Pearl Harbor, Did your Parents or Grandparents tell were they were then, 78 years ago.

[Scrammer]

My grandmother told me her and grandfather were a small community Christmas party. Music was playing on the radio when it was interrupted by the announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The party packed up and everybody went home.
The next day my oldest uncle went to town and joined the navy. He was on the USS Chicago when it was sunk that Fall, survived it and the war.
I'm afraid to many important stories have been lost and are being lost us.
It's important to remember our past that we come from.
Even now Google home page doesn't recognize this day, at least Bing shows respect to Pearl Harbor.

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[Hop Sing]

My dad enlisted in the army in 1938 so he'd have something to eat, so by that time he was an aircraft mechanic in the Army Air Force in Texas. He said the whole base (Kelly Field) lit up with anger and excitement.

My mom was working in Chicago and quit her job and went back to help on the family farm in Wisconsin, as all my uncles enlisted shortly after Pearl Harbor and my grandparents needed help with the farm.

 

[CountryGent]

Curiously, none of grandparents ever mentioned it, to the best of my recollection. Though I had a great uncle, who I met at a funeral in my youth, who was at Pearl Harbor on a warship when the attack happened and he told me and my father of some of it. I had another great uncle who perished when the USS Liscome Bay was sunk during the war in the Pacific and my family still has his medals given posthumously.

 

[KKG]

My Parents had just gotten Married on October 31st. They had lived in a small town in NW Minnesota and Dad was a Corporal in the National Guard Coastal Artillery. His Unit had been Activated and he had been shipped to Riverside CA. Mom followed him there with other wives and sweethearts. After the Japanese attack he spent time in the Pacific Theater but also spent time in Germany, after the War ended.

 

[MannyGlocks]

Pearl Harbor - see Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Don't bubblegum with the U.S.

 

[CamoDeafie]

To the best of my recollection; my grandfathers did not serve in WW2... being too old. They may have served during the Great Depression, but I am not certain when the draft started to happen... my father was 4 months old when Pearl Harbor happened. My mom was born years after WW2.

 

[v0lcom13sn0w]

my grandpa told me he saw the japanese planes fly over. he grew up on oahu.

 

[808hondacrguy]

My dad was on the USS Missouri when it was sunk in Pearl Harbor. Ironically, I have two uncles on my moms side of the family that were Japanese pilots assigned to sink the Missouri. Awkward family gatherings, you say? They actually got along great.

 

[Mark W.]

My dad was on the USS Missouri when it was sunk in Pearl Harbor. Ironically, I have two uncles on my moms side of the family that were Japanese pilots assigned to sink the Missouri. Awkward family gatherings, you say? They actually got along great.

The Missouri was launched January 29, 1944 you need to get your family history adjusted

 

[Mark W.]

Moms dad was Mounted Cavalry from 1927 to 1942 so he was active duty at the time a First Sgt I believe. He fought in the South Pacific he was in the army 26 years.

My dad parents were German Apostolic Christians they were living in Elgin Il and working at the Watch factory. At the time the announcement would have been on the radio they would have been most likely still involved with church stuff. Grandpa was 41 at the time of the attack. Dad was just 4

Not long after that the union at the factory found out none of the family (there were maybe 10 members of the family working at the Watch or Case Factory at the time) were not buying war bonds so they cornered my grandfather, his brother and a couple cousins and beat the crap out of them because they spoke German and weren't buying bonds so they must have been NAZI sympathizers. 17 people connected with our family quit work within a week of that. Mostly because they were told if they didn't start working in the bomb fuse section of the factory they would be fired. Thing is they were all so opposed to any sort of War and killing they couldn't have anything to do with it. Think once step removed from Amish. SO Grandpa did handy man work and grandma took in clothes to repair and they all about starved to death getting through the war. In 47 they moved to Silverton and things got a whole lot better.

