Pearl Harbor 2008

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

67 years ago. sadly, not a lot of survivors are able to make any of the remembrance events these days.

A constant 'thank you' to the "Greatest Generation".

[Steve Schlumpf]

Well said! Thank you!

[Don Bergren]

Yes, we need to always give thanks to that great generation. My dad was there on Dec. 7th 1941. Today, as we do every Dec. 7th, we thanked him for his service and wished him a happy Pearl Harbor Day.

He says it's still as fresh in his mind now as it was then. He's always felt that it is important for him to remember it all. The sounds and images of that day and the days that followed never leave him.

Thanks Dad!

[Jim Becker]

Yes, an important date in history for the US.

Oh, it's also the 'rent's anniversary (different year, however) so I guess we better call them!

[Steven DeMars]

Yes, an important date in history for the US.

Oh, it's also the 'rent's anniversary (different year, however) so I guess we better call them!

RENT'S?

You got me on that one . . . .

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Steven.....parents......

[Leigh Costello]

My Dad enlisted the week after Pearl Harbor in the USN. He had a box he never let us look in while he was alive. He passed away 20+ years ago. I opened the box with my brother and sisters shortly after he died.

It had a piece of a Japanese flag with a stain on it (blood maybe) and a Purple Heart, other medals he had earned, and a photograph of a girl that had promised to marry him-which she didn't do.

Every year we talk about how he must have received these items and what it cost him to keep them. I believe many sailors and soldiers and airmen kept their war experiences private. We surmised that the scar on his left shoulder had been gotten at war, but he always said he was in the wrong place at the right time. Hence, the Purple Heart? We may never know, but we are thankful.

So, to all of the Pearl Harbor survivors and their families, the Greatest Generation and their survivors, thank you.

Thank you.

[Kevin Arceneaux]

Leigh - IIRC, you can ask the Navy for a copy of the commendation that goes with the medal. I think it would be great to get it and have it and the medal framed.

I got to watch the ceremony last year at Pearl, they shut down all construction projects that day. While the weather was really crummy, it was still very cool.

[jeremy levine]

Thanks to all who served.

[Keith Outten]

I need to also add my thanks to all of our WWII Veterans, in particular my Dad who was a Veteran of WWII and Korea, he passed away a couple of months ago.

Please join me in my request to the Director of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC to have the Enola Gay placed on display in the Museum. There is no shame in sharing an icon that helped to end a horrible war and saved an unknown number of American lives. We should never forget our History and particularly the sacrifices that have been made for us to all live free.
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[Chuck Durst]

My uncle was there in Dec 7 1941, and every year at the family reunion he would sit down with me and tell me what he seen that day. He was on a ship and seen some airplanes coming across the water at a low level and thought those guys are in trouble.At that time he seen the planes drop something in the water. As the planes passed over his head he thought, they are Jap planes. Torpedos passed his ship and hit another ship,and all hell broke loose , there is a lot more to the story about that day, but its too long to keep going. This is just a Thank you to all who made us the Free country we are today.

[Brent Ring]

+1 in the thanks department here too!

[Mark Rios]

About three years ago I did some work for an elderly man and his wife on their house. One day I noticed that Pearl Harbor Survivor license plate on their car. I asked him about it and he was reluctant at first but he told me a little about that day. I let it go after that, seeing that he wasn't too comfortable talking about it.

I continued doing work around their house once in a while and we became friends. After about a year and a half or so it was Memorial Day and I thanked him for his service (as I had done numerous times before) and I ask him about other experiences that he had had while in the Air Force. That day he told me the story of his whole experience at Pearl Harbor and on subsequent days here and there I learned about his service in other battles in europe that he fought in. Really fascinating stuff.

One of the series of stories he told were of his time as a bottom gunner in the bombing runs over different parts of europe. He is credited with one certified kill of a plane on one of those missions.

Charlie is 83 years old this year. He and his wife have recently moved into an Independent Living facility. They are renting out their house and I do the maintenance and repairs for the tenants. We watch football together a couple of times a month. Charlie is a great guy. I am a better person knowing him.

Thanks again to all the vets out there in the Creek for your service on this day as we remember those who didn't get to live to see December 8, 1941.

[Clifford Mescher]

About three years ago I did some work for an elderly man and his wife on their house. One day I noticed that Pearl Harbor Survivor license plate on their car. I asked him about it and he was reluctant at first but he told me a little about that day. I let it go after that, seeing that he wasn't too comfortable talking about it.

I continued doing work around their house once in a while and we became friends. After about a year and a half or so it was Memorial Day and I thanked him for his service (as I had done numerous times before) and I ask him about other experiences that he had had while in the Air Force. That day he told me the story of his whole experience at Pearl Harbor and on subsequent days here and there I learned about his service in other battles in europe that he fought in. Really fascinating stuff.

One of the series of stories he told were of his time as a bottom gunner in the bombing runs over different parts of europe. He is credited with one certified kill of a plane on one of those missions.

Charlie is 83 years old this year. He and his wife have recently moved into an Independent Living facility. They are renting out their house and I do the maintenance and repairs for the tenants. We watch football together a couple of times a month. Charlie is a great guy. I am a better person knowing him.

Thanks again to all the vets out there in the Creek for your service on this day as we remember those who didn't get to live to see December 8, 1941.
That is a good story. Charlie is a lucky man. Clifford

[Justin Leiwig]

I need to also add my thanks to all of our WWII Veterans, in particular my Dad who was a Veteran of WWII and Korea, he passed away a couple of months ago.

Please join me in my request to the Director of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC to have the Enola Gay placed on display in the Museum. There is no shame in sharing an icon that helped to end a horrible war and saved an unknown number of American lives. We should never forget our History and particularly the sacrifices that have been made for us to all live free.
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Ummm....it is already on display Keith. Here is a picture of it in the Boeing wing of the museum featuring WWII aircraft.
http://collections.nasm.si.edu/media/full/A19500100000cp07.jpg
You can also see BOCKSCAR here at WPAFB National Museum of Aviation. For those that don't know this is the plane that dropped the bomb "FatMan" on Nagasaki. There are also replicas of "FatMan" and "LittleBoy" here as well. There is a third plane that flew weather reconnaisance for both missions called "Great Artiste", but I am not familiar with what happened to that one.

[Keith Outten]

Thanks Justin for the update. The last time I had read about the Enola Gay it was being stored in pieces. There had been some problems arizing from a group of people who had protested the plans to display the Enola Gay publicly and the museum director pulled the plas to do so.

I haven't been to DC in many years, it looks like I will have to plan a trip to see both of the planes and all the new stuff they have added since I visited last.
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[Justin Leiwig]

Thanks Justin for the update. The last time I had read about the Enola Gay it was being stored in pieces. There had been some problems arizing from a group of people who had protested the plans to display the Enola Gay publicly and the museum director pulled the plas to do so.

I haven't been to DC in many years, it looks like I will have to plan a trip to see both of the planes and all the new stuff they have added since I visited last.
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No problem. I believe it was put back after the last round of renovations/exspansions. President Bush just formally rededicated it at the beginning of the month I believe.

You really should check out Dayton and surrounding area if your an aviation/military buff. We have all the wright brothers stuff, and the AF museum has grown in the past 5 years to house a whole bunch of stuff and is more formally laid out than it used to be in the past. Plus the IMAX there is a hoot as long as you don't get motion sickness!

I would recommend coming when they have the big RC warbird fly in. Some pretty neat giant scale RC warbirds out their flying around. Another hobby that I would love to pursue if I had time and money to burn. :D