Remembering a day of infamy

[Police Moderator]

Memphis survivor recalls infamous day aboard tanker at Pearl Harbor

Being stationed in Hawaii was like a vacation. Howard Lee loved everything about it, from the palm trees to the coral sands of Waikiki beach to the idyllic weather.

But he was also looking forward to a 30-day leave. It was supposed to begin the afternoon of Dec. 7, 1941. Lee, 23, a Navy photographer, had boarded an oil tanker, the Neosho, for the trip from Hawaii to California. From there, he planned to visit his wife in Memphis and his childhood home in Crawfordsville, Ind.

"That morning, we had breakfast, went topside and were waiting for colors," says Lee. That's the daily hoisting of the flags. It was just before 7:55 a.m., Sunday, 68 years ago today. Many of the crewmen were still sleeping. Before the flags were raised, Lee heard the drone of airplanes over Pearl Harbor, then saw flames coming from the roof of an airplane hangar.

"I told my buddy, '... There's something going on around here.' I thought somebody had made a mistake and set off a live bomb or that something had exploded. About that time we were dive-bombed," says Lee, now 91 and president of the Tri-State Chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association.

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[Bob]

my favorite quote from the article.

The wars that followed World War II have not been wars he would have fought at all, he says. As for the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan: "It's terrible. I wish we'd never gone over there. You can't whip those people. You can't change their way of living. Then, when we start to leave, we tell everybody what we're going to do, so they sit back and wait for us to bail out. It's another Vietnam. That was a farce from the word go. We lost that war. We should have learned something."

Thanks for posting, I had forgotten that today was that day.

[goomba]

img.photobucket.com/albums/v111/oldfella/PearlHarbor.jpg

obviously not my pics. but pictures of that day seem to help to put things in perspective.

god bless the fallen.

[BlackFox]

I was stationed at Pearl Harbor West Loch during my time in the Marines. We did walking guard posts and stood the front gates and such. I could see the Arizona Memorial way off in the distance, and there was another ship that was sunk over on the West Loch side that still has the bow sticking out of the water to this day.

If you ever get a chance to go to the Arizona, it is a very powerful experience. First they show you a short movie about the attack and the movie culminates with actual footage of the Arizona exploding. Then they throw open the side doors to a waiting ferry just outside, and with all that footage still fresh in your mind, suddenly there you are floating across the harbor toward the Memorial. When you get there, they ask that you remain quiet, but not silent while there. It's amazing, there it is just a few feet below the water, and yes, the oil still bubbling up.

One more amazing thing that they have added since I was stationed there, but I saw it on my honeymoon, is now they have the U.S.S Missouri docked out there right behind the Arizona. It was on the Missouri's deck that the Japanese Emporer signed the surrender. So now you can stand in between them on shore and say "The war in the Pacific started right there(the Arizona), and ended right there(the Missouri)".