On December 7, 1941 Japanese bombers obliterated the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor. My father, a junior at McKinley High, saw the silver planes flying overhead on that clear Sunday morning but didn’t realize anything was out of the ordinary until he saw smoke rising from the Ewa (western) direction of Oahu.
It was a day that changed everything. Millions of Americans answered the call.
While the majority survived the War with life and limbs intact, hundreds of thousands did not, like my wife’s uncle. Some found the armed services to be to their liking and made it a career, like my uncle who was the best auto mechanic I ever knew. Others, like my father-in-law, seized the opportunity offered by the GI bill and went on to college and jobs that they would never previously have considered.
At the U.S.S. Arizona memorial the names of the fallen are inscribed on the wall. Are we worthy of their sacrifice? Perhaps......if we preserve, protect, and pass on the gifts they have given us.
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