Been a lot of years, but

bearandoldman · Post by **bearandoldman** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 12:03 pm

Still remember 70 years ago today, must have been in the afternoon as the attack came around 8:30AM in Hawaii. Can remember the color of the wall and carpet and the big wood console RADIO with the green tuning eye in the living room FDR came on the radio and announce that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor and we were at war. Funny how you can remember some little things that far back but I can remember some back as far as Kindergarten. At that time I did not really know what Pearl Harbor was, but learned a lot in the following years until wars end. The technology that happened in those years was fantastic from propeller planes that flew not too fast to jets and atomic warfare by wars end. Sometime I wonder how long that technology would have taken had we not been at war.I was just a week short of being 9 years old when that attack happened, seems like last week t times.

Baldy · Post by **Baldy** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 2:03 pm

I was born the year it all ended but I grew up hearing about it from the folks who lived through it. God bless our Military.

bigfatdave · Post by **bigfatdave** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 3:12 pm

I was stationed at Pearl Harbor for over four years, and I learned a lot about that day when I was there.
The bombed-out structures are still there, rebuilt and obviously so. There are plaques up everywhere that was built up back then, and I saw the gouge where the USS Nevada was purposefully run aground, the captain knew he wasn't going to make it out of the harbor, so to avoid a complete sinking and blockage of the harbor entrance, he tried to take his ship onto land, a wise choice as the Nevada was salvaged and put into service before war's end:
[quote=wikipedia]Subsequently salvaged and modernized at Puget Sound Navy Yard, Nevada served as a convoy escort in the Atlantic and as a fire-support ship in four amphibious assaults: the Normandy Landings and the invasions of Southern France, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Nevada_%28BB-36%29[/quote]

The final fate of the Nevada is sort of sad and funny, in a strange way.
Bombed at Pearl, got underway with counter-flooding to keep it upright**, salvaged and re-floated the following February, placed in service as a convoy escort, used in four amphibious assaults, two in the Atlantic and two in the Pacific, and then used for occupation duty in Tokyo harbor ... quite a story, and that doesn't even mention service in WW1!

After WW2, however, the strangeness starts. The Nevada was too old to keep in service, and for some reason wasn't "historic" enough to keep as a museum (I disagree, obviously!) ... so it got designated as a target vessel ... for atomic bombs off Bikini Island. After getting nuked twice, it still wasn't sunk ... heavily damaged, painted orange for visibility for the bomber crew, and now radioactive.
Finally, she was used for Naval gunnery practice, and still wouldn't sink! Final sinking was accomplished by aerial torpedoing of the damaged ship, sending her to the sea bottom SW of Pearl Harbor.

**(exactly what it sounds like, you compensate for one big hole by punching another big hole in the other side of the ship)

===

After I got out of the USN, I stayed on Oahu, and a random side benefit of the cheesy job I worked was access to the top of a 33 story building overlooking Pearl - I got to talk to a Japanese film crew that was there doing a documentary, they were getting area shots for a story on a recently-found mini submarine that was sunk and lost during the attack. They were the enemy, but the men carrying out the attack were on orders no matter how sleazy the overall plan they were wound up in. I cannot imagine the courage it would take to bring a mini-sub into an enemy harbor while it was already under attack, but I have to respect the men who did it even though I'm glad they weren't successful.

Post by **Bullseye** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 6:54 pm

My father is very close to Oldman's age and I have heard some of the stories he tells about his memories of the war. I'm a boomer and have no memories of the 2nd world war. I did live in Hawaii for several years in Ewa Beach and the Milliani areas. That was many years ago and I have visited a few times since. All the sugar cane fields that surrounded Pearl Harbor are long since gone and they've planted plenty of houses in those fields. The last time I was there they were completing a draw bridge across to Ford Island for folks to commute to the island instead of the ferry. The Battleship row moorings are still there and they have plenty of mementos of the attack. One thing that really hits home when you go over to the memorial is the fuel oil still seeps upward from the wreckage of the USS Arizona at a rate of a few drips per minute.

R,
Bullseye

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 7:29 pm

My dad will turn 90 next Aug. He is 1 of only 6 that are still alive from his 406th fighting group squadron. He has talked more of lately of what went on back then. He was part of a engineering group that kept the planes in the air. He talks of how some of the pilots were shot down rescued and jumped back in the planes soon as they got back to base. These were the unsung hero's of the war. He also said some were shot down as many as 6 times. The he had one pilot that was a top shot. Shot 2 enemy planes down only using only 50 rounds in air to air combat. Which is amazing anyway you want to look at it. Then there were some who were having mental breakdown too and that were sent home.

I'm too one of the baby boomers so to speak....

ruger22 · Post by **ruger22** » Thu Dec 08, 2011 11:27 am

I heard a quote from Admiral Nimitz's memoirs on the news yesterday. He related how the Japanese made three major mistakes at Pearl Harbor, besides missing all of our aircraft carriers.

!. They hit on a Sunday morning, when 90% of the crewmen were ashore. Had it been a different day, we could have lost 30,000 men.

2. They did not bomb the drydocks, which were sited directly opposite Battleship Row. It was a simpler matter to refloat and repair the damaged ships. Without the drydocks, the ships would have had to be towed to the U.S. mainland for repair, which would have added 2-3 months to our recovery.

3. Pearl Harbor's main fuel depot was five miles from the harbor, and was not attacked. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel oil and aviation gasoline.

As Admiral Yamamoto was quoted saying, "I'm afraid we have awakened a sleeping giant, and filled him with a terrible resolve".