Fortress Of Good Fortune

Today is the 80th anniversary that will 'live in infamy': the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Not many veterans left as most are now in their 90s or higher. The 'sleeping giant' was awakened.

Recently I've been researching my father's Korean War experiences as part of a project to get a grave marker for him, and even though he did tell us some hair-raising stories before he died (when my sister and I were adults), I'm finding out more things that make me sad but very proud of my father's service. He was 17 when he joined the U.S. Army in February of 1952 and was shipped over to Korea in early 1953. He took part in battles such as Old Baldy and Pork Chop Hill (the 1959 movie of the same name starring Gregory Peck is exemplary), and he was a Purple Heart survivor. He was able to watch M*A*S*H* and point out what was realistic and what wasn't, having spent time in a unit as a patient. He became the youngest First Sergeant in the Korean theater of operations and later volunteered for jump school to become a paratrooper.

My father was of that World War II/Korean War generation who came back from the war, returned to civilian life and started a family while quietly dealing with his PTSD (known then as battle fatigue). I understand him better now after my research and wish that he could have been spared the nightmares and survivor's guilt, but that's the world we live in, unfortunately.

The Korean War is often referred to as The Forgotten War, which angers me no end. A war and its veterans should NEVER be forgotten and shunted aside. The war began on June 25, 1950, five years after the end of World War II, and a lot of the veterans called back up were resentful of having to run the gauntlet again after surviving World War II. Stories like the case of Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox were examples, as once again a considerable chunk of his baseball prime years were lost to service (he was a jet ace during the Korean War and was John Glenn's wingman). Others had begun to build lives after the last war and were interrupted once again for a dirty little war that sorely tried skills, patience and faith. Talking with some of the people helping me with the grave marker, I discovered that military people considered Korea an unusually grim and horrific war, even as wars go.

During this weekend of vacation and barbecues and fun, please take a moment to reflect and thank those who came before us to fight our country's wars and who paid a great price for it.

Thank you.

Today is the 74th anniversary of December 7, 1941, the day that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. I noticed that AMC had World War II movies on all day.

World War II is becoming very much like World War I and the Civil War: black-and-white photographs of a time long ago, with fewer and fewer people around to possess actual memories of the events. Fortunately, despite the usual historical amnesia of my fellow Americans, some people do remember important events like this one.

It's not that hard to understand the shock of the people alive on that date of infamy. If you were around on November 22, 1963, you understand. If you were around on September 11, 2001, you understand.

Many Americans in 1941 knew in the backs of their minds that war was coming. Some pretended it would never come. Others wanted it because they felt that if the Nazis won in Europe and knocked off Great Britain, we were next. Most of the attention was on Europe, so the attack on Pearl Harbor was probably even more of a shock. Many Americans didn't even know where Pearl Harbor was. It was a U.S. Navy base, with the Army stationed at nearby Hickam Field, and unless you were in the military or knew someone who was and had been stationed there, why would you know about it? But on December 7, 1941, all of America found out.

The great Japanese Admiral Isokoru Yamamoto opposed war with the United States. He had studied at Harvard in 1919-1921 and served as a naval attache in Washington for two postings, traveling the country and learning about Americans. He had seen the industrial capacity of the United States at first-hand and knew that a long war with the U.S would be a disaster.

He did plan the attack on Pearl Harbor as ordered, but upon learning that the diplomatic notification to the Americans had been delivered late, casting the attack in the light of a "sneak attack", he was famously quoted as saying, "I fear all we have done today is to awaken a great, sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." He predicted that he could "run wild" for six months to a year, but could offer no guarantees for the years after that. He was extremely prophetic.

The loss of life and ships was a psychic blow. The particular horror of what happened to the U.S.S. Arizona is commemorated today with the famous memorial in the harbor. Fortunately, the aircraft carriers were not in port that day, and would prove invaluable in battles like the Coral Sea and Midway.

It was a long time ago, but the events of 1941 and the subsequent years formed history (the Cold War and our current era) and led to the Korean and Vietnam Wars. It's good to remember the sacrifices.

