Remembering the attack on Pearl Harbor

[Oyaji]

Some excellent photos and narrative from the Naval History and Heritage Command....

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-pac/pearlhbr/ph-bba.htm

[JB White]

My 48 star flag went up this morning at first light.

[MJ1]

Little or no reporting on the media and less on local news but ther local Buddist church rang the big bell at 9 AM for the dead. We still have a dozen members of the 422 RCBT in town.

[tmark]

Just saw Myths of Pearl Harbor on tv. The narrator said most of the footage shot by the Japanese planes were lost when the Japanese carriers sank at the battle of Midway.

[jon_norstog]

The Idaho State Journal (Pocatello) had a front page article on a local Pearl Harbor veteran. He was a seaman deuce on the USS Blue, a Bagley class DD. She got underway with just the OOD and three other ensigns running things, and subsequently was on picket duty outside Pearl. She went down at Guadalcanal on aUG 22, '42.

The guy is 88. I just looked at he paper on my way out of the neighborhood grocery. I'll buy the paper tomorrow and see if it has any interesting stuff to pass on this thread.

jn

[jon_norstog]

Darrell brought the paper to work today. The sailor's name is Harold Beebe. He was 17 years old, deck force assigned to one of the 5" mounts as a "pointer." He doesn't say, but I'm guessing crew was on port-and-starboard liberty and the boilers were lit. They went to GQ immediately, it sounds like.

"The first thing I saw was a plane with a big red ball on the side of it. It seemed close, like I could reach out and touch it, but it was about 200 feet out." As to the pilot "I could see him smiling."

There were four junior officers aboard. The OOD and EOW decided to go out and fight. Beebe said "It was just luck that the ship was ready to put out of port. We snapped loose and took off." The Blue stayed out 2 days.

When she came back to port Beebe was on deck and got a look at the wreckage. "I remember seeing a lot of oil. There was about this much oil over the top of the water" he said, indicating about 8 inches with his hands. "There was a lot of oil from the Arizona." He went on to say that the crew all wanted to fuel up, load as much ammo as they could and go after the entire Japanese Navy. "That would have been something, going after the Japanese Navy wit our two destroyers."

The Blue was torpedoed off Guadalcanal, but was not in the big fights of August 12-15. Beebe survived abd ended up on a CVA, the Hancock. After the war he came back to Pocatello met a girl on a blind date and is still maried to her. He got on as an engineer with Union Pacific. They have 10 grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren. Mr. Beebe took each of his 10 grandchildren to Hawaii as a graduation present, including visits to Pearl. The entire family mADE A TRIP TO Pearl in January this year. "They got to learn all about the attack, and they got to see how grandpa came out of it alive."

The story is in the pocatello Idaho State Journal, p. A-1, december 7,2011

jn

[da gimp]

neat jon, TY all 4 posting.

[Brad in Idaho]

Attended our local Pearl Harbor Day Memorial yesterday morning on the Snake River in Lewiston, ID. Here's a link to KLEW TV's website. When you get to the site look for the story "The Valley remembers Pearl Harbor." Click on it for a story and video report.

http://www.klewtv.com/

Last year we had 5 Pearl Harbor survivors in the valley. Sadly this year only 3, but two of them made it to the memorial.

[BruceHMX]

While most schools today never mentioned it let me add what my son's did. First the flag was at half mast, after the Pledge of Alligence they sang Achors Away and for the 5th grade watched Tora Tora Tora. We had a bunch of Navy, USMC, and Army vet's on hand to help the others draw pictures of that day. It was very moving. Best part was the giant Chirstmas tree when you walked in. Liberals have not robbed this Virginia school of where it came from. One of it's best USMC snipers sadly was taken from us last year. His portrait hangs proudly in the hall. He went to this school when he was 5. My Grandfather was on Baatan. Let us never forget and continue to teach the young. Not hate but readiness, the past and in short dose forgiveness. Please forgive my spelling been up since 5 and just got home. I loved the thread.

[John Sukey]

Local news did give good coverage of Pearl Harbor yesterday. Butthen this is Arizona

[edpm3]

Just got home from a trip to the Las Vegas area. The highlight of the trip was a visit to the Jean airport about 25 miles from Las Vegas. This past Wednesday morning at 7:48 AM they reenacted an incident that took place 70 years earlier at 7:48 (Hawaii time) at Pearl Harbor in which a female flight instructor and her student in an Interstate Cadet had to take evasive action to avoid a collision with a Japanese Zero. The small plane landed safely at a civilian airport, which was then strafed. The reenactment was performed with the actual Interstate Cadet involved in the incident and one of the very few flying Zeros left in the world. It was clear and cold but a fascinating event. The flight instructor's nephew, now in his 80s, told us some great stories about his aunt, who unfortunately died in 1943 while ferrying an airplane to Texas. She joined the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Service (forerunner to the WASPs) and sadly, was the first woman pilot in U.S. history to die on active duty.

The reenactment had somewhat of an airshow quality to it, but it was also sobering and caused everyone to reflect on what happened that day.

[Guamsst]

The Zeros flying are usually modified U.S. trainers, T-6 Texans and SNJ5's which are very similar in layout to the zero. I thought there was only 1 airworthy zero but a quick check shows the number has skyrocketed from 1 to 2....LOL If they had a real Zero I am guessing it was from Planes of Fame in Chino, Ca.

[John Sukey]

The smithsonian gave a flyable zero to Japan.
I remember that scene in the movie. the look on the woman's face was priceless!:eek:

[edpm3]

The Zeros flying are usually modified U.S. trainers, T-6 Texans and SNJ5's which are very similar in layout to the zero. I thought there was only 1 airworthy zero but a quick check shows the number has skyrocketed from 1 to 2....LOL If they had a real Zero I am guessing it was from Planes of Fame in Chino, Ca.

According to the pilot of this Zero, there are four still flying, but only one with an original engine. That's the A6M5 you mentioned in Chino, but he said it only flies at its home airport and is transported whenever it is displayed elsewhere. He said its original Sakae engine would not stand up to extended flights. The Commemorative Air Force Southern California Wing had a flying A6M3, but I don't know if it still flies.

The Zero that flew the reenactment on December 7th in Nevada is the only remaining flyable A6M2 and is from the Texas Flying Legends Museum. The pilot frequently flies it in air shows and has put 125 hours on it this year alone. He said that would be impossible with the original Sakae engine, but very do-able with the Pratt & Whitney 1830 that currently powers it. He also told me something I didn't know, that the first Zeros came off the line with P&W engines and the Sakae was a copy of the P&W. The P&W even bolts directly to the original engine mounts. We got a nice close-up look at the plane and it is a gorgeous restoration.

Anyway, the one we saw is the real deal. Here's what it looked three days ago:

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o265/edpm3/A62M/A62M.jpg