December 7, 1941

[stealthy_bowman]

Unbelievable period in History. A unified country stepping up for the greater good, truly America at its best.
With the way things are today and the mindsets out there, I’m not sure we would have had the same outcome had those events occurred today rather than back then.

 

[D_Walt]

Pic of my grandfather in flight training in late 1943 or 1944 I believe. By the time he got to flight training there were so many pilots willing and wanting to go he was one of many who never even got to fly a combat mission. My other grandfather fought across North Africa and up through Italy.

 

[bennirio]

Visited Pearl Harbor earlier this year with the kids. It was a very awesome setting to teach them what happened there. Thanks to all that paid the ultimate sacrifice and all who served and are serving this great nation.

 

[D_Walt]

Visited Pearl Harbor earlier this year with the kids. It was a very awesome setting to teach them what happened there. Thanks to all that paid the ultimate sacrifice and all who served and are serving this great nation.View attachment 204554View attachment 204553

My wife and I went there about 15 years ago, really is moving and hard to imagine the hell that was unleashed that morning.

 

[D_Walt]

One more cool WW2 pic, my great uncle on the camel on the left. Joined after Pearl Harbor, and was an Army pilot - though I’m not sure what kind of plane he flew. I think this picture was taken in 1943. He was shot down and killed in the Pacific theatre September 11, 1944.

 

[Big Fin]

These pics add so much. Thanks for sharing them. I wish we had not lost those of our family due to fire.

My Grandfather enlisted in the Army at age 19, with most his stories being about his time on Saipan. He talked about it some, but not too much. Seemed like he preferred to keep it inside, which was fine by us. Came home to be a machinist and own his own machine shop, eventually working on the North Slope and living in Haines, AK where he passed at age 86.

My step-dad and his brother both enlisted in the Marine Corps immediately following Pearl Harbor. Following basic, they were readied for deployment to the Pacific theater, both ending up in Guadalcanal where his brother lost a leg and was sent home. My step-dad ended up in the New Georgia fight with the 1st Marine Raiders.

In the 30 years I knew him, I only heard him talk of his time on those two islands, just once. Some of his Marine buddies came to town and looked him up. After a few drinks at our dining room table, they started with some stories that were so harrowing I thought they had to be manufactured. Talking to his younger brothers, I asked how much of it was true. They confirmed it to all be true and explained some of his response/reaction quirks as being a result of that war. John A. Cody spent most of his adult life dealing with these linger effects, living a remarkable life in spite of these challenges. I wish he had talked about it more, but out of respect and concern I never pressed him for details.

I was lucky to have grown in a small town where almost every man their age who visited my Mom's diner could, and often would, cite a theatre in which they served and provide some amazing stories of their experiences. Their willingness to enlist and fight was profound and brought the highest respect among me and my friends.

To them and that entire generation of men and women, I am forever grateful. Thanks for starting this, Tyson.

 

[Sako75]

My uncle was on the USS Enterprise Dec7, 1941. We still have a letter from him post marked Dec 8,1941 Pearl Harbor. He was killed later in the battle of Leyte Gulf.

 

[morley.tyler]

3 quick stories:

One:
On my Grandmother-in-Law's death bed, she proclaimed how excited she was to see Dale again.
"Who is Dale?" she was asked
"He's the boy I really wanted to marry"
"What happened?" she was asked
"Pearl Harbor..."

Two:
While hanging out w/ a group of guys at the Shotgun Club in the early 2000s, this conversation happened.
Characters: a 40ish-year-old white guy named Shawn and an 80ish-year-old Asian guy named Al, who is the sweetest, kindest, softest spoken man you've ever met.

Shawn: "Al, where were you during the war?"
Al: "What?"
Shawn: "Did you get put into one of the internment camps?"
Al: "Do you think I'm F*CKING Japanese?"
Shawn: "... yea?"
Al: "I'm Chinese you stupid SOB, and I was in Europe flying 27 missions as a gunner on a B-24"
Shawn: lowers his head and walks away
Al: looks at me and says, "Excuse me, I need to go and apologize to Shawn, I shouldn't have burst out like that"

Three:
At the same gun club as story #2, we bought a gun collection from the widow of a member who'd recently passed away. As we're in the shop, inventorying the collection, looking through all of the books we had on WW2 German weapons (apparently the passed away member had a type...), in walked Paul Seiden, a member, and a friend, in his 80s. Paul walks in, surveys what we've got, and starts naming each weapon by manufacturer, model number, and euphemistic name. We were looking at 25+ different guns! After Paul completes his survey, I asked a question that can only be asked between friends...
Me: "Paul- why does an old Jewish man, know every damn Nazi weapon ever made?"
Paul: "Oh, simple, I was Army Intelligence during the war, so I got to study all of the enemies weapons"
Me: "Wow- I had no idea..."
Paul: "Yea- best job ever... I got to beat the shit out of every SS Officer that we captured."

