12-07-2011, 02:41 PM
I do remember listening to the radio, as a six-year old, I really didn't understand what the president was saying about a "day of infamy", but during the next few years I got to understand. I remember the blackouts and air raid sirens, I guess I should have been scared, but I wasn't. I remember thinking, even being that young, "wouldn't it be great to read a newspaper headline that wasn't about the war".
There was this lady that lived downstairs from us, she had one of those banners in her window, one star for each son serving. Her's had three stars, one was gold. I remember being in the movies where you got to see the latest Newsreels, and I caught a glimpse of my uncle on the screen. He was a gunner on a ship in the Pacific. I don't know which one or what type, but it didn't matter. There was pride, watching your uncle shoot at the enemy and then fear that he wouldn't make it home. But he did, and he brought me a present, a Japanese rifle that he brought back from the war. What a treasure, but it was given away when I left for the service myself in '52. Nope, I never saw combat, I was in the Air Force right at the beginning of the jet age, but I do remember seeing some B29's on the tarmac that we used to tow targets for jets to fire their air-to-air missiles at. I always thought that was a degrading way to use those proud birds that did so much to win the big war just a few years prior. It was....
Down at the Arizona state capitol today, they rang the bell from the USS Arizona, and call out names. They do that every year since the bell was retrieved. I saw pictures on the news today of a man that was at the USS Arizona memorial. He was there 70 years ago, and the reporter asked him what he thought when people called him a hero. He pointed to the ship that lay under the water and said, "there are the real heroes, they're still there".
No my friend, a lot of people remember. The ranks of those that were there that day are getting smaller, but their legacy must live on for eternity. Someday, the history books will reduce that day to a single paragraph and the entire war to a page or two, but no one should be allowed to forget.
There was this lady that lived downstairs from us, she had one of those banners in her window, one star for each son serving. Her's had three stars, one was gold. I remember being in the movies where you got to see the latest Newsreels, and I caught a glimpse of my uncle on the screen. He was a gunner on a ship in the Pacific. I don't know which one or what type, but it didn't matter. There was pride, watching your uncle shoot at the enemy and then fear that he wouldn't make it home. But he did, and he brought me a present, a Japanese rifle that he brought back from the war. What a treasure, but it was given away when I left for the service myself in '52. Nope, I never saw combat, I was in the Air Force right at the beginning of the jet age, but I do remember seeing some B29's on the tarmac that we used to tow targets for jets to fire their air-to-air missiles at. I always thought that was a degrading way to use those proud birds that did so much to win the big war just a few years prior. It was....
Down at the Arizona state capitol today, they rang the bell from the USS Arizona, and call out names. They do that every year since the bell was retrieved. I saw pictures on the news today of a man that was at the USS Arizona memorial. He was there 70 years ago, and the reporter asked him what he thought when people called him a hero. He pointed to the ship that lay under the water and said, "there are the real heroes, they're still there".
No my friend, a lot of people remember. The ranks of those that were there that day are getting smaller, but their legacy must live on for eternity. Someday, the history books will reduce that day to a single paragraph and the entire war to a page or two, but no one should be allowed to forget.
Don (ezdays) Day
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD