A “date which will live in infamy!”

[WoVeU]

December 7, 2011

It has been 70 years since Pearl Harbor, a life time for some. I just want to thank all of the men of the Greatest Generation. Thank you to the 291,557 men who left their home and everything they knew to defend everything they loved. Thank you for your ultimate sacrifice, for laying down your life, so that others might live, so that my life might be better. I hope I never know how it feels to leave this world and not get to hold the hand of my wife, or my kids, or my mother and father, or my brother or sister, or any of my family, or life long friends. I hope I never lie in my bed at night and wonder if my son or nephew will return home from Hell on Earth. So I do all I know to do, live thankfully, and say thanks, and hope that as I think the words in my head and type them out into existence, at a place where friends just come to talk , I hope the words reach those warriors who never made it home. Thank you, for the home you made for me, for the sacrifice you made for me, a stranger, yet a friend. A good friend of mine told me, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

I also thank those brave men and women who left home and made it back. I don't believe death is a fundamental requirement to be a hero, just a man or woman who has hopes and fears like any other, and stands in the face of fear, so that others might live, so that other may hope still. I thank all of you, all 16 million who raised their right hand, who took an oath and then took the fight to the enemy. Who brought back a new day, an even greater hope, and that old friend to all who ever held her...freedom.


A friend sent me this link on Pearl Harbor with quotes from those who were there on that date which will live in infamy. I put it here, in a place I often resort, so that I might click on it once in a while. So I might just read an account or two serve as a reminder of how much of my life has sat on the receiving side and how little it has stood on, or been asked to stand on, the giving!
http://usoonpatrol.org/archives/2011/12/06/infamy-70-years-later-a-genera

[Spence]

I asked my kids (between 5 and 13) if anyone at school told them what happened this day in history. They looked at me with that blank stare.

[WoVeU]

My youngest said it was brought up...in History, he is Junior. The oldest hadn't a clue...but thought that was OK...as he doesn't have history class, he is a Senior. The oldest often gets his news a day late (and at least a dollar short) from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report! (The Daily Show I actually like.)

[Spence]

I don't think anyone should have to be in history class for this subject to be brought up on December 7.

[donovan]

I don't think anyone should have to be in history class for this subject to be brought up on December 7.

Absolutely they should not. The radical acceptance of facts are 1. In my life time Japan and Germany, Russia, a lot of Southeast Asia, North Korea and all of their allies and geographical possession have been my enemy and tried to kill me and my family at one time or another. But we want to forget all of this so we can go to K Mart and buy a shirt for $4.98.

Do I think Japan would rearm and try again, I do. But yet we are still spending our defense money to defend them. From whom, us? The only thing they and the Communists close by them have learned, is that winning the economic war is easier because unprincipled, greedy Americans will sell their soul for cheap X Boxes.

[Spence]

I don't think anyone should have to be in history class for this subject to be brought up on December 7.

Absolutely they should not. The radical acceptance of facts are 1. In my life time Japan and Germany, Russia, a lot of Southeast Asia, North Korea and all of their allies and geographical possession have been my enemy and tried to kill me and my family at one time or another. But we want to forget all of this so we can go to K Mart and buy a shirt for $4.98.

Do I think Japan would rearm and try again, I do. But yet we are still spending our defense money to defend them. From whom, us? The only thing they and the Communists close by them have learned, is that winning the economic war is easier because unprincipled, greedy Americans will sell their soul for cheap X Boxes.

That is very true. Not just our former enemies, but China's #1 goal is to do to us what we did to Russia. They are just not doing it with an arms race. They have said they would take us over without firing a shot and they are well on their way to doing just that.