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Post by IrishMike on Dec 7, 2009 22:15:49 GMT -5
This should be a day of reflection not another guilt trip about how we treated the Japanese that were living here at that time.Unfortunately we are portrayed as monsters for incarcerating the Japs living here.Get over it people.BTW it's nice to have a working computer once again.Hello all.
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Post by Tired in CV on Dec 8, 2009 3:05:45 GMT -5
Through several years of being at Pearl Harbor, I often said to myself that I was going to visit the Arizona Memorial. Unfortunatley, I always put it off to do something else. Yet, each time I saw it (almost daily in port) I always felt something tug at me. Then we decommissioned our ship and I was given orders back to the mainland. But...but....I didn't get to the Arizona Memorial yet! Many years later, my wife and I made a trip back to Oahu and scheduled visits around the Island. This time I wasn't going to be denied, I told her that the FIRST place we were going was to the Arizona Memorial and pay respect to the fallen. I didn't know what I was in for. For a person who can't keep a dry eye when listening to the Star Spangled Banner, the trip to the Memorial was a very emotional event for me. People were looking at me as I was visibly shaking as tears poured down my cheeks. Knowing that below me laid more than a thousand young men who never had a chance to fight. A secret attack on a Sunday morning caught them by surprise. After reading the names and saying a prayer, as my wife escorted me to the shuttle boat, I was left mumbling that they never had a chance. A most humbling experience. Ever since, this day has meant so much more to me than just "Pearl Harbor Day". Even now, as I type this, the feeling is coming back. I have come to terms over the loss of friends in combat, the Memorial is just so much more profound to the loss of young men, again, who just didn't have a chance to fight! I am glad that I didn't bypass another opportunity to visit the Arizona Memorial!
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Post by nikki on Dec 8, 2009 3:55:15 GMT -5
Through several years of being at Pearl Harbor, I often said to myself that I was going to visit the Arizona Memorial. Unfortunatley, I always put it off to do something else. Yet, each time I saw it (almost daily in port) I always felt something tug at me. Then we decommissioned our ship and I was given orders back to the mainland. But...but....I didn't get to the Arizona Memorial yet! Many years later, my wife and I made a trip back to Oahu and scheduled visits around the Island. This time I wasn't going to be denied, I told her that the FIRST place we were going was to the Arizona Memorial and pay respect to the fallen. I didn't know what I was in for. For a person who can't keep a dry eye when listening to the Star Spangled Banner, the trip to the Memorial was a very emotional event for me. People were looking at me as I was visibly shaking as tears poured down my cheeks. Knowing that below me laid more than a thousand young men who never had a chance to fight. A secret attack on a Sunday morning caught them by surprise. After reading the names and saying a prayer, as my wife escorted me to the shuttle boat, I was left mumbling that they never had a chance. A most humbling experience. Ever since, this day has meant so much more to me than just "Pearl Harbor Day". Even now, as I type this, the feeling is coming back. I have come to terms over the loss of friends in combat, the Memorial is just so much more profound to the loss of young men, again, who just didn't have a chance to fight! I am glad that I didn't bypass another opportunity to visit the Arizona Memorial! CV, THANK YOU for sharing a profoundly personal experience with us. "The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace."
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Post by johng on Dec 8, 2009 12:58:57 GMT -5
Through several years of being at Pearl Harbor, I often said to myself that I was going to visit the Arizona Memorial. Unfortunatley, I always put it off to do something else. Yet, each time I saw it (almost daily in port) I always felt something tug at me. Then we decommissioned our ship and I was given orders back to the mainland. But...but....I didn't get to the Arizona Memorial yet! Many years later, my wife and I made a trip back to Oahu and scheduled visits around the Island. This time I wasn't going to be denied, I told her that the FIRST place we were going was to the Arizona Memorial and pay respect to the fallen. I didn't know what I was in for. For a person who can't keep a dry eye when listening to the Star Spangled Banner, the trip to the Memorial was a very emotional event for me. People were looking at me as I was visibly shaking as tears poured down my cheeks. Knowing that below me laid more than a thousand young men who never had a chance to fight. A secret attack on a Sunday morning caught them by surprise. After reading the names and saying a prayer, as my wife escorted me to the shuttle boat, I was left mumbling that they never had a chance. A most humbling experience. Ever since, this day has meant so much more to me than just "Pearl Harbor Day". Even now, as I type this, the feeling is coming back. I have come to terms over the loss of friends in combat, the Memorial is just so much more profound to the loss of young men, again, who just didn't have a chance to fight! I am glad that I didn't bypass another opportunity to visit the Arizona Memorial! My Brother in Tearful remembrance! I too have that emotional control problem but proudly stood the rail each time the ship passed in Pearl. I have been there several times and will not make a visit to Hawaii without going there to remember and recharge that feeling of sorrow, duty and honor which the memorial represents to me! Thank you for sharing.
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Post by animal on Dec 8, 2009 13:21:21 GMT -5
We were there too, when I was stationed at Schoefield Barracks. Besides the solemn mood, I was interested in how there is still oil bubbling up from the ship....
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Post by johng on Dec 8, 2009 14:49:24 GMT -5
We were there too, when I was stationed at Schoefield Barracks. Besides the solemn mood, I was interested in how there is still oil bubbling up from the ship.... Decay leakage on the oil, in such small quantity that it has been described as "tears from below" which once heard by an emotional man like myself plays strongly into the continum.
