Do you remember the significance of this day? Sixty-four years ago, Pearl Harbor was assaulted in a sneak attack by the Japanese.

Take a moment to remember our countrymen murdered on this day. Don’t let this day fade from our collective memory.

Read More at LESSONS LEARNED?

http://capecodporcupine.blogspot.com/2005/12/lessons-learned.html

Three years ago I was talking to my father on the phone about the significance of Pearl Harbor Day and 9-11. He told me something I hadn’t known. His brother was born on Dec. 7, 1923. He had turned 18 on the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. I did a little research and wrote this for my Dad.

December 7, 2002

Sixty-one years ago today a young man celebrated his eighteenth birthday. Little
did he know that date, his birthday, would become “A day of infamy”.
Six months later when he had graduated high school, he enlisted in the US
Army Air Corps and subsequently earned his wings as one of the youngest
fighter pilots in the Army Air Corps. In the next two years he progressed
from trainers to P-40 Warhawks and finally to the beautiful, twin engine P-38
Lightning fighter. During that time he also found time to marry his
high school sweetheart and, while serving in Italy escorting B-24 bombers, he
learned that he was soon to be a father.
In Jan. 1944 he had completed his tour and was waiting in Triola, Italy to
return to the States when a call came out for volunteers to fly escort for
another bombing raid over France. Fighters and pilots were scarce in those
days. Our bomber crews were getting hammered and our fighter pilots suffered
the same fate. He did not need to volunteer, but of course, like so many others,he cheerfully did his duty.

On January 27, 1944, over Salon de Provence, France their bomber group
encountered “a superior number of enemy fighters.”
From wingman 2nd Lt. R. E. Hoke: “Being greatly outnumbered by enemy fighters and unable to rejoin the Squadron, we took evasive action from the enemy fighters, by losing altitude. We dropped from 24,000 feet to the deck. By
this maneuver we lost the enemy fighters but encountered heavy ground gun
flak. Suddenly I felt a terrific concussion. After getting my airplane under
control, I looked back and the Lieutenant had disappeared from the
formation.”
The young Lieutenant’s P-38G just “disappeared” in the great explosion as
German antiaircraft gunners found their mark. His body was never recovered.
He was just 20 years old. He never held his newborn daughter. He never hugged his wife again.
He was only one of the many tens of thousands of American heroes over the
last two hundred or so years.
He was 2nd Lieutenant James G. Riley, Jr., USAAC, my Dad’s older, and only,
brother.
Sixty-one years ago today, Pearl Harbor Day, Jim turned eighteen. His whole life
was ahead of him yet he had barely two years to live. Those years he gave to
his country.
Thank God for all those brave men and women.
God protect our soldiers, sailors and airmen.
May we never forget.
Uncle Jim, we miss you………..

Reposted from December 7, 2005. Early on a quiet Sunday morning on December 7, 1941, aircraft of the Empire of Japan, without provocation or warning, attacked the United States forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The Japanese attack left 2400 Americans dea…

FrankS. scolds me for not blogging about this earlier. I’ll note two good round-ups of remembrances, one at La Shawn’s, the other at Michelle’s. Ordinary Everyday Christian recalls FDR’s and Churchill’s speeches on that black day. FDR’s is good. …

Explosion aboard USS Shaw, destroyed at Pearl Harbor. I’m ashamed of myself for not remembering to do a Pearl Harbor remembrance post in advance and then not being up to it last night. I had the honor of knowing one

Sixty-four years ago today, the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor changed the face of World War II and, by bringing the US into the war as a full-fledged Allied power, altered the course of history.

…like no one should ever have. Joe, 93, and Angelina, 86, still remember three of their son’s first words: “Air raid, Mommy!”…

Today the battle-scarred, submerged remains of the battleship USS Arizona rest on the silt of Pearl Harbor, just as they settled on December 7, 1941. The ship was one of many casualties from the deadly attack by the Japanese on a quiet Sunday that Pr…