Tora…

 

*click infographic to enlarge.

Tora! Tora! Tora! Dec. 7th 1941

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2,403

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forged in fire

Pearl Harbor 1941

HARVS on the way in shot by a P-47. Rare shot.

Pearl Harbor 1941

Pearl Harbor 1941

Pearl Harbor 1941

Pearl Harbor 1941

Pearl Harbor 1941

Pearl Harbor 1941

USS Arizona in flames. December 7, 1941

Pearl Harbor 1941

Pearl Harbor 1941

Pearl Harbor 1941

Pearl Harbor 1941

Pearl Harbor 1941

Pearl Harbor 1941

Pearl Harbor 1941

Pearl Harbor 1941

Pearl Harbor 1941

Pearl Harbor 1941

Sailors Dec. 7, 1941

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For the young men that gave it all on this fateful day 72 years ago, thank you for your sacrifice and for the love of our country. We will never forget, and we won’t let your sacrifice be in vain. We will continue to defend our country and what it stands for, against all enemies.

Semper Fi  

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A very different and interesting conclusion of the December 7th attack on Pearl Harbor.   

Tour boats ferry people out to the USS  Arizona Memorial in Hawaii
every thirty minutes.

We just missed a ferry and had to wait thirty minutes.

I went into a small gift shop to kill time.

In the gift shop, I purchased a small book entitled, “Reflections on
Pearl Harbor” by Admiral Chester Nimitz.

Sunday, December 7th, 1941–Admiral Chester Nimitz was attending a concert in Washington D.C.

He was paged and told there was a phone call for him.

When he answered the phone, it was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

He told Admiral Nimitz that he (Nimitz) would now be the
Commander of the Pacific Fleet.

Admiral Nimitz flew to Hawaii to assume command of the
Pacific Fleet.

He landed at Pearl Harbor on Christmas Eve, 1941.

There was such a spirit of despair, dejection and
defeat–you would have thought the Japanese had already won the war.

On Christmas Day, 1941, Adm. Nimitz was given a boat tour of the destruction wrought on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese.

Big sunken battleships and navy vessels cluttered the waters
every where you looked.

As the tour boat returned to dock, the young helmsman of the  boat asked, “Well Admiral, what do you think after seeing all this
destruction?”

Admiral Nimitz’s reply shocked everyone within the sound of his voice.

Admiral Nimitz said, “The Japanese made three of the biggest

mistakes an attack force could ever make, or God was taking care of  America. Which do you think it was?”

Shocked and surprised, the young helmsman asked, “What do mean by saying the Japanese made the three biggest mistakes an attack force ever made?”

Nimitz explained:

Mistake number one: the Japanese attacked on Sunday morning.

Nine out of every ten crewmen of those ships were ashore on leave. If those same ships had been lured to sea and been sunk–we would have lost 38,000 men instead of 3,800.

Mistake number two: when the Japanese saw all those
battleships lined in a row, they got so carried away sinking those
battleships, they never once bombed our dry docks opposite
those ships.  If they had destroyed our dry docks, we would have had to tow every one of those ships to America to be repaired. As it is now, the ships are in shallow water and can be raised. One tug can pull them over to the dry docks, and we can have them repaired and at sea by the time we could have towed them to America. And I already
have crews ashore anxious to man those ships.

Mistake number three: Every drop of fuel in the Pacific
theater of war is on top of the ground in storage tanks five miles away over that hill.

One attack plane could have strafed those tanks and
destroyed our fuel supply.

That’s why I say the Japanese made three of the biggest
mistakes an attack force could make, or God was taking care of America.

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I’ve never forgotten what I read in that little book.

It is still an inspiration as I reflect upon it.

In jest, I might suggest that because Admiral Nimitz was a
Texan, born and raised in Fredricksburg, Texas — he was a born optimist.

But anyway you look at it–Admiral Nimitz was able to see a silver lining in a situation and circumstance where everyone else saw only despair and defeatism.

President Roosevelt had chosen the right man for the right
job.

We desperately needed a leader that could see silver linings
in the midst of the clouds of dejection, despair and defeat.

There is a reason that our national motto is, “IN GOD WE TRUST.”

VIA:  Pearl Harbor Mistakes

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• December 7, 1941 – Never Forget (fggam.org)