Pearl Harbor and 9/11 ... have we forgotten?

Reposted from the Washington Examiner, December 7, 2010. Seventy years have now passed since that fateful day in 1941....

Today is December 7th ... Pearl Harbor Day.

December 7, 1941 ... 69 years ago America suffered the worst attack ever on our soil at the hands of the Japanese who conducted a sneak attack on our Naval base in Hawaii. It was, in the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, "a date which will live in infamy."

Or so we thought.

Sixty years later, on September 11, 2001, America came under an even larger attack on our soil and it wasn't on an island in the South Pacific. It was right here on the mainland.

America was attacked in New York City and Pennsylvania and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. More people died that day than in 1941. The big difference was that they were civilians.

Have Americans forgotten Pearl Harbor? Most who are alive to remember are now in their 70s, 80s, and 90s. Many of the survivors have passed away ... the rest are increasingly in frail health.

How on God's green earth do we expect people to remember Pearl Harbor, an event that happened 69 years ago, when many have already forgotten the terror from 9/11 that occurred just a short nine years ago? Have Americans lost their resolve? Their will? Their courage? Their honor? Their willingness to stand up for the home front?

Have we forgotten how to pull together in the face of adversity and in the face of the rest of the world? Have we allowed the worldview, politically correct elitists to so tie our hands so that we aren't even willing to stand up anymore for what we believe in?

Roy Martin, former President of the Navy League's Richmond chapter, wrote an historical background to the Pearl Harbor attack in his article, "Pearl Harbor Remembered: Attack pulled the U.S. Into WW II," published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on 12/6/06, and commented:

"Sadly, too many Americans today don't recognize, much less remember, what happened, nor how it changed our lives, our country, and the world forever."

I believe that statement could also be applied to 9/11.

Eliza Manningham-Buller, former head of the British internal security agency M15, addressed terrorism in a speech in 2006 where she stressed the continued worldwide terrorist threat, and warned that it began well before 9/11/01:

"We now know that the first al-Qaida-related plot against the U.K. was the one we discovered and disrupted in November 2000 in Birmingham. A British citizen is currently serving a long prison sentence for plotting to detonate a large bomb...."

She said M15 knew of 200 terrorist networks consisting of over 1,600 identified individuals who were actively engaged in terrorism throughout the world and added:

"In the years after 9/11, with atrocities taking place in Madrid, Casablanca, Bali, Istanbul, and elsewhere, terrorists plotted to mount a string of attacks in the U.K., but were disrupted. This run of domestic success was interrupted tragically in London in July 2005. Since then, the combined efforts of [British intelligence agencies] have thwarted a further five major conspiracies in the U.K., saving many hundreds (possibly even thousands) of lives...."

But in the U.S. we hear the cynics and doubters who beat the constant negative drum against surveillance of suspected terrorists, against our military, and against America, yet terrorist attacks take place around the world and attempts at destruction continue on American soil.

My parents were part of that World War II greatest generation that stepped forward to defend the homeland in 1941, ordinary Americans who went to war. Many did not return. My mother's brother was killed in France while serving with the U.S. Army. My Navy father was on the USS Wisconsin in the South Pacific. Americans who remained at home did their part with victory gardens, rationing, and rallying the patriotic spirit of the country. Americans as a whole sacrificed for the common good.

The Greatest Generation is now aging ... grandparents who were young men and women during the years of 1941-45 and who are now passing away at the rate of over 1,000 per day. They worked as a team ... they helped preserve freedom for the world.

Pearl Harbor and 9/11 ... have we forgotten?

Pearl Harbor attacked 68 years ago today ... may we never forget

Encore post from December 7, 2008....

On a Sunday 68 years ago America was viciously attacked in a way that would not occur again until 9/11/01. It is remembered as Pearl Harbor Day ... and I thought this would be a good opportunity to ask my parents what they remembered about that day. Part of the "Greatest Generation," they were both teenagers when Japan attacked U.S. forces in Hawaii.

Mom wrote ...

Would you believe that I have tried and tried but I absolutely cannot remember anything about Pearl Harbor Day! I KNOW it was on Sunday morning and that someone came and told us, but I can remember nothing else.

I was 13 years and 4 months when this happened and since we did not have a radio, did not take a newspaper and THERE WAS NO TV, I think it may not have sunk in at that time. I have tried to remember it being talked about at school the next day but I remember NOTHING about it and cannot remember my school friends talking about it.

I remember the war vividly but that may be because it went on so long. Both J.L. and Clarence were drafted (J.L. in 1942 and Clarence in 1943) and I was 17 when it finally ended. All of the memories I have of the war are from the time I finished school (Thomas Dale High School in Chester, Class of 1944) on D-Day and went to work at Bellwood - until it ended in 1945. Before we finished school, it was sort of routine for us.

After I went to work and my girlfriends and I could go to movies, we saw newsreels about the war, the war bond drive, etc. and it became more real. Also, Clarence was inducted in April of 1943 and sent to Europe in September of that year. J.L. was always in Texas (never in battle) so until Clarence went in, it did not seem as real.

My mom's older brother, Clarence, was killed in Europe just weeks before the war ended. My grandparents lived on a farm and Mom has relayed how my grandmother was at the well when she saw my grandfather driving up the driveway in the middle of a work day ... and she knew something had happened to Clarence. Mom said my grandmother never quite got over his death.
My step-dad wrote ...

December 7, 1941! The day is as vivid in my mind today as if it had been etched. I had just turned 15 in August. It was a late lovely Sunday afternoon with Mom, Pop, Sis and I heading home to Richmond down US #1 from the farm in Caroline County.

