Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Pearl Harbor

As I'm sure most of you know, this is the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. I didn't have any relatives there, but when I was researching my World War II novels several years ago I talked to some veterans who were there that day, as well as participating in such pivotal battles as Midway and the Coral Sea. Fascinating, horrifying, inspiring stuff. And talking to those gentlemen made me very grateful that they were there so decades later a scribbler like me can write about those events. Hats off to them all.

4 comments:

Cap'n Bob said...

I had an uncle that was wounded at Pearl. He got a disability check every month for the rest of his life, which he promptly spent on booze. He ended up a wino and froze to death in the gutter one winter night. I never met the man.

Anonymous said...

Nice story, Cap'n!

My father enlisted after Pearl Harbor. He was 17 so needed his mother's permission. He spent 4 years (mostly) in England working on planes.

Jeff M.

James Reasoner said...

My dad, who was older and already had a family, was drafted before the war was over but didn't go overseas until after Germany surrendered. Then he was sent over in the Signal Corps and said that he strung telephone wire over all of Austria and half of Germany. One of my uncles was a medic in Burma, two more were truck drivers and convoyed supplies from Indian into China. Livia's dad was a Marine and worked as a guard at a POW camp in California. He was supposed to be part of the force that invaded Japan, but the war was over before that operation got underway. My uncle who was the medic was the closest to combat, but he said his unit never even saw any Japanese soldiers, although there were some in the area.

James Reasoner said...

India, not Indian. Not enough sleep last night.