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Post by Turk on Dec 8, 2009 18:51:45 GMT -5
Through several years of being at Pearl Harbor, I often said to myself that I was going to visit the Arizona Memorial. Unfortunatley, I always put it off to do something else. Yet, each time I saw it (almost daily in port) I always felt something tug at me. Then we decommissioned our ship and I was given orders back to the mainland. But...but....I didn't get to the Arizona Memorial yet! Many years later, my wife and I made a trip back to Oahu and scheduled visits around the Island. This time I wasn't going to be denied, I told her that the FIRST place we were going was to the Arizona Memorial and pay respect to the fallen. I didn't know what I was in for. For a person who can't keep a dry eye when listening to the Star Spangled Banner, the trip to the Memorial was a very emotional event for me. People were looking at me as I was visibly shaking as tears poured down my cheeks. Knowing that below me laid more than a thousand young men who never had a chance to fight. A secret attack on a Sunday morning caught them by surprise. After reading the names and saying a prayer, as my wife escorted me to the shuttle boat, I was left mumbling that they never had a chance. A most humbling experience. Ever since, this day has meant so much more to me than just "Pearl Harbor Day". Even now, as I type this, the feeling is coming back. I have come to terms over the loss of friends in combat, the Memorial is just so much more profound to the loss of young men, again, who just didn't have a chance to fight! I am glad that I didn't bypass another opportunity to visit the Arizona Memorial! I get emotional about things too, like reading your post. Learned many years ago to keep the sunglasses close.
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Post by johng on Dec 8, 2009 19:44:15 GMT -5
***This came today in an email. I do not know the validity of source, but it sure sounds feasible to me!***
"The Axis of Idiots"
From the Podium: J. D. Pendry, Retired Sergeant Major, USMC
FROM THE PODIUM This retired USMC Sgt. Major has his Stuff together.
Jimmy Carter, you are the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home, and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You're the "runner-in-chief."
Bill Clinton, you played ring around the Lewinsky while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses to the USS Cole and the First Trade Center Bombing and Our Embassy Bombings emboldened the killers. Each time you failed to respond adequately, they grew bolder, until 9/11/2001.
John Kerry, dishonesty is your most prominent attribute. You lied about American Soldiers in Vietnam. Your military service, like your life, is more fiction than fact. You've accused our military of terrorizing women and children in Iraq. You called Iraq the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, and the same words you used to describe Vietnam. You're a fake! You want to run from Iraq and abandon the Iraqis to murderers just as you did to the Vietnamese. Iraq, like Vietnam, is another war that you were for, before you were against it.
John Murtha, you said our military was broken. You said we can't win militarily in Iraq. You accused the United States Marines of cold-blooded murder without proof and said we should redeploy to Okinawa. Okinawa, John? And the Democrats call you their military expert! Are you sure you didn't suffer a traumatic brain injury while you were off building your war hero resume? You're a sad, pitiable, corrupt, and washed up old fool. You're not a Marine, sir.. You wouldn't amount to a good pimple on a real Marine's ass. You're a phony and a disgrace. Run away, John.
Dick Durbin, you accused our Soldiers at Guantanamo of being Nazis, tenders of Soviet style gulags and as bad as the regime of Pol Pot, who murdered two million of his own people after your party abandoned Southeast Asia to the Communists. Now you want to abandon the Iraqis to the same fate. History was not a good teacher for you, was it? Lord help us! See Dick run.
Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Carl Levine, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, Russ Feingold, Pat Leahy, Barack Obama, ck Smer, the Hollywood Leftist morons, et al, ad nauseam: Every time you stand in front of television cameras and broadcast to the Islamic Nazis that we went to war because our President lied, that the war is wrong and our Soldiers are torturers, that we should leave Iraq, you give the Islamic butchers - the same ones that tortured and mutilated American Soldiers - cause to think that we'll run away again, and all they have to do is hang on a little longer. It is inevitable that we, the infidels, will have to defeat the Islamic jihadists. Better to do it now on their turf, than later on ours after they have gained both strength and momentum.
American news media, the New York Times particularly: Each time you publish stories about national defense secrets and our intelligence gathering methods, you become one united with the sub-human pieces of camel dung that torture and mutilate the bodies of American Soldiers. You can't strike up the courage to publish cartoons, but you can help Al Qaeda destroy my country. Actually, you are more dangerous to us than Al Qaeda is. Think about that each time you face Mecca to admire your Pulitzer.
You are America's 'AXIS OF IDIOTS.' Your Collective Stupidity will destroy us. Self-serving politics and terrorist-abetting news scoops are more important to you than our national security or the lives of innocent civilians and Soldiers. It bothers you that defending ourselves gets in the way of your elitist sport of politics and your ignorant editorializing. There is as much blood on your hands as is on the hands of murdering terrorists. Don't ever doubt that. Your frolics will only serve to extend this war as they extended Vietnam. If you want our Soldiers home as you claim, knock off the crap and try supporting your country ahead of supporting your silly political aims and aiding our enemies.
Yes, I'm questioning your patriotism. Your loyalty ends with self. I'm also questioning why you're stealing air that decent Americans could be breathing. You don't deserve the protection of our men and women in uniform. You need to run away from this war, this country. Leave the war to the people who have the will to see it through and the country to people who are willing to defend it.
Our country has two enemies: Those who want to destroy us from the outside and those who attempt it from within.
Semper Fi, J. D. Pendry - Sergeant Major, USMC, Retired
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Post by Rocket on Dec 8, 2009 20:52:21 GMT -5
Valid or not it is what most of American’s and all of Texans think
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Post by jdredd on Dec 17, 2023 1:05:59 GMT -5
Oh look, we had a Pearl Harbor day thread. Could have used it. The fact is, America changed completely after December 7, 1941.
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