Never Forget

On the 11th hour
of the 11th day
on the 11th month

They shall be remembered.

(failure to do so causes history to repeat, and more blood to spill)

Remember

For all of our problems, and our animosities toward each other in the USA, it should be remembered that we can organize and create amazing things, when motivated. We can build steel towers that defy wind and gravity by having the load bearing walls that stretch higher than any other tower on the planet. Two of them. And combined, contain more office space than all of downtown Miami in a two block radius on a small island in New York harbor. We, as Americans, can and have built massive structures such as the Hoover Dam, and interlocking Interstate Highway System and even put twelve men on the moon and brought them back. Those are examples of our government projects that work. Together, Americans can accomplish the impossible, or even the improbable. When they come together for common good, for our society, for our goofy consumer based, wasteful, capitalist lifestyle - Americans have done some amazing things.

There are others on the globe that hate us - some in other Western countries, and others in places that can only dream of our wealth, prosperity and waistlines. Whether it's because we flaunt it, are rude on vacation, or have carried out wars and assassinations to make sure we carry on. America has a bi-polar disease. We flaunt liberty and human rights while we have the largest prison population per capita than anyone else in the world. We expect human rights to not be ignored, but barely care when we hear our cheep toasters come from children working in deplorable conditions. And sure, the eight trips to Target in a week in the Lincoln MKX to pick up plastic bins that are on sale is silly and unsustainable. And we've done a lot of 'interesting' moves along the way to ensure the liberty of a lot of jack-asses. But that's our deal. We've done things to keep our silly lifestyle unmolested from foreign forces who would make us change our ways. But when you threaten us, we'll over react. Just ask Japan.

There are volumes of books about 9/11. How it happened, did it happen, who really did it... I'm not a conspiracy theory kind of guy. It was there, it was a symbol, and the bad guys wanted to send a message to America to cut it out. Twice. Once in February 26, the other on September 11th. They proved that they don't understand us, about as well as we don't understand them. Rather than getting into a geo-political discussion of the events leading up to and after 9/11... let's just remember that day. Remember everyone who died, and what you were doing, and how you felt when you saw the towers fall, and the walls of the Pentagon breached, and the smoldering crater in Pennsylvania.

I will. And when I see an airplane flying, I remember when I didn't see airplanes flying. As flawed as we are, I know I hit the lucky sperm club lottery to be who I am, where I am, when I am. I'm proud to be an American.

Remember Pearl Harbor

The 7 December 1941 Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor was one of the great defining moments in history. A single carefully-planned and well-executed stroke removed the United States Navy's battleship force as a possible threat to the Japanese Empire's southward expansion. America, unprepared and now considerably weakened, was abruptly brought into the Second World War as a full combatant.

Eighteen months earlier, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had transferred the United States Fleet to Pearl Harbor as a presumed deterrent to Japanese agression. The Japanese military, deeply engaged in the seemingly endless war it had started against China in mid-1937, badly needed oil and other raw materials. Commercial access to these was gradually curtailed as the conquests continued. In July 1941 the Western powers effectively halted trade with Japan. From then on, as the desperate Japanese schemed to seize the oil and mineral-rich East Indies and Southeast Asia, a Pacific war was virtually inevitable.

By late November 1941, with peace negotiations clearly approaching an end, informed U.S. officials (and they were well-informed, they believed, through an ability to read Japan's diplomatic codes) fully expected a Japanese attack into the Indies, Malaya and probably the Philippines. Completely unanticipated was the prospect that Japan would attack east, as well.

The U.S. Fleet's Pearl Harbor base was reachable by an aircraft carrier force, and the Japanese Navy secretly sent one across the Pacific with greater aerial striking power than had ever been seen on the World's oceans. Its planes hit just before 8AM on 7 December. Within a short time five of eight battleships at Pearl Harbor were sunk or sinking, with the rest damaged. Several other ships and most Hawaii-based combat planes were also knocked out and over 2400 Americans were dead. Soon after, Japanese planes eliminated much of the American air force in the Philippines, and a Japanese Army was ashore in Malaya.

These great Japanese successes, achieved without prior diplomatic formalities, shocked and enraged the previously divided American people into a level of purposeful unity hardly seen before or since. For the next five months, until the Battle of the Coral Sea in early May, Japan's far-reaching offensives proceeded untroubled by fruitful opposition. American and Allied morale suffered accordingly. Under normal political circumstances, an accomodation might have been considered.

However, the memory of the "sneak attack" on Pearl Harbor fueled a determination to fight on. Once the Battle of Midway in early June 1942 had eliminated much of Japan's striking power, that same memory stoked a relentless war to reverse her conquests and remove her, and her German and Italian allies, as future threats to World peace.

Cut N' Pasted from Naval History and Command

Reminder

Nov. 11, 1918, fighting in World War I came to an end with the signing of an armistice between the Allies and Germany.

Armistice Signed, End Of The War! Berlin Seized By Revolutionists; New Chancellor Begs For Order

War Ends at 6 O'clock This Morning

The State Department in Washington Made the Announcement at 2:45 o'Clock

ARMISTICE WAS SIGNED IN FRANCE AT MIDNIGHT

Terms Include Withdrawal from Alsace-Lorraine, Disarming and Demobilization of Army and Navy, and Occupation of Strategic Naval and Military Points

12-07-41

FDR's Pearl Harbor speech

From Wikipedia: Though the attack inflicted large-scale destruction, the damage was not significant in terms of American fuel storage, maintenance, and intelligence capabilities. Had Japan destroyed the American carriers, the Pacific Fleet's ability to conduct offensive operations would have been crippled for a year or so (given no diversions from the Atlantic Fleet). As it was, the elimination of the battleships left the U.S. Navy with no choice but rely on its aircraft carriers and submarines — the very weapons with which the U.S. Navy halted and eventually reversed the Japanese advance. A major flaw of Japanese strategic thinking was a belief the ultimate Pacific battle would be fought by battleships, in keeping with the doctrine of Captain Alfred Mahan. As a result, Yamamoto (and his successors) hoarded battleships for a "decisive battle" that never happened.

Ultimately, targets not on Genda's list, such as the submarine base and the old headquarters building, proved more important than any battleship. It was submarines that immobilized the Imperial Japanese Navy's heavy ships and brought Japan's economy to a standstill by crippling the transportation of oil and raw materials. Also, the basement of the Old Administration Building was the home of the cryptanalytic unit which contributed significantly to the Midway ambush and the Submarine Force's success.

Admiral Hara Tadaichi summed up the Japanese result by saying, "We won a great tactical victory at Pearl Harbor and thereby lost the war." ^[69]