Mom had needed milk or such for the usual Sunday night dry cereal supper, and decided to stop at "Punk" Allen's general store at Gum Tree on US-1, probably for a quart of milk.

We went inside and found Punk huddled over his radio, intently listening to every word. We had no electricity on the farm, so we had no radio. Battery radios weren't here yet. Punk looked at us and told us the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor naval base, and an invasion of the west coast seemed imminent. We were stunned! Mom got what she needed and we headed home to listen to our own radios.

Pop, a WW I infantry draftee, had boarded a troop ship for France on November 11, 1918, only to be turned around and returned because the armistice had been signed. Years later he told me he had been lucky to be saved, but he doubted I would have such luck.

But he was wrong, because in August 1945, two atom bombs were dropped on Japan which prevented me from being part of the deadliest operation the U.S. had ever planned, theinvasion of Japan. I, along with hundreds of thousands of others, was also spared, just like Pop.

My step-dad was a member of the Virginia Tech Cadet Corps (Class of 1947). His schooling was interrupted and he was shipped out on the U.S.S. Denver but they were turned back because the Japanese were surrendering.

These remembrances show the contrasts of two people from different backgrounds at a time when the nation was coming out of the Great Depression and going into World War II.

Mom's family worked a farm, her father worked at Dupont, and she was the youngest of 10 children. They had moved from the mountains of Grayson County in Southwest Virginia to make a better life for their family.

My step-dad's family lived in Richmond, had a weekend family farm in Caroline County, and had only two children. His father was a founder of WRVA radio station in Richmond so the family was part of a higher income class of Richmond families.

That day 68 years ago is still remembered as Pearl Harbor Day ... and those who can remember are becoming fewer every day. My folks are 82 and 83 years old ... their memories are part of the history of America.

12/7/41 and 9/11/01 ... days we should never forget.

67 years ago ... a day that will live in infamy from two who lived through it

On a Sunday 67 years ago America was viciously attacked in a way that would not occur again until 9/11/01. It is remembered as Pearl Harbor Day ... and I thought this would be a good opportunity to ask my parents what they remembered about that day. Part of the "Greatest Generation," they were both teenagers when Japan attacked U.S. forces in Hawaii.

Mom wrote ...

Would you believe that I have tried and tried but I absolutely cannot remember anything about Pearl Harbor Day! I KNOW it was on Sunday morning and that someone came and told us, but I can remember nothing else.

I was 13 years and 4 months when this happened and since we did not have a radio, did not take a newspaper and THERE WAS NO TV, I think it may not have sunk in at that time. I have tried to remember it being talked about at school the next day but I remember NOTHING about it and cannot remember my school friends talking about it.

I remember the war vividly but that may be because it went on so long. Both J.L. and Clarence were drafted (J.L. in 1942 and Clarence in 1943) and I was 17 when it finally ended. All of the memories I have of the war are from the time I finished school (Thomas Dale High School in Chester, Class of 1944) on D-Day and went to work at Bellwood - until it ended in 1945. Before we finished school, it was sort of routine for us.

After I went to work and my girlfriends and I could go to movies, we saw newsreels about the war, the war bond drive, etc. and it became more real. Also, Clarence was inducted in April of 1943 and sent to Europe in September of that year. J.L. was always in Texas (never in battle) so until Clarence went in, it did not seem as real.

My mom's older brother, Clarence, was killed in Europe just weeks before the war ended. My grandparents lived on a farm and Mom has relayed how my grandmother was at the well when she saw my grandfather driving up the driveway in the middle of a work day ... and she knew something had happened to Clarence. Mom said my grandmother never quite got over his death.

My step-dad wrote ...

December 7, 1941! The day is as vivid in my mind today as if it had been etched. I had just turned 15 in August. It was a late lovely Sunday afternoon with Mom, Pop, Sis and I heading home to Richmond down US #1 from the farm in Caroline County.

Mom had needed milk or such for the usual Sunday night dry cereal supper, and decided to stop at "Punk" Allen's general store at Gum Tree on US-1, probably for a quart of milk.

We went inside and found Punk huddled over his radio, intently listening to every word. We had no electricity on the farm, so we had no radio. Battery radios weren't here yet. Punk looked at us and told us the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor naval base, and an invasion of the west coast seemed imminent. We were stunned! Mom got what she needed and we headed home to listen to our own radios.

Pop, a WW I infantry draftee, had boarded a troop ship for France on November 11, 1918, only to be turned around and returned because the armistice had been signed. Years later he told me he had been lucky to be saved, but he doubted I would have such luck.

But he was wrong, because in August 1945, two atom bombs were dropped on Japan which prevented me from being part of the deadliest operation the U.S. had ever planned, theinvasion of Japan. I, along with hundreds of thousands of others, was also spared, just like Pop.

My step-dad was a cadet at Virginia Tech (Class of 1947). His schooling was interrupted and he was shipped out on the U.S.S. Denver but they were turned back because the Japanese were surrendering.

These remembrances show the contrasts of two people from different backgrounds at a time when the nation was coming out of the Great Depression and going into World War II.

Mom's family worked a farm, her father worked at Dupont, and she was the youngest of 10 children. They had moved from the mountains of Grayson County in Southwest Virginia to make a better life for their family.

My step-dad's family lived in Richmond, had a weekend family farm in Caroline County, and had only two children. His father was a founder of WRVA radio station in Richmond so the family was part of a higher income class of Richmond families.

That day 67 years ago is still remembered as Pearl Harbor Day ... and those who can remember are becoming fewer every day. My folks are 81 and 82 years old ... their memories are part of the history of America.

12/7/41 and 9/11/01 ... days we should never forget.