All 5 of my great uncles fought and risked their lives on that day to save their fellow marines....We must never forget the horrors that they and so many others had faced on that horrific day.

Wow...

V.

Wooow. That is inspiring.
Stunning stuff!

Pearl Harbor, where not only heroes were made, but a country!

Must have been awesome to meet a true hero like him

And in response, the Dolittle Raid was launched. medium bombers off a carrier? land based army units taking off from a Carrier? who would have thought it?

I visited the memorial twice while I was in the Navy. My friend and I went to the memorial in our dress blues. As we started to leave the boat we saluted the flag flying from the flagpole attached to the Arizona's mast. The we saluted and requested permission to come aboard of those sleeping there. An officer who was there also visiting the memorial saw us do this and saluted with us. When we got closer to the officer we saw he was a Rear Admiral. After we had exchanged salutes he complimented us for our honoring the dead the way we did.

And what Admiral Nimitz said when the carrier he was on returned to Pearl and he saw the devastation?

"When this war is over the only place the Japanese language will be spoken in is Hell."



"I fear we have awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a great resolve."
- Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Imperial Japanese Navy. after finding out that the attack had missed the aircraft carriers.

Admiral Halsey actually.

I thought it was Nimitz.

I had a grandfather serving on the USS Whitney at the time. A destroyer tender.

it look so usual until you realize this happened here

I was stationed in K-Bay in the mid 90's. I worked in hanger #3, and even to this day, there is still evidence of machine gun impacts from the buildings being strafed if you know where to look.

There were several spots on the flight deck where impact craters were patched. Walked past them several times a day.

The corner of Hanger 1 was where Finn took his stand.

Yes

http://puu.sh/sHYwc/772d2306e2.jpg

Upper right, and lower left - two patches can be seen from the impact craters. The lower left I believe is the one you're speaking of.

The one in front of the SeaCobra in thre middle, yes, thats exactly where I stood, Finn was actually slightly to the south of that crater and to the left. You could see the bullet craters in the concrete. And that small outlaying building at the lower left bottom showed battle scars from the strafing as well.

It looks like a prosaic pothole, but it's a reminder of hellish history. CPO Finn and his brethren helped to keep the world free.

And the Mount Diablo beacon will shine at sunset tonight...

Whoa.

Never been to Pearl Harbor; someday, I would like to see the Arizona. It's one thing to read about history. Another thing entirely to stand at a site (as you evidently did) and reflect. Pointe du Hoc at Normandy is another place I'd like to see.

My family hadn't come to the U.S. at that time. I had one paternal uncle who was (allegedly) in the 8th Army, though I have yet to track down full details. A paternal grand uncle, my grandfather's older brother, was the GOC of the 1st Division, Irish Army as of 1941, and had the Germans invaded Ireland (they had a plan to do so, not well advanced), it would have been Michael Joe Costello who would have fought them. I was quite amused to see that he's a playable character in the Hearts of Iron IV game. Other members of my father's family have been in the Irish Army since.

Normandy and the immediate area is #1 on my bucket list. I was supposed todo a "battlefield tour" in 2000, but a friend bought a new gaming computer 4 months before we were to go and that seriously screwed up the plans.

I want to walk the fields were my grandfather fought in WW1, see where history was made in both wars. But that takes money I likely will never have again.

Seeing the actual locations in Pearl where everything happened was also eye opening. I'm trying to post other photos but some reason isn't uploading on FA. Including Hickham field and the damage still painfully obvious on the buildings.

Ever seen any of the guides Michelin produced in the late teens/early twenties of the WWI battlefields? I own one of them (Soissons, I think it is).

I long to go battlefield stomping again. My family fought in the middle east in both wars. I doubt i'll ever get to see Bersheeba or El Alemain.

Blenheim is still the big one i want to get to - and if possible Salamana, Tallyvera, Aspern-Essling and Waterloo...

But like you said - it all takes money i'll probably never have again...

....you know, for a minute there....when I saw the word, "evidence?"

I actually thought you were going to imply that Pearl Harbor was an inside job.

And before you say anything, think about this day in age....and the fact that we're on the internet.

*Shrugs*

Back in 2002, I heard a real whopper at the UW campus. That some professor was telling the students that the US ATTACKED itself at Pearl Harbor, using its own aircraft painted up in Japanese markings to pin blame on Japan.

Another student even told me that the Japanese were themselves attacked at Pearl Harbor, not US forces and that Japan really owned the Hawaiian Islands and the US militarily marched in "To steal its oil reserves and mineral content." in 1941!

Then again, yes, conspiracies still are bantered about, like how convienet the two carriers just happened to be out at the time (One was just delivering aircraft to Midway at the time and on its way back.)

Well, technically the USA did attack Japan first... in 1854.

My God, we really are getting to stupid to live.

May victory salve the pain of their dying...

the buildings at that spot still bear the scars of being shot up

An interesting bit of history; I like hearing stuff that keeps me thinking. And I thought about the buildings I'd seen in 1989 that evidenced the 1940 Battle of Britian bombings. Keep posting these things!

I saw the same thing in London, You could tell the 'new' buildings that were post war that were replacements for those bombed, compared to the dirty brick ones that survived the war.

My father was just out of college then, in Montreal. He first tried enlisting in the Royal Canadian Armed Forces, but my grandfather got him out, as he was a US citizen, and got him into the US Navy.

He came out with an ensign's commission in '42 (I am looking at the portrait my grandfather painted from his graduation photo); he had command of an LCT (or LST: I can't quite remember which), before he got transferred the the USS West Virginia, after her resurrection from the attack. He once survived an attack that killed most of the senior officers, and left him third in command of the ship.

He was there in Tokyo Bay when the surrender was signed. After the war, he turned his interest from photography (which, however, he kept as a hobby) to medicine, and got his MD from Tulane.

Alas, the horrors he had seen during the war dogged him for decades. He was also in an emotionally high-risk profession..... he wound up taking his own life when I was 16. 7;=e

I have a 'Yardlong' photo of the entire crew of the West Virginia with the ship in the background in lare 1945. Its possible your dad is in that photo.

My mother's father was in the US Marines during that timeframe. I'll need to talk to my sister, who has his DD214 in order to find some details about his service.