Yesterday's Weapons Forums

so many have forgotten it these last years ,

i never do , i was reminded growing up just what this day meant and cost , it is the day in 1941 when my father and his best friend , my namesake "john" drove back from california , in a snowstorm , from their aircraft industry jobs , after high school , to enlist ,

john went into the army and was overseas in a few months , he came back and i actually knew him although he died young when i was preteens ,

my father went army air corp - took a few years of training but ended up in a B29 bomber crew - tail number A square 10 [imagine that] left gunner , because the midwesterners were wing shooters - upland birds , could hit the target in a moving pickup truck while it was being towed by an aircraft , with a 12ga shotgun ,
posted on saipan , right next to tinnian where both Abombs left from , i grew up knowing that , it was a good thing in my home - my father came home and i exist because of those events , i will never apologize , the PTSD was not always a factor back then ,

we also recognized the two august dates in my home as the end of the war , ive not said much but those were days when we actually believed the world was a better place for it , ive not forgotten ,

today its a big event that the japanese head of government is making the first visit to pearl harbor in 75 years since it occurred , and its a big deal that BO was the first president to visit the commemorative of the bombing of nagasaki , im offended that neither have recognized these events prior to this yet understand the significance of "official" recognition , im also offendeed that BO selected this time to put this on the political map in the way he did - we owe no apology , ending that war was foremost and utmost for everyone ,

starting that war was a gross miscalculation on the part of the japanese - we owe no apology for that either ,

i am one who would have wished for far different , no attack and no retaliations , but that is not history , IT WAS WHAT IT WAS , and is what it is , today[tomorrow] we remember , at least those of us that recall ,

the ENOLA GAY got fitted for the trip - it could have been any of those that were based there , it might have been any crew , history set the stage and we dealt the blow much as they did on december 7th , we cannot forget and i will not forget tomorrow ,

my family used to meet at the amvets club [up here its VFW and 'legions' ] for dinner on this evening and there were conversations that the children were not included in , the discussions were sometimes tense , but i recall them as always civil ,

i am a babyboomer - born after the war - but the war was never far from our lives even when things were good , and i will admit [in hind sight] things were good , im only now realizing just how good my youth was - even tho my fathers been dead over 16 years now ,

Dad was a machinist's mate on the Nevada. When SHTF, his job was to monitor outputshaft bearing temp gauges. He never said much about the whole mess other than he was apprehensive about being that far below the water line during a bomb & torpedo attack.

I primed him with beer once & he talked a bit more then. Seems so many sailors died in burning fuel oil at Pearl, everyone had to take training for that. Dive as deep as you could and spread the oil apart so you could take a breath that wasn't on fire.

It was the going theory, anyway.

After getting the Nevada seaworthy again, he was on it at Attu and Kiska. Then on the light carrier Corregidor and finally on the troopship, Bowie where he landed Marines at places like Tarawa and Iwo Jima.

He hated Japs bitterly his entire life.

Japan has taken to complaining about getting nuked. Well, when you start a fight, you have to keep in mind you could get your butt kicked.

Tough bananas, Japs! Deal with it! SW