American classmates "had to move", and this was sad. The hills in the city had been farmed mostly by their parents, and they had to leave their homes and farms, taken to camps. We missed them.

Later on I remember the stamp books my Mom used to buy things that were rationed. Bubble gum was even scarce, and when a store advertised that they had bubble gum, kids would line up for blocks with a dime to get ten pieces, a big deal for us! Lots of other memories...

[11th Earl of Mar]

I was the fastest swimmer in high school. Doesn't that count for something?

[Catspaw]

I just talked to my Mom--she said she couldn't remember the name of Dad's plane--it wasn't anything familiar, but it wasn't very clean. She said he went overseas in June, 1944, because I was born in August, 1944 & she was seven month's pregnant when he left. That's all she can remember--and my #3 sister has all of Dad's stuff, so the next time she sees her, she'll ask her to find out.

[skeeter]

My dad was gunnery officer on the Astoria with the carriers off Oahu. Astoria was later sunk at Iron Bottom Sound and he survived and fought the rest of the war on the Baltimore and CO of a troop ship.

Wow - the Astoria was hammered pretty badly & your dad was lucky to survive. I read an account, I think it was on the Astoria, where the gunnery officer, being one of the few Americans present who realized the peril the task force was in, was BEGGING the capt'n to allow him to open fire & in fact, ended up not waiting for the order. Could that have been your dad?

[Diamond]

We used to joke that our parents married the day before and all hell broke loose.

My late father served in the Pacific on a PBY crew and he along with the other crew members won a distinguished flying cross for sinking a Japanese cruiser. I am very proud of him.

Cordially,

[Ax]

On 7 Dec 41, I was growing in my mother's womb. Living proof that life begins at conception. I would not see the light of day for some eight months later. I was eight days old when the Marines landed on Guadalcanal. On 11 Sep 01, I was in my basement on Cape Cod, telling the mover what had to go. My son (cardinal14) called me on my cellphone and said, "dad, get your a$$ in front of the TV!" The moving crew moved everything on to the truck; the TV was the last to go at 1130. From that point on for the next four days when I got back to a TV, I was umbilically connected to my Walkman. See the connection?

[AFreeBird]

...no more than a gleam in my 16 year old daddy's eye...

Ditto's

[skeeter]

San Pedro California is a port city, and it was rumored that Japanese submarines were out there lurking. One night there was actually gunfire from the Fort McArthur gun battery, and it could be seen in the sky overhead. They presumably were firing out to sea.

My mom lived not far away, in Oxnard. Being 6 or 7, she still talks about how awed she and the other kids were by the sailors, who would come into town on liberty.

[Taxman]

Happy Birthday, sweetie.

BTW, I have never met a female Taurus. They anything like us male Taurus types?

Just curious.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

My father worked as a boiler fireman in a sawmill, lumber was a very essential product for defence.

My father and grandfather also worked in lumber mills, in Eastern Oregon, when they weren't cattle ranching or working in the woods as loggers. After 12/7/41 my father went with several of his friends to join the navy. He was turned down for bad teeth. The Army wasn't so picky. I have letters he wrote to his family from when he we was sworn in at The Presidio, Monterey, CA in April 1942, to when he was released from the army hospital in Washington state in April 1946. After a tour with the MP's in Oakland, he went to Australia in '43 as a replacement for the 32nd Infantry Division, which had already seen a lot of combat in New Guinea. He went along when the division returned to N.G. He saw some combat there and also worked at his old jobs as a logger and sawyer - this time for the Army. He was injured when a jeep he was riding in crashed when it was strafed by a Jap airplane. (sorry, that's how it was reported.)

In November 1944 (still a private!) he went to help Gen MacArthur take back the Philippines. His company was all but wiped out after being cut off from the main force on Leyte Island. He was listed MIA on Christmas, 1944. He was found and hospitalized 1/3/45. He never fully recovered from the ordeal and died in 1958. He did have enough energy to meet my mother and produce a son, born in 1952.

Sorry to ramble on, but most people don't undestand what I'm talking about when I tell this story, and its nice to have an interested (possibly) audience. So thanks for reading this far.

Homer

[tdadams]

Well, at age 4, my father hadn't been given the birds and the bees talk yet. One half of me was an 8 month old ovum in southern Germany eagerly waiting to become a zygote 30 years later.

[Burn24]

I wasn't born till after the war, but my father was also on the Ploesti raids. He was a tail gunner in the Liberator and Flying Fortress, stationed in Norfolk, England. Do you know where your uncle was stationed?

[Destructor]

I wasn't even a twinkle in my mother's eye yet.