Pearl Harbor thread

Didn't want to add this to the JFK/Pearl thread, but 65 years ago at this time, the first Japanese planes were flying across Pearl Harbor.

Now there are 500 survivors huddled together at the site for perhaps the last time in their lives.

Thank you all for your service and may we never face anything like that ever again.

 

well said.

 

Factoid For The Day (Too Much History Channel Again Division):
The US War Game Plan for the Pacific at the time was called War Plan Orange.
War Plan Red was designed to fight...the British Empire.

 

Well, I'm glad we didn't fight the British in WWII. You know what they say. You might have beaten them twice, but beating a team a third time is tough.

 

Up the Republic!

 

The Globe had a Pearl Harbor obit today. One of the two pilots who partied all night on Dec. 6, then got up in the air and shot down two Japanese planes while clad in their tuxedo pants died earlier this week. Must've been a pretty studly guy to be a flying ace while hungover.

 

The AP national digest didn't even have a budget line for the gathering of the survivors in Hawaii. But it did prominently feature a poll on text messaging habits. Disgraceful.

 

OmG dId U C wUt HpPnD N PeRl HrBr?

Score one for the creeping kudzu of ASAP

 

I've visited the Arizona Memorial.

The oil from the Arizona continues to bubble up, from below . . .

 

Funny you mention that. There's a story in today's C-J that concludes with the survivor mentioning the same thing. The vet is an 85-year-old man who was a recently enlisted Marine on the day of the attack.

"Oil seeps … from the water, up to the top," he said. "And it's almost like tear drops coming up there begging for help."

Here's the full story: http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061207/NEWS01/612070400

If your paper or station has a story about a local vet, please put it on here. We need these stories. There's too few left to tell.

 

When was the second time?

From what I understand, many dying Arizona vets choose to be interred on the wreck with their comrades. Amazing story.

 

The War of 1812.