Lest we forget...

[101ABN]

As a boy growing up in Phoenix in the 1950's, I was in awe of the USS Arizona Display that was a perennial featured attraction at the State Fair.

The exhibit included the Arizona's silver service and a collection of photographs of her history, the most dramatic being the famous image of her powder magazines exploding after a direct hit by an armor piercing bomb. The purpose of the exhibit was to raise funds to build the memorial now visited by millions of tourists annually.

To this day, I am proud that each year I set aside a portion of my "midway money" and reverently put it in the jar in memory of the Silent Crew still interred in her hull.

The exhibit taught me, at a tender age, that freedom is not free.

This is my small tribute to the Arizona, BB-39 and her Silent Crew in expression of my undying gratitude for that lesson.

USS Arizona BB-39

Pennsylvania class Battleship

Length: 608 feet
Beam: 106 feet, 2 inches
Draft: 28 feet, 10 inches
Displacement: 34,207 tons
Draft: 28'10"
Speed: 21 knots

Armament: Twelve 14" guns; twenty-two 5" guns; four 3" guns; two 21" torpedo tubes

Launched: June 19, 1915
New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York

Commissioned: October 17, 1916

Sunk: December 7 1941
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.



As America knew her...







As the enemy saw her...



Death from the skies, 0805 Hrs 12/7/1941





Her eternal rest...



Her Silent Crew...may they rest in peace.



USS Arizona Webpage

www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/ships/battleships/arizona/bb39-ariz.html

Great Pearl Harbor site.

www.rivervet.com/pearl_harbor.htm

NEVER AGAIN!

[Remey688]

Thanks for posting the Arizona photos. A maternal uncle, I never knew, name is on the U.S.S. Arizona memorial

[dustdevil28]

Thanks for posting this 101

[Sailor]

"Her Silent Crew...may they rest in peace."

Aye. Rest in peace shipmates.

[peterd]

Great post.

[101ABN]

Bump.

[tankcommander]

AIR RAID, PEARL HARBOR.... THIS IS NO DRILL

At 7:55 A.M. December 7th 1941, the Second World War began for the United States. The first bomb dropped by the Japanese hit the ground just off Battleship Row, exploding and throwing clods of dirt high in the air but causing no damage. Comdr. Logan Ramsey saw the plane drop the bomb and idly thought to himself "stupid pilot, not securing his bomb correctly." But when the plane banked he immediately recognized the "meatball" on the Japanese plane's wing and rushed to the nearby radio room. At 7:58, one of the most famous signals in American history went out in plain English, "AIR RAID, PEARL HARBOR, THIS IS NO DRILL! " In Washington Secretary of The Navy Frank Knox had just returned to his office when the message was delivered to him. He read it and blurted out, "My God, this can't be true, this must mean the Philippines." Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Harold Stark replied, "No, sir; this is Pearl."

[twofoot]

I hope this is not inappropriate.


We have forgotton, or perhaps never knew, what the generation that fought WWII understood. These men, these heroes, marched into hell on earth because of what happened on this day in history.

It's no small coincidence that the last war we won was WWII. What happened after that? Starting with Korea, we let others dictate how we waged war. Starting with Vietnam we started becomming more concerned with civil liberties and the nonsense that "people have a right to know" than winning a war.

From there we went to leftists complaining that we lost 2,500 servicemen in the first three years in the Iraqi theater of war. As a nation, we have become craven and complacent.

The giants of our grandfathers and fathers time lost, in one battle (Iwo Jima), 6,800 men in 36 days.

These men, these legends, knew that to win a war, you have to be willing to <strong>fight</strong> a war. That if necessary, you must be willing to obliterate cities to bring your enemy to where they are willing to surrender unconditionally.

And now? Now, as a nation, we question whether the events at Ft Hood are terrorism and if the murderer who hid behind an Army uniform is a terrorist. Now we settle for politicians to scared to call the enemy a terrorist, giving that label to the men and women sworn to defend us. And instead of obliterating a city, we whine and complain if a single smart-bomb goes off course and hurts a civilian.

Is it any wonder we have not won a war since WWII?

These men who did so much to secure our liberty did perhaps to much to also secure our comfort when they came home. They strived to make sure that their children and grandchildren would have the comfort and opportunities they lacked growing up in the era of the Great Depression and WWII.

They did their jobs to well on the homefront. We have forgotton what they knew instinctively, that to defeat an enemy you first have to be willing to name your enemy. Then you have to be willing to wage all out war on them until they are brought to their knees.

We owe these men our lives and our lifestyles. And while we do our best to thank them, have we really done justice to what these men left us? We have taken the gift, and forgotton the lesson.

We owe these men more than thanks today. We also owe these men that loved their nation so dear as to spend years in hell, and then the rest of their lives reliving that hell when they closed their eyes at night, an apology for letting things come to where they are today.

[101ABN]

I find it more than appropriate.

Thank you.

[Sailor]

Too damned true.

Thanks TFO. Be safe.

[Remey688]

World War II was a war in which everyone in the country proudly participated. I recall a stat I heard years ago: In the timeframe that our AAF flew to Schweinfurt, Germany to bomb the SKF and F'AG manufacturing facilities and return. We produced more than 80,000 ball and roller bearings in the State of Connecticut alone---Our states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Illinois packaged a bunch too in the same timeframe.

[101ABN]

Bump

[101ABN]

To the top

[warrior1972]

Dec 12, 2008 14:12:12 GMT -8 peterd said:

Great post.

Yes. It was.