Pearl Harbor Day today 7 DEC 41

[DaveHH]

The best Pearl Harbor story I ever heard was from my best friend's father. He was a Marine stationed at Kaneohe and was walking guard duty when the Japanese aircraft attacked. He said that he and two other guys were on a hillside up high in some large rocks. He said that the Zeros would make their attack and pull straight up the side of the cliff and then stall off and redive back down onto the base below. There was a BAR man with him but the guy was too frightened to do much and ultimately soiled himself out of fear. If the pilots had seen these guys they were dead meat and they knew it. JB said that the Zeros were so close that you could hear the 30 Cal rounds from their '03s smack into the sheet metal as they slowly turned back into the valley. Apparently someone hit one of the pilots as the guy skidded into the ground and the engine flew off the front and into someones house. JB went on to land at Saipan later in the war. I can't imagine what that must have been like, shooting point blank into the belly of a Japanese zero while trying to keep down and not be seen.

[imarangemaster]

Watching the news and some young folks I know the often used label of "snowflake" really seems to fit. It seems as though life has become to easy for the young. The deprivation & hard ship of my grandparents & parents generation and even the earlier "baby boomers" seems to me to provide a level of
toughness which to a great degree is lacking in many of subsequent generations. There are obviously exceptions to this generalization. I am wondering if others here find this to be true?

I agree. I was born in 1952, the last of four kids. My dad, the Iwo Jima veteran, worked two jobs to take care of us. We ate food from the garden, marked down meat, and would split a pound of hamburger 6 ways for dinner. Virtually all of my clothes were hand-me-downs from my older brothers. I walked a mile each way to grammar school. I started working at 12 for neighbors, and 15 as a dishwasher at a restaurant that I rode my bike 5 miles each way. We were raised to work hard and contribute to society. My sister was a nurse for 40 years, many of that as a nurse in the Army reserve. One brother was a Capt. in Vietnam, one in the Peace Corp, and me in the Army, Air Force Reserve, then as a cop.

My kids are in their 40s, and all started working in their teens if that wanted to buy something. I raised 5 on a cop's pay, so there was not much extra, so in many ways mirrored the upbringing I had. Consequently, they are all successful. My son the Fire Chief complains about the 20 somethings and their terrible work ethic. He (and my other kids) thank me for raising them to work and contribute.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

I raised 5 on a cop's pay,

No small feat there.
No offspring here but it sounds as though you took up my slack. Thank you for that, and raising them the way I hope that I would have had I been fortunate enough to have any.
A friend of mine's parents raised four on a grocery store Managers pay with a SAH mom. All share the parents work ethic and are successful in their chosen fields.
Probably more out there than I think. The snow flakes get all the press.

[CINDERS]

Yamamoto's words came back to bite him as he stated "I fear we have awoken a sleeping giant." after the Pearl attack.

One of my Uncles volunteered for active service in WWII but was unfit for duty, but that did not stop the bastard$ of the day "Tar & Feathering" him for a long time he used to receive a white feather in the mail.

I also believe though the WWI generation were of an equal caliber as the WWII generation of which we know so much about the bloody conditions they went through which we may surmise was the catalyst for the WWII generation being so devoted to the cause to rid the world of evil.
I brought a book & have just started to read "The Black Watch" Fighting in the front line 1899 - 2006 By Victoria Schofield it is very interesting read so far but I now have to go out & get the 1st volume she did to complete the history.

I am afraid this generation has not the drive of us that had to endure starving and raggity clothes. We were seven in the house(I was ar$e end charlie of the brood) my Dad was TPI from the war mum worked as a cleaner at night to help supplement the meager earnings from our corner shop.
I started work in a stable in Grade 5 picking up horse $hit by hand before school so I could buy small toys then sold newspapers and so on.
But as a child I ate plenty of black sand from our back yard as GI Joe & I fought the plastic grey soldiers that kept attacking our home.
Like most of us here was raised with the genre if you wanted something you sweated blood to get it that way you respected what you brought.
Now days in the throw away society they do not have the same drive as we the generation that gets closer to the finish line each day have.

I worked with a POW of the Germans in WWII for a couple of years of a story I will tell perhaps later anyway we were building a wooden crossover bridge on the farm and eating smoko of course we were talking of WWII.
I said that there seemed to be a shift in the attitude in society (1979 this was) when he Ken (Dec) turned to me and said this;

"In days of old we had men of steel and buildings of wood."
"Today we have buildings of steel and men of wood."
I have never forgotten his words to this day I reckon he was spot on.

[JimF4M1s (Deceased)]

Combat soldiers from any war have seen and been through a lot. I don't feel any generation of these men are better or greater than another. Just earlier or later.

That time changes a person. They may not talk about it, but they feel it inside and will carry it to their grave.

The men I served with, when we have a reunion, never talk about our combat time. All we talk about is "how is your family doing. Any new grandkids", stuff like that. We give each other a look or a nod when they lower the flag and play taps. That's enough for us.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Combat soldiers from any war have seen and been through a lot. I don't feel any generation of these men are better or greater than another. Just earlier or later.

I believe that to be true as well. I just wonder more about the general public. Not those who answer the call who are the best of each generation.