December 7, 1941

[Peter Gunn]

I realize that there's a lot going on in the world and here in the U.S. but I'm totally (not) shocked that all major news outlets don't even have a blurb as of 8:00 am about the attack 79 years ago today.

So here's to you boys, roused out of the sack at Schofield Barracks to shoot at airplanes with rifles and machine guns, or racing in your Buick after an all night party to get to your idling P-40's or having to man AA guns on the deck of a Battleship. Those of us that choose to remember your bravery and sacrifice of the future you fought so hard to protect - a heartfelt THANK YOU.

And not to just those brave lads at Pearl, ALL our allied soldiers sailors and airmen who left their homes to make the world safe from tyranny.

Tomorrow, my two sons and I will be drinking the family toast for grandpa and his brothers who, on December 8, drove to Detroit in dad's 37 Chevy to enlist in the AAF.

 

[windhund116]

Seems that WW2 is fading from the minds of many Americans. Today's generation view WW2 as simply a video game or a movie subject.

 

[T Bolt]

 

[special ed]

To illustrate the generational differences, in 1970 not long after the release of "Tora,Tora,Tora", I saw the movie in a Theater with large screen and surround sound. Impressive. I noticed when leaving, the people, half older, were silent and thoughtful. I realised the people had been still and silent inside as well. Sometime after the turn of the century, the movie was playing again in a major theater. This time, a much younger crowd seemed to think they were in a video game. Yelling and cheering as bombs fell and sailors were blown off ships. On the way out, they were still loudly excited about the action. I realised this group of twentysomethings grew up on video games rather than real history. My last daughter, now 26, told me they had only one paragraph about WW2 in class. She had asked to see some of my books to learn more.

 

[T Bolt]

When my son was in grade school (he's now 21) he got in trouble for arguing with a teacher because she insisted that Germany did not take part World War II. My wife had to stop me from going to that school and starting my own argument.

 

[SaparotRob]

When my son was in grade school (he's now 21) he got in trouble for arguing with a teacher because she insisted that Germany did not take part World War II. My wife had to stop me from going to that school and starting my own argument.

Closest I got to that was when I was a 3rd grader. I did a book report on "The Sinking of the Bismarck ". The teacher told me airplanes don't carry torpedoes.

 

[SaparotRob]

Yo' special ed, tell that teacher about "World War Two" on YouTube. Look for the name "Indy Neidel " in the description. They do each week "live". Today they are broadcasting the attack on Pearl Harbor minute by minute. I had to take my wife to the dentist so I missed the attack. The information they have is incredible. Problem is I'm going to have to wait for another 3 years to find out how the Second World War ends.

 

[special ed]

When I was in jr. high and high school, most of my male teachers had been involved in the war, either in it, or in production. My 9th grade history teacher had flown P-40s and that is how I learned about gun convergence. He did not talk of any thing else. One of my gym teachers had been on destroyers in the North Atlantic. When anyone complained about cold weather, he would say "You don't know cold until you are chipping ice in the Atlantic". My wood shop teacher had Malaria one day and then I knew he had been in the Pacific, but he didn't discuss it.

 

[Graeme]

Sometime after the turn of the century

I remember in 1998 sitting with friends (adults) who had just seen "Saving Private Ryan".
Drinking beers - one guy asked "what war was that?"
The others had no idea - then they all agreed - "it was World War I"

Funny, yet depressing....

 

[rochie]

I once lost a pub quiz on the question

What was the desert fox, General Rommel's first name ?

Apparently it was Edmund not Erwin !

 

[special ed]

I had helped my first daughter and son in law with a quiz in a sports bar ( same as pub) with the answer to who Hitler assigned to counter the coming invasion. When I said Rommel, they argued but our table was the only one who got that right.

 

[windhund116]

As a child, I remember a friend who lived across the street's Dad was sitting on the tailgate of his pickup truck. He was drinking a beer and talking about the Navy. He was on a DDS, which was one of the picket ships during the Okinawa Invasion. He said men just went crazy during the Kamikaze attacks. Either jump off their vessels or wouldn't stop shooting the AA guns. He said it took a very long time to acknowledge any Japanese. Even Japanese-American. The hatred was that strong.

He couldn't believe how times had changed. There he was sitting on his Isuzu pickup tailgate, drinking a Bud.

 

[tyrodtom]

I once lost a pub quiz on the question

What was the desert fox, General Rommel's first name ?

Apparently it was Edmund not Erwin !

From Wiky it's Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel.

 

[fubar57]

Oh Wiki, you never fail to disappoint

 

[Admiral Beez]

Seems that WW2 is fading from the minds of many Americans.

Not just Americans. To someone born in the 1980s or later the Second World War seems about as historic or distant as the Spanish-American War, Battle of Trafalgar or the Varian Disaster.

As for myself, I've just finished ten episodes of probably the best summation of Pearl Harbour I've ever seen.

 

[tyrodtom]

Oh Wiki, you never fail to disappoint

Wiki probably isn't the best source to be quoting .
But after checking out there , it's got his name in several different orders. Erwin first in most, Johannes and Eugen switched in some.
But Edmund is in none of them.
Rommel's family was evidently like a lot of families in earlier times, they saddled their new born children with every name in the family tree.

 

[fubar57]

I've only ever seen Erwin
Erwin Rommel | Biography, Death, & Facts

 

[Zippythehog]

My grandfather worked in the Curtis-Wright plant. When my great uncles visited for holidays, I would always ask them about their wartime experiences.
One was a tail gunner in a B-29. He only ever shot at a twin engine Japanese plane, once.
The other was a paratrooper in the 11th Airborne. He never talked about the Philippines.
My great uncle Bob (yes, Bob WAS my uncle), was a motorcycle air cop in the AAF. He had some great, stories about stateside service.

 

[muskeg13]

Just finished Tora Tora Tora. I have it on Amazon Prime and make a point to watch it each "Pearl Harbor Day" while working on guns or reloading ammunition. Good thing I purchased it several years ago, because there was no recognition of the day's historical significance on any of my 500 or so uninteresting paid for channels. Depressing as that is, I now see that Chuck Yeager has passed.

 

[windhund116]

I now see that Chuck Yeager has passed.

He was one of those few that connected WW2 to the modern jet/rocket era. May he rest in peace.