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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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Posted on 12/06/2002 11:03:54 PM PST by SAMWolf
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are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| 'Unless we fail in our objective -- this thread is designed to stir your emotions and memories and to bring out the patriotism in you.' -- SAMWolf, US Army Veteran
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. We hope to provide an ongoing source of information about issues and problems that are specific to Veterans and resources that are available to Veterans and their families. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support.
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"This is no drill!"
Military and Naval aircraft at Oahu's airfields were second only to battleships among the Japanese target priorities, though the reason was different. While Pearl Harbor's battleships represented American strategic "reach", and had to be eliminated to safeguard Japan's offensive into Southeast Asia and the East Indies, Oahu's aircraft had to be taken out for a more immediate reason: to protect the Pearl Harbor attack force. U.S. fighter planes, if they could get into the air in any numbers, would be a serious threat to Japanese bombers. U.S. Army bombers and Navy patrol planes potentially imperiled the Striking Force's invaluable aircraft carriers.
 Less than one hour after the attack on Pearl Harbor, USAAF 2nd Lt.’s Ken Taylor and George Welch make an aggressive strike back against the enemy. Taylor, flying his P-40 Tomahawk, is seen bringing down his second enemy aircraft, an Aichi D-31A dive-bomber, on the morning of December 7, 1941. Welch is in close as they chase Japanese planes heading for the open sea. In the background, palls of smoke rise from Hangar 6 housing the naval float-planes, the battleship Nevada, beached off Hospital Point, and the up-turned battleship Oklahoma. The Japanese first attack wave therefore assigned many fighters and bombers to airbase supression, the fighters to set planes afire with machine gun and cannon fire and the bombers to wreck them with high explosives. The second attack wave also had airfield strikes among its tasks. Wheeler Army Airfield, in central Oahu, was Hawaii's main fighter base. It was heavily attacked. Of some 140 planes on the ground there, mainly P-40 and P-36 pursuits, nearly two-thirds were destroyed or put out of action. A similar proportion of the B-17, B-18 and A-20 bombers at Hickam Army Airfield, adjacent to the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, was also wrecked or damaged enough to keep them grounded. Many men were killed at Hickam when the Japanese bombed their barracks. Smaller Bellows Field in eastern Oahu was also hit, destroying several P-40s, including two whose pilots courageously attempted to take off in the teeth of the enemy onslaught.  U.S. Navy and Marine Corps air stations on Pearl Harbor's Ford Island, at Ewa to the west of Pearl and at Kanoehe Bay near Bellows Field, also received concentrated attention from the raiders. Ewa's aircraft complement, mainly carrier-type bombers and fighters, was reduced from nearly fifty operational planes to less than twenty. Ford Island and Kanoehe, home to several squadrons of long-range PBY patrol seaplanes, were massively attacked, with Ford Island losing about half its planes and Kaneohe all but a few. These very successful Japanese strikes thus prevented any significant aerial opposition, though the few Army fighters that got airborne gave a good account of themselves. Later on December Seventh, surviving bombers and patrol planes were sent out to search for the Japanese carriers. They found nothing and confronted considerable "friendly" anti-aircraft gunfire when they returned to their bases. Ford Island Naval Air Station, in the middle of Pearl Harbor, was headquarters of Patrol Wing Two, and an important target for the Japanese first wave raiders. Reportedly, the initial bomb of the whole attack burst there, prompting the message that electrified the World: "Air Raid, Pearl Harbor--this is no drill.". Several PBY patrol seaplanes and other aircraft were destroyed on Ford Island, and one big hangar was gutted. In all, 33 planes were put out of commission there. Several planes from the aircraft carrier Enterprise, which was approaching Hawaii after a mission to Wake Island, arrived in the midst of the attack. A few were shot down by the Japanese and more by understandably jittery American anti-aircraft gunners. However, several of these planes, and others from Ford Island's own complement, were airborne again within a few hours, sent out to search for the enemy. Some, at the end of a very long day, were shot down by their fellow-countrymen as they returned from these unfruitful searches.
Kanoehe Bay, on the east coast of Oahu, was the site of a major Navy patrol seaplane base. A new facility, with some of its buildings still under construction, this Naval Air Station was home to three Patrol Squadrons. It had 33 PBYs on the ground or floating just offshore when the Japanese arrived. Of those planes, all but six were destroyed, and the survivors were damaged. Only the three Kaneohe Bay PBYs then out on patrol were fit for service at the end of the raid.
 A tribute to the Americans who got airborne on the "date which will live in infamy". A thrilling image of a lone P-40B and Japanese Val Despite the effective Japanese counter-air effort, a few Army P-40 and P-36 pursuit ships got airborne, including some from the small, and untargeted, airfield at Haleiwa on Oahu's north coast. These shot down perhaps as many as eleven enemy planes of the second attack wave, losing four of their number in return, two while taking off and one to American anti-aircraft fire while returning to base. In the midst of the raid, twelve unarmed B-17C and B-17E four-engine bombers arrived over Oahu after a long flight from California. Unaware of the events then unfolding at their destination, several of these were attacked. Though unable to fire back, only two B-17s were destroyed, both after landing, an early indication of the toughness of the "Flying Fortress" in combat. Two Navy SBDs flying into Oahu from the carrier Enterprise, were also downed by enemy action during the raid. One of these may have been the victim of a mid-air collision with its opponent near Ewa Field.
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I wasn't! That's why I was shocked by the shell! LOL
Thank you, SAMWolf, for the incredible thread you give us to day...I'm really grateful.
Thank you, aomagrat, for the pics at reply #19.
God blesses America.
http://www.library.arizona.edu/.../az_bell.au
Several years after the war Fuchida became acquainted with some Christian missionaries in Japan, and was converted to Christianity. Back in 1967 when I was only 10 years old he spoke at the Southern Baptist church that my family was attending in Garden Grove, California. He gave testimony as to how Christ had changed his life.
I remeber him as a modest and humble man, sincere in his beliefs. He wrote my mother a short note in her Bible, she still has it. Fuchida died on May 30, 1976 (read his obituary). But his life after the war, and his testimony of God's work in his heart is still fresh in my mind. I think about it every time that I think I've crossed that line of no return with God, or feel that someone has crossed it with me. I look at Fuchida, and see what kind of man he was during the war, a man that could lead others to inflict such pain, death, and destruction on others, and compare it to the kind of man he was after, and realize that if God can forgive him for being the merchant of thousands of deaths, and make him a tool for his work, he can do it in me or anyone else and, if God can forgive such a grievous act, who am I to hold a grudge.
I am not saying all of this to detract from the remebrance of the attack, it's everlasting effect on our country, or the sacrifices of our valiant countrymen who gave the "last full measure of devotion" on that day, but as testimony that God has a way of bringing victory from defeat, and accomplishing his will his way, using people that we would never expect to be his instruments.
The events of December 7, 1941 will live forever in the hearts and minds of true Americans, it was perceived as a low mark in our history, but it provided the impetus to that great American spirit that will not die, and was perhaps one of the greatest single events that has made this country the greatest the world has ever seen. Once again, victory has risen from defeat. Today we are ngaged in a similar struggle after a similar attack, who says lightning doesn't strike twice.
God bless our veterans.
One of the most moving experiences of my life was visiting the Pearl Harbor Memorial. Let us always remember & honor their sacrifice & bravery!
Well said there. Sucker punching civilians is no war or battle. It is ravaging of the worst sort, not worthy of a decent Hun.
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