 

[Bambistew]

We hit the WW2 museum in New Orelenes a couple days ago, will be going back layer this week. Amazing place, it would take a week to see it all.

 

[hank4elk]

Dad had been @ Kingspoint Merchant Marine Acadamy in the 1st class of the school,class of 41'.
The year before he was a midshipman on the Emily Blunt, a tanker taking fuel to England.
It was torpedoed by the Germans with the crew allowed to depart before the sinking.1st US flagged ship to be sunk in the war.
So he was already at war and went on to do the Mermansk run 3 times and his ship was sunk again by a U boat in the Med. on the way to North Africa. This time he was the skipper and he saved his whole crew & flag as the ship went down. 2 weeks at seas before they were rescued.
He ended the war in the Pacific as a Commander in the MM.

Mom's dad,Grandpa Joseph had been a Navy man & served on the Tennessee in the Great White Fleet as a chief. So naturally 5 of his 7 daughters enlisted/joined the services the week after the bombing. 3 joined the Navy,mom included and 2 went into the Wac's. Mom ended the war a decorated Captain in the Navy stationed on the 7th Fleet base @ Terminal Island.
Neither ever spoke much of it. Like it was just part of life then.

 

[Ben Lamb]

Sometime in the late 90's or early 2000's, Grandpa had visitors from the National Holocaust Museum to look at his photos. We'd seen them as kids, but only when Grandpa wasn't around. Bodies stacked like cord wood in Buchenwald, a captured officer's photo album, etc. Several were chosen to be part of the Museum.

Somewhere in Germany in 1945, the boys got a little down time to hunt Chamois. My grandfather, Orville Benjamin Lamb is the tall drink of water with the Garand and hand on his hip.

 

[Europe]

Unbelievable period in History. A unified country stepping up for the greater good, truly America at its best.
With the way things are today and the mindsets out there, I’m not sure we would have had the same outcome had those events occurred today rather than back then.

It is impossible not to both understand and agree with you sir, but I still believe that we, Americans, are like a big family. We sometimes fight amongst ourselves but God help an outsider that attacks one of our family members.

I sincerely believe that if push came to shove the majority of the members on this forum would react the same way their ancestors did--men and women--and I would like to believe the majority of Americans would as well.

While here, I want to take the time to thank all the posters on this thread as many of their posts stirred up a memory or two in my memory bank. And some of those memories might not be what you would expect. Besides being proud to be an American when reading all the posts , there were also ------

jrabq---I remember the Bobby Socks. Straight Arrow--I had an aunt an uncle with that car----Ben, the women feeding the men on the trains as they headed for the coast -----D-Walt, the only plane in WW2 without a picture or a name painted in it ( one hollywood star was on a few )----- and several others--- brought back so many memories, gentlemen

Greatest Generation indeed, but I believe if America was attacked today, the men and women on this forum, as well as men and women all across America, would not hesitate to step up and be counted.

Wonderful thread and posts ! Thank you !

 

[Deleted member 28227]

My grandfather said very little about the war, when he died my step-grandmother gave me a box of his stuff and at the bottom was his Naval record. Seems he served on an LSM-R in the pacific, from what I could gather he was at a number of the major engagements. After he left the service he became a minister in Arkansas.

My step-grandmother, (my mema and the only grandma I knew) lost her dad at D-day. She was conceived right before he shipped out and never met him.

My great-uncle was a pilot in the Army Air Forces and flew "the hump" from India to China.

My wife's grandfather was a medic on D-day and was part of the liberation of Dachau.

Truly amazing the magnitude and pervasiveness of the sacrifice that generation made.

 

[Nameless Range]

Just listened to this podcast episode and cannot recommend it enough. This fellow, convinced the recruiter he was 18 because "farmers look rough", and joined the military at 15 years old. Stormed Omaha beach and fought the Nazis across Europe. He is 99 today. I think of myself at 15, and it is embarrassing. The whole Greatest Generation moniker is not a vacuous one.

