Sixty-seven years ago, at 7:55 in the morning, Japanese aircraft started attacking U.S. Bases on Oahu. They struck the airbases first, crippling our ability to respond or defend from the air. They then turned their torpedo bombers on our fleet in Pearl Harbor, sinking or disabling most of the ships anchored there. The Japanese won a tactical victory that day, but they woke up a complacent people to the fact that the war, swirling around them and the globe, now involved the United States.
I, like millions of others, took the tour of the USS Arizona memorial that spans her midship. You understand at a very basic level, as you step off the boat and on to the memorial itself, that you are standing in a sacred and hallowed place. Your fellow visitors feel it too; their conversations hush, their vacation gaiety suddenly turns to hushed reverence. As we slowly proceeded to the wall containing the names of those entombed below us, many (including me) are teary-eyed. Most of us bow our heads in prayer and meditation. We pray for our country, grateful for these men and the millions of others who sacrificed their lives in the cause of freedom. Silently we prayed for those who now serve and I'm sure that most of us also prayed for peace.
One part of the attack most people don't see are the scars still preserved at Hickam Air Force Base which borders the entrance to Pearl Harbor. The row of hangars on the flightline, too small to house modern aircraft, still stand. Most of them are now warehouses or turned into office space. But outside, many of them still bear the pockmarks from the bullets that were sprayed on them from the Japanese Zeros, preserved for posterity. In the past five years, I've been dispatched there three different times to perfom maintenance on equipment and engines we have stored there. I always enter those hangars with a sense of respect for what happened on that day, 67 years ago.
The lesson of Pearl Harbor, 9/11, and even Mumbai, is that we must be forever vigilant. There are evil people who seek to rule us or destroy us. Along with vigilance, we must also be strong enough to make any potential enemy think long and hard before they trifle with us.
Remember Pearl Harbor and learn the lesson!
VW
America’s oldest living Medal of Honor recipient, living his 100th year is former enlisted Chief Petty Officer, Aviation Chief Ordnance man (ACOM), later wartime commissioned Lieutenant John W. Finn, USN (Ret.). He is also the last surviving Medal of Honor, “The Day of Infamy”, Japanese Attack on the Hawaiian Islands, Naval Air Station, Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii, 7 December 1941.
Posted by: leasing of aircraft | Wednesday, January 14, 2009 at 23:07