 

[808hondacrguy]

The Missouri was launched January 29, 1944 you need to get your family history adjusted

My bad, he was on the Oklahoma, don't know where I got Missouri from

 

[Andy54Hawken]

My Grandfather was a factory worker before the War...he joined the Army and served in the 11th Airborne in the Pacific.
Andy

 

[Stomper]

My bad, he was on the Oklahoma, don't know where I got Missouri from

You probably mixed up the ships because the Missouri is permanently docked in Pearl Harbor representing where WWII began (for the USA) with the attack on Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII with the Japanese surrender aboard the Missouri...

photos from our trip there last July....

 

[Alexx1401]

He is gone now but father of a gal I knew al my life was on one of those ships when they were hit. He was a hayseed as he put it, never finished HS, joined at 17 to get a job. Even in his 90's he was amazingly sharp. He did not talk about it unless asked. If you did he would tell the tales of what it was like. Later would even laugh about saying how unreal the fear was while it was going on.
He later let the Navy send him back to school and then Officers school, retired full Commander. Not bad for starting out as a 17YO high school drop out. Sadly we don't turn out nearly as many people like this any more. Wars are not fought the same way any more and good they are not. Not sure we could win one with the youth of today.

 

[Alexx1401]

You probably mixed up the ships because the Missouri is permanently docked in Pearl Harbor representing where WWII began (for the USA) with the attack on Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII with the Japanese surrender aboard the Missouri...

photos from our trip there last July....

View attachment 638822View attachment 638823View attachment 638824View attachment 638825View attachment 638826

Which one was kept at Bremerton for a long time for the public to see? I got to go as a young man one time with some others. Tour the ship and it was an amazing sight. Later they put on an air show that impressed me no end, Navy jets fly in low and hit the gas and climb in front of us. Was a day I will never forget from so long ago.

 

[Tony617]

My dad's parents lived in Honolulu with their three kids.which one of them was my dad. He was seven years old. There were no skyscrapers in 1941 so while they couldn't see Pearl Harbor itself, they did see a lot of smoke from the Japanese attack.

 

[Mark W.]

The USS Missouri Was home ported and later moth balled in Bremerton then on its way to Hawaii they came to Astoria where my son and I stood in line for 4+ hours to get on board my son was 13 must have made an impression as he went on to be an ET in the NAVY for 10 years.

 

[Alexx1401]

The USS Missouri Was home ported and later moth balled in Bremerton then on its way to Hawaii they came to Astoria where my son and I stood in line for 4+ hours to get on board my son was 13 must have made an impression as he went on to be an ET in the NAVY for 10 years.

That must have been the one I was on then. I remember it being an impressive thing to walk along. Looking at those guns it's looked to me like I could almost crawl into one the bore was so big. Later when I saw video of the AZ going up it was hard to get around something that large blowing up almost all at once like that.
Watching those Navy pilots later did make me consider that but my eyesight was already bad enough by then that I was told that would never happen. Damn it looked like it must be fun!!!

 

[UnionMillsNW]

My Grandfather was on the USS Nevada in Pearl Harbor when it was attacked on December 7th. He was one of the few Officers on board and was badly wounded. He spent a year in the hospital, survived the war, and was awarded the Navy Cross and Purple Heart.

His father wasn't so lucky. A Navy Captain my Great Grandfather flew to Hawaii as one of the chief Navy Engineering Officers. He spent a year rebuilding Pearl Harbor and raising the sunken ships. He was killed when his plane crashed in 1943.

Sixty-Nine years later I had the honor of "Manning the Rails" as a U.S. Marine on the USS Peleliu as we put to port in Pearl Harbor on December 7th.

Never Forget.

 

[nehalemguy]

One of my great uncles was serving on the USS Patterson (destroyer) on the morning of the attack. He said that he was supposed to be on shore that morning but had traded or sold his shore leave.

He said that they were straffed a few times but came out relatively undamaged. They left Pearl that night under cover of darkness. He said that he didn't step foot off that ship for several months after that day.