Lest we NEVER forget...December 7, 1941

Thanks Walter! The flag is flying today.

My Dad was a WW2 vet.  The Greatest generation saved America.

So soon we forget a day, that should, live in infamy ! God Bless the Men and Women in the armed services.

I know it isn't much but I have NEVER purchased a foreign car in my 54 years of driving because of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor!

Thank you Walter.  WW2 is the only major American conflict since civil war my family wasn't directly involved in.  That said, Grandpa built Hellcats at Grumman on Long Island.  May we never forget.

Thank You

Wonderful post!!

God Bless America and it's always dedicated military!!

Thank you, Walter. 81 years ago today, to be exact. The wife and I went out to the USS Arizona Memorial last month.

🇺🇸

1255 hrs EST I will be standing at my Uncle's grave, KIA aboard USS Oklahoma. Returned home last year, 12-02 and finally interred with his family 12-04-21. 80 years too late.

Thank you for this reminder.

I don't ever want this date to not result in time of thoughtful reflection on the cost that has been paid for the USA to remain free.

My heartfelt thanks to those that made (and continue to make) my freedom possible.

Andre

It is hard to believe it was 81 years ago. There are a lot of lessons from Pearl Harbor, both good and bad, that I would hope people will have learned.  One of the things reading about it (since I was born several decades after that) is that looking with 20-20 hindsight it shouldn't have been a shock, yet of course it was. The signs looking backward were there, as they always are, but not seen at the then present time by most people.

One of the ironic parts about Pearl Harbor was that its intent was to knock out the battleships, they were the real target (the carriers that by fortunate chance that were not there, would have been destroyed of course, but they were not the primary target; which also kind of negates the conspiracy theory that they left the battleships to be destroyed to force the US into WWII, while protecting the carriers). At the time no one thought the carriers were the prime force, the dreadnoughts were thought to be the main teeth of a Navy, no one realized the impact aircraft would have (Billy Mitchell of course was right, but he was one of the few). 

My dad, who was a WWII veteran (Europe, Tank Destroyer battalion, 3rd Army) never talked much about his experiences and never really said how he felt when he heard Pearl Harbor had been hit, but I can imagine it was a shock and also generated a lot of anger, especially being a kid from the Bronx *lol*.

I have done a lot of reading about the era, and about WWII and how it was fought, and the one thing that stands out to me is that most people don't really realize how brutal it was, even the best movies or books can't really create how hard it was. That kid in the bunk might have been thinking of what he was leaving behind, but I also am pretty sure that while his emotions were running high, wanting to get into the fight, feeling angry and wanting revenge, he also was prob also tossing and turning, like scared of what was to come, too. I just finished reading a really great book about a British tank unit that landed on D day and its experiences fighting until the end of the war, and it was never easy, ever day was a slog, every day was a fight for life in many cases. I can tell you that my dad said that anyone who comes home from war and glorifies it never spent even one moment in combat, let alone fought for any length of time. I think we should respect and give deepest gratitude to those who fought this and any war or action or whatever, but also have the same prayer my dad had for those following him, the hope that there would be no reason to send anyone anywhere to fight again.

In the last 100 years, there have been three "where-were-you-when-you heard?" dates: December 7, 1941, November 22, 1963 and September 11, 2001.

Time has flown, and there are few left who remember first-hand the Pearl Harbor attack.  If you were a 20-year-old sailor at Pearl or a 20-year-old airman at Hickam Field, you'd now be 101 years old. If you were a 10-year-old child who heard the news on the radio, you're now 91.

I'm neither (75), but I do remember family members discussing this at the dinner table  Dont forget

Yes, indeed, thanks much for this reminder.

Agree with that OP that December 7th is starting to become just another day on the calendar. Fortunately, there are many who do know the significance and will never forget.

it is hard to believe that so many walking the streets today don’t give 12/7/41 a second thought.   When I was a kid I thought that was the most horrific thing that could ever happen to this country.  Unfortunately, my opinion changed on 9/11.
But Time has a way of erasing everything.  There was a time when probably most people attacked a significance to other once-meaningful dates on the calendar, like April 19 or May 8.    History just isn’t as important as it used to be.
Let’s face it, History isn’t exactly a revered course of study in our nation’s higher education system.  After all , we”re a country that elected a president who thought Finland was part of Russia and that other countries, like say Greenland, could be bought for a few shekels.  

I listen to this every 07dec:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...b_channel=525wireman

It may not be "pc" today but in early 1942 when it was released nobody would have complained.

Sadly they don't teach history at any level that is worth much. In some ways it is kind of natural December 7th would fade, those who experienced it are now very few, and those of us who were the children of those people are getting older and grayer. I suspect the start of the Civil war was a big shock, and i am sure the end of it was as well. I know that Armistice day, now veterans day, given how bloody WWI was, was quite a solemn day, today it is a time for more sales (and personally, I never quite figured out why veterans day isn't in May and Memorial day in November, given the origins, but that is not really relevant here).

I think the impact of these major shocks is more in what they ended up changing. Pearl Harbor, to a certain extent, ended the notion that the US could stay isolated from world events and the cost of doing so as one of its lessons. The end of the civil war led to big changes in the constitution, with the 13 and 14th amendments. WWI likely spurred the passage of the right for women to vote with the 19th amendment (just my opinion), that women wanted a say in whether their sons were sent to war. 9/11 of course changed this tremendously, like Pearl Harbor it pulled the veil of illusion about safety, and it caused changes, both good and bad, in society (for example, things like the Patriot act and wireless wiretapping to search for threats have in some ways increased safety, in others have had some less than stellar uses or attempts at use).

To me one of the more amazing things was looking at the US in 1941 was just how unprepared we were and then how quickly we mobilized relatively, also showed how long it takes to train an army (it really wasn't until 1943 that US troops were really ready to fight effectively). On the other hand on the production side the speed was staggering, how fast they were able to ramp up war production. We had like 7 carriers at the time of pearl Harbor, by 1943 it was around 15, by end of war 100 (note, not all these were the big boys of the Essex class, 24 of them were built between 1942 and 1945). The US literally went from crawling to flying in a short period of time.

Closed due to politically oriented posts....