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Post subject: Hand Salute to the 2,386...
Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 1:46 pm
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Hand Salute to the 2,386 Sailors, Soldiers and Civilians who died defending our Freedom on this day 72 years ago at Pearl Harbor, HI.

And a special rememberance to the 1,177 fellow sailors entombed in the USS Arizona !

Having come into Pearl several times during my 5 WESTPACs, it was always very moving as the ship's company, all in Class A Whites, came to attention on the flight deck and saluted as we were passing Ford Island and our brothers, eternally on station, some 4 fathoms below!

On such occasions, as I looked around at all our young men, you realize that those guys are us !

The attack on Pearl Harbor is the moment when America lost her innocence (the consensus of many Historians).

It has shaped where we are today !

cheers!

JM
LCDR USN (ret.)

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Last edited by Lightnin MN on Sat Dec 07, 2013 4:17 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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Post subject: Re: Hand Salute to the 2,386...
Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 3:04 pm
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An Honor Bound Salute to them all.

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SMSgt, USAF, (Ret.)

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Post subject: Re: Hand Salute to the 2,386...
Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 5:56 pm
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BB39, USS Arizona......honors to starboard!

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Hand Salute to the 2,386...
Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 7:17 pm
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Location: In this country town, where the laughter sounds...
And as the years go by, time catches up with us all. Each Pearl Harbor day, we loose more of the survivors of that horrendous day in time. Someday, they will all be gone. Never Forget Pearl Harbor.

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Post subject: Re: Hand Salute to the 2,386...
Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 7:18 pm
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Honors rendered :!:

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Post subject: Re: Hand Salute to the 2,386...
Posted: Sun Dec 08, 2013 7:38 am
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Lightnin,

Thanks for starting this topic. My father was a firecontrolman stationed aboard the USS Hull at Pearl Harbor on Dec 7th. What little I know of his war experience I gained going through some his papers after his death.

Later, he was served aboard the USS Fletcher where he was a plank owner - a member of the orignal crew that put her into commission. I think he may have been aboard one or two more destroyers during the war. I do know that he traveled around the US during the war giving speeches at drives to sell War Bonds.

After the war he broke service, went to college & rejoined the Navy as a journalist. Those of you who are into naval history might enjoy an article he wrote about the Fletcher titled "The Luckiest Ship Of Them All". BTW, he's to the left in the photo.

http://www.ussfletcher.org/stories/luckiest.html

Doug -

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Post subject: Re: Hand Salute to the 2,386...
Posted: Sun Dec 08, 2013 9:47 am
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Doug,that's a great read,thanks for sharing.All respect to those who came before.Craig


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Post subject: Re: Hand Salute to the 2,386...
Posted: Sun Dec 08, 2013 10:32 am
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wingman111 wrote:
Doug,that's a great read,thanks for sharing.All respect to those who came before.Craig


+1!

A big thank-you to your dad for his service, sir.

And a big thank-you to you as well for sharing that inspirational anecdote.

HAND SALUTE!

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Hand Salute to the 2,386...
Posted: Sun Dec 08, 2013 11:06 am
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Dugger wrote:
Lightnin,

Thanks for starting this topic. My father was a firecontrolman stationed aboard the USS Hull at Pearl Harbor on Dec 7th. What little I know of his war experience I gained going through some his papers after his death.

Later, he was served aboard the USS Fletcher where he was a plank owner - a member of the orignal crew that put her into commission. I think he may have been aboard one or two more destroyers during the war. I do know that he traveled around the US during the war giving speeches at drives to sell War Bonds.

After the war he broke service, went to college & rejoined the Navy as a journalist. Those of you who are into naval history might enjoy an article he wrote about the Fletcher titled "The Luckiest Ship Of Them All". BTW, he's to the left in the photo.

http://www.ussfletcher.org/stories/luckiest.html

Doug -


Good Stuff Doug !

You must be very proud of your Dad !!

It's great to talk with some of the survivors and get the real dope.

I had an Uncle who was NAVY Air stationed at NAS Kaneohe Bay, Oahu in 1941. He was assigned to VP-11 Sqdn. (VP = Fixed Wing Patrol) flying PBY Flying Boats.

His Sqdn. had been on condition Afirm 5 (100% of assigned aircraft on 4 hours notice) since Fri. Dec 5th. These were fully armed with machine guns, mines and anti-ship bombs.

He and 2 other planes were assigned to patrol a sector between Hawaii and Midway Island on 6-hour intervals on Dec. 5th and 6th. More than an 8-hour flight each way, they'd land at Midway, Fuel, eat & rest for 4 hrs. before making the return leg.

My uncle returned to Kaneohe at 0545 on the morning of Dec. 7. Exhausted, he parked his aircraft on the ramp, debriefed and went straight to his rack. He slept through the entire attack !

There's actually an official Navy photograph of his aircraft burning on the ramp after the attack:

Image

Anyway, his search sector was to the SW of Hawaii and the Japanese Fleet came in from the NW, hundreds of miles from his assigned grid.

Nonetheless, the family kidded him for years that WWII was all his fault because he wasn't flying in the right place to spot the Japanese. About 1962 it got really old and pissed him off whenever anyone mentioned it.

In the days following the attack, with no aircraft to fly, pilots were assigned other duties. In my uncle's case, he was assigned to supplement the oversight of security details on the harbor (sentries) for the Middle Watch and Morning Watch - 0000 - 0800 hrs.

When several ships were sunk during the attack, many of the crew were trapped below decks with no way to get out, particularly the Arizona where it was estimated that a third of the men trapped were still alive.

Underwater salvage and welding was such at the time that they couldn't extract these crew, even though they were less than 30 feet below the surface. It took a diver with an acetylene torch a very long time to cut through the armored hull of a battleship... too long. Plus, they risked causing further flooding of the compartments before they could get the men out, so they had to simply stop.

My uncle said that the 1st night, the entire harbor was still except for the eerie metal-on-metal sound of the trapped men banging on the hull of their ships, which reverberated off the surrounding hills. The same for his second night on watch. He said that by the end of his watch on the 3rd night, the banging had all but stopped. Said it was the most haunting sound he'd heard before or since and that he never forgot it for all of the 60 years he was yet to live.

cheers!

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'11 FSR Am. Vtg. Ltd. Ed. CAR '57 Stratocaster (SN# LE02639)
'14 American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster
'12 Telebration Empress Telecaster
'99 Deluxe Nashville Telecaster
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'10 Heritage H-535
'99 Martin DC-1E
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