I had the privilege of meeting one of the last World War II fighter pilots. A modest, soft-spoken old man who sat at the back of the church, I had chatted with him for years before learning of his story.
He had been interested in flying as a youth and joined the Army before the war. At this time the Air Force was not a separate branch of the U.S. military and aircraft operations were under the Army. He and his friend group graduated a little while before America's entry into the war and he served throughout the conflict.
He was first stationed in the European theater and escorted bombers over Germany, then moved to the Pacific theater where he worked with the Flying Tigers. When the war was over he returned to the States, raised a family, and worked until his mid-nineties.
Some of his friends were not so lucky. One, he told me, was still stationed on the U.S.S. Arizona.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor took place without official warning on December 7th, 1941, just before 8 AM on Sunday morning. After an hour and a half of strafing, bombing, and torpedo runs the attack ended killing thousands, bringing the nominally neutral United States into the second war, and leaving several important vessels destroyed, most famously the U.S.S. Arizona, which contributed most of the casualties.
President FDR declared December 7th to be "a date which shall live in infamy." The psychological blow was huge. Enraged Americans went through the winter with little to celebrate until the April 18th Doolittle raid the next spring successfully bombed the Japanese homeland.
The war went on at high cost to both sides and resolved as you know. As the decades go by and living memory passes away the impact of the attack on Pearl Harbor fades as well. In many ways it seems now just another day.
But it isn't. The attack on Pearl Harbor is part of the American story that so many people are eager to be done with but it is still here. It still matters. It is part of a tradition of courage in danger, tenacity in darkness, and steel in the hands of steely men.
While the occasions of our past may be too remote to excite our emotions they are still instructive to the present. These were men and we are their descendants. It is our duty to study their examples, to learn what we can so we can do what we must.
The attack on Pearl Harbor is one such occasion. There are many, many others. Let this day be a yearly reminder of your opportunity to study at the feet of great men.
The old fighter pilot told me one story that stuck like glue. While flying over Europe he had lost one engine and had to fly through a hundred miles of enemy-controlled territory to get back to the Allied base. "People ask me how I did it," he said in his whispery voice and leaned forward to give his answer.
"I told them, 'You just have to figure it out.'"
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