311: The Luckiest Man In The World On D-Day. Papa Jake Larson

Podcast Episode · Jocko Podcast · 07/12/2021 · 2h 42m

podcasts.apple.com

The grandfathers of nearly everyone my age were veterans of World War 2. For someone to have been 18 in 1945, the year the war ended, they would have had to have been born in 1927. The youngest veterans of World War 2 alive today are over 90 years old. I remember a time in my life when there were veterans of that war all over. They were old, but they were around. I don't know any anymore, and if nothing unexpected happens there will come a time when my generation sees the last veteran of WW2 cross the divide.

As I wrote elsewhere, I feel from that generation a warmth and robust vitality was imprinted on our country, and a chunk of our collective soul leaves with them when they leave us.

My Grandpa flew PBY Catalinas in the South Pacific, dropping bombs with the goal of killing Japanese sailors. He lived with us for the last years of his life, and some of the most meaningful memories of my life were the hours I would spend on the back porch with him, eating peanuts and grilling him with questions about WW2. He entertained them, and gave his 12 year old grandson more rated R stories than his grandson's mother would approve. He's been gone 18 years, and I miss him. He was a hard norwegian, but an American first, and loved us.

Nelvin Lian (1920-2003) - Find a Grave Memorial

www.findagrave.com

 

[Ben Lamb]

It is impossible not to both understand and agree with you sir, but I still believe that we, Americans, are like a big family. We sometimes fight amongst ourselves but God help an outsider that attacks one of our family members.

I sincerely believe that if push came to shove the majority of the members on this forum would react the same way their ancestors did--men and women--and I would like to believe the majority of Americans would as well.

While here, I want to take the time to thank all the posters on this thread as many of their posts stirred up a memory or two in my memory bank. And some of those memories might not be what you would expect. Besides being proud to be an American when reading all the posts , there were also ------

jrabq---I remember the Bobby Socks. Straight Arrow--I had an aunt an uncle with that car----Ben, the women feeding the men on the trains as they headed for the coast -----D-Walt, the only plane in WW2 without a picture or a name painted in it ( one hollywood star was on a few )----- and several others--- brought back so many memories, gentlemen

Greatest Generation indeed, but I believe if America was attacked today, the men and women on this forum, as well as men and women all across America, would not hesitate to step up and be counted.

Wonderful thread and posts ! Thank you !

The juxtaposition in attitudes regarding intervening in the conflicts in China & Europe from most Americans from December 6th to December 7th was something to watch. Leading up to this, America was bitterly divided, with Nazi rallies in Madison Square Garden, Roosevelt quietly pushing America to war through lend-lease and other programs, furtive diplomacy with Japan, etc.

It all reminds me of one of my favorite poems (especially the very last stanza), Ulysses from Tennyson:

It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Matched with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel; I will drink
Life to the lees. All times I have enjoyed
Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Through scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea. I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known—cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honored of them all,—
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untraveled world whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As though to breathe were life! Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains; but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the scepter and the isle,
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfill
This labor, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and through soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centered in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.
There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail;
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toiled, and wrought, and thought with me,
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honor and his toil.
Death closes all; but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;
The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

 

[hank4elk]

One more cool WW2 pic, my great uncle on the camel on the left. Joined after Pearl Harbor, and was an Army pilot - though I’m not sure what kind of plane he flew. I think this picture was taken in 1943. He was shot down and killed in the Pacific theatre September 11, 1944.

View attachment 204558

I have a pic of dad on a camel in front of the Giza pyramid.

The juxtaposition in attitudes regarding intervening in the conflicts in China & Europe from most Americans from December 6th to December 7th was something to watch. Leading up to this, America was bitterly divided, with Nazi rallies in Madison Square Garden, Roosevelt quietly pushing America to war through lend-lease and other programs, furtive diplomacy with Japan, etc.

It all reminds me of one of my favorite poems (especially the very last stanza), Ulysses from Tennyson:

It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Matched with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel; I will drink
Life to the lees. All times I have enjoyed
Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Through scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea. I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known—cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honored of them all,—
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untraveled world whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As though to breathe were life! Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains; but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the scepter and the isle,
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfill
This labor, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and through soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centered in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.
There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail;
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toiled, and wrought, and thought with me,
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honor and his toil.
Death closes all; but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;
The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Dad's Tennison and Kipling's reside in my bookcase.

 

[WildWill]

Was at my parent's today and found a few photos. The photo with the rifles was taken on Hawaii before heading to guadalcanal.