History Dec.7,1941 8am---what were you doing?

lIKE ALL THE REST OF US OLD FARTS, I HAD MY EAR GLUED TO THE RADIO!
As the reports came in one by one, each becoming a steady stream of eagerness to hear more.
Not like todays world, where news from around the world can be seen & heard instantly on your TV or texted on a cell phone.
Hard to believe----70 years ago!!

 

Well,... I didn't even arrive to the party for another 9-1/2 years,... so,... kinda' hard telling.

Yep,... Titanic, Lusitania, Hindenburg,.... Kitty Hawk,.. Missed it all,... glad you old timers were there to witness it.

My folks met after the war,.. But as I remember them telling it, Mom heard about it when she came out of Church that Sunday morning,... Dad was getting ready to take my grandparents for a Sunday ride in the country, when it came in on the radio,...

Dad ended up serving in the Pacific Theater, Landing at Lingayen Gulf, Luzon on D-Day, And his outfit set a record of continuous combat with the Japanese,.. that record has yet to be broken.

Tho we didn't always see eye to eye (especially when I was a teen),.. He was my hero, and my best friend,..

Dec. 7, 1941,... Truly a date that will live in infamy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VqQAf74fsE

 

well not being quite 5yrs. old , i probably was counting the days till santa came.

 

I was just a bullet,in my Daddys pistol....

 

I don't think I was even a twinkle in daddy's eye for another 9 years.

 

My Dad had a saying to answer all the questions I had about where I was when something happened that turned out to be before I was born, "You were over in Egypt riding on a camel."

 

I wasn't around yet, but my Dad was there on Ford Island. His family didn't find out for over a week that he'd survived

 

I was craping in my diaper!

 

I was a monrh and seven days old. dont remember much!!!

 

"Cheeky" avatar.

 

It doesn't matter if you were there or not.... it doesn't matter if you were alive back then or not.....

Always remember.... Never forget!!!

Thank you to all those that do and to all those that served.

And thanks to D.D.Don for this thread.

 

Not even a thought in my grandfathers head.....but, my great uncle was flying a plane....and great grandpa closed his service station to go fix tanks, jeeps, airplanes. I sure miss grandpa Henry....

 

Long before my time, but I have been there and saw all they would let me, many times. Pearl Harbor is the most moving place you can go as an American. Unbelievable to see where it all began. Bullet holes and bomb damage 70 years later. Not to mention the Arizona resting in her spot.

Impossible to imagine the devastation that happened on Dec. 7th 1941.

Woke the GIANT....

 

I was just there this past sept and its a very sobering place. You would think we as human kind would have learn by now but guess not. Here some shots that I took.

 

pic two

 

...

 

Right after it, my Dad joined the Navy, my Mom joined the Army Air Corp, they met in a bar in San Diego, 11 years later I showed up.

 

I was about 5 weeks short of my second birthday, and don't remember much from that time.

..............Jack

 

My late father-in-law was on Ford Island that morning, a young Army private, getting ready to head to his morning duties. During the attack, he and two other men headed for a machine gun that was unmanned. As they were heading for it, a Zero strafed them, killing the other two men and sent a round clear through my f-i-l's right shoulder, paralyzing his shoulder and arm from that point on. Damn near bled out, but he was taken for medical help and survived. His wounds were serious enough to get him a Purple Heart and a medical discharge a few months later.

He died in 1997.

God Bless you, Jim.

You know what else saddens me? If a guy were a 16-year-old recruit at that time, he would be 86 years old now. If a kid lied about his age to enlist in 1945 at age 15, he would be 80 now. That would be the YOUNGEST surviving WWII combatants now. That whole group of brave men will be pretty much gone by the 75th anniversary of Pearl.

 

My Dad was only three months old...

 

That was 7 yrs. before my time. My dad was a machine gun instructor in the Army at that time. I believe he was in Tex.

Lee

 

Most of the people that can remember are gone and those who are still here like my Mother, who is 85, don't even bother with computers. I will say this on behalf of my Parents, Uncles and Aunt (many who have passed on) God bless the Greatest Generation.

 

bunch of old farts around here. my pop was in high school, lied about his age and ended up in Japan. I'd say the war fucked with him for the rest of his life, wish he had just stayed home.

 

My Dad was 9 years old at the time, and I should ask him what he thought about this day in history. Thank you, I have never thought of asking him about Dec. 7th 1941. I will Pop's is 79 now.. Air Force Retired. 20 + years retired

 

On December the 6th ( Saturday night before Pearl Harbor ) my Dad asked my mother to be his wife. The next morning, the world was a war. I would have taken that as a bad sign. BUT ... a month later they were married. My Dad joined the ARMY and went to Europe to fight the war. When the war was finally over, Dad came home and life started over. I was born 3 years after the war ended and my mother and father were married for many years until my mother passed away.

 

This is a very sad but very true fact.

 

Dad used to say he listened to that radio and was afraid a lot - there was no way of knowing if the JP would stop attacking - San Fran was a likely next target - scary for a 12 yr old

 

My father was 7 years old at the time and living in La Jolla, he said you could hear the explosions from the beach there.

 

Born in 1950, but my dad served in the Pacific during WWII

 

Thank you Deuce Daddy for starting this thread. My dad served in the Army Air Corps in China - Burma - india. Never really talked all that much about his experiences but remained extremely patriotic until the day he died.

My father-in-law, a retired Army Colonial, was a young Lt. at the time and was eventually assigned to the Aleutian Islands (Dutch Harbor, Alaska) when the Japs attacked. Hard to believe the hardships they endured. The Military Channel has shown a couple of documentaries on this.

Almost all Americans were forced to make significent sacfifices for the war effort. I often wonder if the same would happed today, would we be willing to do as they did?