A moment of silence

Thanks guys! My Dad had just turned 21; he and a bunch of the fellas from his neighborhood went down and joined the Army shortly after this pivotal event in their lives.
Mom and Dad married shortly after the war and I joined the crew about a year later. Heard stories the entire time I grew up from Dad, his friends and my Uncles and Aunts about how this changed their lives; what they had done during the war.

Best,

Dave
 
Dave Siciliano said:
Thanks guys! My Dad had just turned 21; he and a bunch of the fellas from his neighborhood went down and joined the Army shortly after this pivotal event in their lives.
Mom and Dad married shortly after the war and I joined the crew about a year later. Heard stories the entire time I grew up from Dad, his friends and my Uncles and Aunts about how this changed their lives; what they had done during the war.

Best,

Dave
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I don't know the exact date of my Dad's joining the Air Force (Army Air Corps) but I believe it was soon after Pearl Harbor as well. I do know that while he was rather reluctant to talk about all his experiences, he was quite proud of what he and his armed services friends accomplished for our country.
 
I don't think many people realize how macro events can change their lives. My Dad's life was during the Great Depression as a boy; then, WWII as a young man. Those events completely changed his life. Mom was younger and was a child at the end of the depression and a teen in the war.

Most people today haven't had to deal with events like that. Not saying they haven't had challenges in their life, but not major macro events that changed almost everything.

Best,

Dave
 
My Dad tried to sign up when he was 16 in Duncan, OK. He finally made it into the Army when he turned 18 and ended up in Okinawa after the island was secured involved in setting up supply depots for the expected invasion of the Japanese mainland. After the war he was sent to Korea and built hospitals and schools as part of an Army construction battalion.

He was headed to Europe from Ft. Lewis, WA when the train stopped in the middle of the night somewhere in ID and the engine was swapped around to take the troop train back to board a supply ship headed west. The convoy took several weeks while avoiding a typhoon and suspected enemy submarine activity. He remembered sleeping under the Army trucks on deck to escape the claustrophobic quarters below.
 
Thanks for posting this Dave. It is good to reflect on our history and the sacrifices others have made - some voluntarily and some not.
 
How to continue the memory? Already, millions have no clue what happened. I think I saw one tiny clipping on the national news website I read. Another generation and it might be completely gone. Will it then be repeated?
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
How to continue the memory? Already, millions have no clue what happened. I think I saw one tiny clipping on the national news website I read. Another generation and it might be completely gone. Will it then be repeated?
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It's sad that question even has to be considered. Far too much about our history is not taught out of political correctness. I'm not making this political by any means. It's just that we cannot afford to forget the cost of lives in history that allows us the freedom we have today.

I never knew much about what my dad was involved in until long after he was gone. Unfortunately, many of those men and women have passed without the recognition due.
 
Dave, to answer your question about not forgetting... would it not be cool to arrange a GA fly-over of a harbor or beachfront (not necessarily Pearl, of course, I don't think you'd get that many GA aircraft in Hawaii), one plane for each man/woman who lost their lives at Pearl Harbor, on December 7th. Well publicized, would be a fitting tribute. A single-file stream of 2,403 planes... would take all day. Each plane, in trail, wags its wings over the harbor/beach...
 
Dad was a bit young in 1941, but he wound up in the Navy in 1944. Corpsman, in hospitals in California. Mom's brother-in-law flew right seat in B-17s out of England at the end of the war in Europe. Dad's brother was an officer in the Navy on destroyers (IIRC, west pac at the end of the war). Wife's parents were in the Army in Europe. MiL landed on Omaha Beach on June 7, 1944 (Army nurse).

More than any war other than the Civil War (OK, you guys in the South - The War of Northern Agression, The War for Southern Independence...) this one impacted people in all areas of society. It was, indeed, total war. People fighting and the rest producing for the war effort. May we never see its like again.
 
TangoWhiskey said:
Dave, to answer your question about not forgetting... would it not be cool to arrange a GA fly-over of a harbor or beachfront (not necessarily Pearl, of course, I don't think you'd get that many GA aircraft in Hawaii), one plane for each man/woman who lost their lives at Pearl Harbor, on December 7th. Well publicized, would be a fitting tribute. A single-file stream of 2,403 planes... would take all day. Each plane, in trail, wags its wings over the harbor/beach...
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If anyone could pull this off, it's EAA.

Heck, I bet they put at least 2403 planes over the shoreline of Lake Winnebago to land on 27 during OSH!

Count me in.
 
RMCN172RG said:
They would have to dig the old 8th Air Force operations manual out to organize that.
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I dunno, I think they probably depart well over 2403 airplanes on the last day of the show.

It'd be a lot more difficult to get that many airplanes to participate on Dec. 7th, though - That's "not flying season." (Psh.)
 
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