Pearl Harbor Day

“A day which will live in infamy.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt

December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii, crippling or destroying nearly 20 American ships and 300 airplanes. The human affect was the loss of 2,403 sailors, soldiers and civilians along with 1,178 wounded.

To this day, the USS Arizona and the USS Utah lie at the bottom of the narrow harbor, a reminder of the events that pulled the United States into WWII.

Many have personal stories of relatives who served in WWII.

Once such story involves the uncle of one of our staff.

He was serving on a submarine docked at Pearl Harbor the day of the attack.

He and his bunkmate were sleeping in the barracks at Pearl when the alarm sounded and the pair took off running, zig-zagging their way between palm trees, trying to make it back to their sub.

While our staff member's uncle made it back, his friend did not as he was killed between trees as the Japanese strafed the ground.

When he returned to his hometown in Texas, there were issues.

On a regular basis, the police would find him running down main street in his night shirt, screaming. They would load him in the patrol car and take him home.

In those days, they called it “shell shock”, but the term they use now is PTSD.

Not many of our WWII veterans are alive to tell their stories these days, but this Saturday, as Pearl Harbor Day is remembered and those who are left gather at the USS Arizona memorial to pay their respects to their fallen brothers, let’s hope that we never face another day like we did in 1941.