Seventy-three years ago on a peaceful Sunday morning, while Americans went to church and read the Sunday paper and enjoyed Sunday dinner, had already started their holiday preparations, everything changed. Remember Pearl Harbor and all the lives lost that day: sailors (all the battleships, and especially the Arizona), soldiers, pilots, civilians. Remember all the souls lost in all of World War II, on every front, everywhere.

There are not many veterans left who remember that day. Not many civilians who were adults then, either. Most of those still around were either babies or children, some old enough to know something important had happened. Everyone became part of the war effort at home and overseas. There was rationing, paper and scrap drives, factories running 24/7, and war bond drives. The War was everywhere, and sometimes took the form of telegrams or grim-faced military men coming to tell widows and other loved ones sad news.

1941 was the last Christmas some families would all be together.

REMEMBER

DECEMBER 7, 1941

Today is the 69th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. It was the Third Reich's last gasp and Panzer units attacked and surrounded embattled towns like Bastogne and caused the Allied lines to be pushed back. The soldiers were thinking about Christmas and were mentally unprepared for the brutal struggle ahead.

Europeans said it was one of the worst winters in memory, and many soldiers froze to death as well as were killed in action. Allied planes were grounded due to bad weather and it was the largest land battle that American soldiers would ever be involved in. During the battle (which lasted well into January), the infamous Malmedy Massacre took place, with the S.S. killing dozens of American POWs. There was spy business going on as well, as trained Germans pretended to be Americans and misdirected American troops and switched signs, etc. It was a distressing time for people, hoping for the end of the war as they tried to celebrate the holidays back home, and the titanic struggle exploded just nine days before Christmas.

By the time the Allies pushed the Nazis back, many lives had been lost, but Germany was finally broken. They would never again put up a fight on the scale of the Battle of the Bulge, and the war would be over in Europe in May of 1945.

It was said that many of the American soldiers who were replacements and pretty green acquitted themselves well in this battle, and that when cut off from their units, they took the initiative without orders from superiors. The Germans were the better soldiers but the Americans were better at independent action when necessary.

Please remember the veterans of World War II and all veterans of all wars. Thank you.

Tomorrow is the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of Gettysburg during the Civil War. It was the turning point for the war as Robert E. Lee gambled and lost, sounding the death knell for the Confederacy though the war itself wouldn't end until April of 1865.

I've stood on Little Round Top where Joshua Chamberlain and his Maine soldiers defended and held a key point against the Rebels against incredible odds. The site echoes the ghosts of the battle, and it was a hot day in July and they were wearing those wool uniforms (or if they were wearing lighter material, I'm sure it still itched!). And don't let anyone tell you a place is just a place and means nothing. You can feel what happened there, even as the sun shines and the birds sing. Pickett's Charge was the last gasp and the South never truly recovered.

Gettysburg itself had many dead (men and horses) to bury in the withering heat of July. People wore handkerchiefs over their faces as they went about their grim business.

And, finally, in November of that year, President Abraham Lincoln gave his famous address at the cemetery.

It's a shame there isn't more acknowledgment of these events. There is a re-enactment going on in Gettysburg but people don't know or talk much about the seminal event in American history anymore: the Civil War itself. When the anniversaries were 100 years old, not 150, people cared. I remember reading an old Peanuts book from the early '60s and the kids went around in kepi hats and played Civil War soldiers as well as cowboys and Indians. Shows like The Twilight Zone featured several Civil War episodes. Lincoln, always popular in the American mind, was even more written and talked about during the Civil War Centennial.

Why should we care about a war long gone? Because it changed everything in this country and its effects are still being felt today.

In 1913, the survivors of Gettysburg got together for a reunion. Old men by then, the old silent films show them camping on the battlefield, Union and Confederate alike. Funny how wars like World War II and Korea are now getting as old and distant as the Civil War, trapped in their black-and-white images and the veterans are either old or dead.

Wars are terrible, but they are part of history and move events. It doesn't hurt to be more cognizant of history beyond last week.