MIflyer
1st Lieutenant
I don't think I've posted this before.
My high school physics teacher was a USN aviator before WW2. On 7 Dec 1941 he was in command of a small seaplane tender, around 800 tons, I think, that was passing through the Panama Canal, East to West, its destination Pearl Harbor. They were stopped as a lock was being filled.
He stepped off the ship to buy a pack of cigarettes from one of the stores that were close to the locks. He picked up the cigarettes and then saw his radio operator come out on deck, waving and yelling. He ran back to the ship without paying for the smokes.
They had received a radio message that said something like "Implement General Order No.4" and that was all. He went in the safe, found the sealed envelope for the general order specified and opened it.
The general order said, basically, "You are to proceed on the basis that the entire US Navy has been destroyed and you are the only surviving ship."
Would that get your attention? What would you do?
What they did was sail into Pearl Harbor about a week after the attack, guns manned, prepared to fight their way in to relieve the brave defenders.
My high school physics teacher was a USN aviator before WW2. On 7 Dec 1941 he was in command of a small seaplane tender, around 800 tons, I think, that was passing through the Panama Canal, East to West, its destination Pearl Harbor. They were stopped as a lock was being filled.
He stepped off the ship to buy a pack of cigarettes from one of the stores that were close to the locks. He picked up the cigarettes and then saw his radio operator come out on deck, waving and yelling. He ran back to the ship without paying for the smokes.
They had received a radio message that said something like "Implement General Order No.4" and that was all. He went in the safe, found the sealed envelope for the general order specified and opened it.
The general order said, basically, "You are to proceed on the basis that the entire US Navy has been destroyed and you are the only surviving ship."
Would that get your attention? What would you do?
What they did was sail into Pearl Harbor about a week after the attack, guns manned, prepared to fight their way in to relieve the brave defenders.
