Van's Air Force
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I havent forgotten
- Thread starter Mike S
- Start date
MacCool
Well Known Member
The Arizona Memorial is very moving, knowing that I was standing over the grave of 900 servicemen. My wife and I were both annoyed at the disrespect shown by many of the non-Americans in our boat group, despite the pleas by the Park Service to show dignity and respect.
I shot this image from a helicopter that we chartered, flying over Pearl and Battleship Row. Oil is still seeping to the surface from the Arizona.
If you go there, also tour the USS Missouri. We took the more extended, privately guided tour and that was fascinating.
We stayed at the north end...right underneath the old Opana radar station (now upgraded).
Our helicopter tour did include an emergency forced landing in the middle of downtown Kaneohe, but that's another story.
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I shot this image from a helicopter that we chartered, flying over Pearl and Battleship Row. Oil is still seeping to the surface from the Arizona.
If you go there, also tour the USS Missouri. We took the more extended, privately guided tour and that was fascinating.
We stayed at the north end...right underneath the old Opana radar station (now upgraded).
Our helicopter tour did include an emergency forced landing in the middle of downtown Kaneohe, but that's another story.
..
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Roadjunkie1
Well Known Member
Day of Infamy
As a kid, I remember having known quite a few WW II vets because I was born not long after the events. One was a jeweler in a store I worked in who survived the Batan Death March. He was an interesting man who, when he made a mistake on something, let the whole store know and they might have learned a few words they might not have known before they came in the store! He never spoke a word about being a vet or the War.
Some of the B-17 pilots I met being with the Aluminum Overcast on some of its tour stops, were interesting. Some would just say a few words...'What did you do to my airplane?'...some, you couldn't stop them from telling stories. 'Flack was so thick you could walk on it!' Those men and women are quickly disappearing. Then Korean vets got old. Now it's Viet Nam vets who are the old ones. The further away we get from these events, the less people pay attention to what happened and why. It's up to us to remind them. I am amazed at some of the younger people I meet who have no idea what happened in Viet Nam, and that wasn't that long ago!
Those who don't remember history are doomed to repeat it. I worry about those who never knew about it in the first place! Batan Death March? What was that?
Never Forget.....but maybe more importantly, Never Forget to Remind People.
As a kid, I remember having known quite a few WW II vets because I was born not long after the events. One was a jeweler in a store I worked in who survived the Batan Death March. He was an interesting man who, when he made a mistake on something, let the whole store know and they might have learned a few words they might not have known before they came in the store! He never spoke a word about being a vet or the War.
Some of the B-17 pilots I met being with the Aluminum Overcast on some of its tour stops, were interesting. Some would just say a few words...'What did you do to my airplane?'...some, you couldn't stop them from telling stories. 'Flack was so thick you could walk on it!' Those men and women are quickly disappearing. Then Korean vets got old. Now it's Viet Nam vets who are the old ones. The further away we get from these events, the less people pay attention to what happened and why. It's up to us to remind them. I am amazed at some of the younger people I meet who have no idea what happened in Viet Nam, and that wasn't that long ago!
Those who don't remember history are doomed to repeat it. I worry about those who never knew about it in the first place! Batan Death March? What was that?
Never Forget.....but maybe more importantly, Never Forget to Remind People.
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My wife is Sansei, Father in Law is Nisei. Rohwer Internment Camp '42-43. 442nd Regiment, Italy, '43-46.
BTW, if you want to read an excellent historical fiction novel from the Japanese perspective, read The Eternal Zero, by Naoki Hyakuta. I personally hate historical fiction, I loved this novel, and even the US Naval Institute Proceedings had a writeup about it.
If you can find the movie version, drop what you're doing and watch it. It's that good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=123ihd2TcFQ
BTW, if you want to read an excellent historical fiction novel from the Japanese perspective, read The Eternal Zero, by Naoki Hyakuta. I personally hate historical fiction, I loved this novel, and even the US Naval Institute Proceedings had a writeup about it.
If you can find the movie version, drop what you're doing and watch it. It's that good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=123ihd2TcFQ
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I haven’t forgotten either. I look at that memorial and think of my grandfathers and other relatives who fought in the Pacific Theater, including my great uncle who was KIA and is stilled buried in the Aleutian Islands. I am thankful to them for what they taught me about sacrifice and love of country. And it was my grandfather’s love of warbirds that first got me into aviation. It makes me sad when I realize we have lost most of those brave men and when I think about how different my generation and the younger generation are in so many ways. I think it was Bull Randleman in the intro to one of the Band of Brothers episodes that said this: "We came from a small, small town...and three fellows in that town that were 4F committed suicide. Because they couldn't go. A different time."
A different time indeed.
A different time indeed.
