REMEMBERING PEARL HARBOR

Eighteen U.S. warships were sunk or run aground, including five battleships, and 2,403 Americans were killed on December 7, 1941 during the Japanese airstrike on Pearl Habor

I remember sitting in a movie theater on December 7, 1941 in my hometown of Marshall Texas. I don’t remember the name of the movie I was watching, but I do remember the movie being stopped in the middle and the theater lights coming on.

The theater manager jumped on the stage and announced that the ‘Japs’ had just attacked Pearl Harbor. After a moment of stunned silence, shouts erupted all over the theater, many of them going something like this: “We’ll beat them damn Japs in three months.” Anger was interspersed with some laughter. Then the lights went back out and the movie continued.

Marshall was one of those sleepy little towns of East Texas. Men of fighting age at the time did not wait to get drafted. They up and volunteered. Instead of beating the Japs in three months, some of those theater goers were killed within three months. And many more within six months.

You’ve got to hand it to the Japanese. Their sneak attack on Pearl Harbor was brilliant and daring. They managed to disable or sink 18 of our warships, including five battleships, and they destroyed almost all our warplanes stationed in Hawaii. The Japanese made only one tactical mistake and it proved to be a fatal mistake. They struck Pearl Harbor when all American aircraft carriers were out to sea. Has our aircraft carriers been anchored at Pearl Harbor like our battleships, the war would have gone on much longer and many more American lives would have been lost.

What is really sad today is that many of our recent high school and college graduates don’t have the foggiest idea of what happened on December 7, 1941. To them, “Remember Pearl Harbor,” like “Remember the Alamo,” is just a slogan some old fogies used at some time or another for some reason or another.

It’s important that we remember Pearl Harbor because, even though we were not at war at the time, 2,403 Americans gave their lives for our country just as sure as if they had been fighting to preserve our freedoms and way of life.

A word of advice to the unknowing Millennials: Take the free time, of which you have a lot, to study and learn about the events surrounding December 7, 1941, because those 2,403 brave Americans who lost their lives that day helped make it possible for you to squander your college years taking worthless courses. They helped make it possible for your parents to prosper so they could continue to shelter and feed you after college. And they helped make it possible for you to spend your waking hours protesting against police brutality and other radical left-wing causes. So, from now on remember Pearl Harbor!