Infamous Day

Today, was a date which will live in Infamy. A date in which Cora made me clean house. Ok, she wasn't too bad, but, it felt like alot more work than it was, plus I think I am experiencing some post Christmas Tree Hunting Day soreness. We went to town and got some lights and did a little Christmas shopping. Then we came home and began cleaning and decorating.


I think we have a case of shrinkage, though. Have a look. It started looking like this:

Then we poured some hot water on it, and this is what we ended up decorating:

OK, that is the small one, Cora always puts it up and we put small ornaments on it. We will do the big one tomorrow night.



So, today REALLY is a date which will live in infamy. 67 years ago, elements of the Combined Fleet were in place to launch an attack on the island of Oahu. The planes came from the north and struck numerous air fields and military installations. Of course, the main target was the naval installation at Pearl Harbor.


That day, men were going about their normal morning activities when unidentified planes flew over. Some thought it was just another exercise, but these aircraft dropped live ordnance. The firt bombs began dropping at 7:55 am, by 8:10 am, a modified 16" armour piercing battleship shell was dropped from a high-altitude bomber and it found its way into a magazine of the USS Arizona. The resulting explosion lifted the ship from the water and broke her back, killing over 1000 souls. The results of the attack were horrifying to the entire nation. Eight of the nine battleships in the Pacific Fleet were either sunk or damaged. The remaining battleship, the USS Colorado, was undergoing overhaul in Bremerton, Washington. Several cruisers and destroyers were damaged. Most of the island's aircraft were out of commission. Hawaii ceased to be the major thorn it might have been in side of the Japanese Navy in the opening days of the war.


The one major mistake they made was not sending a third wave to take out the Oil Tanks and the Dry Docks. Because of this oversight, Hawaii quickly recovered. It continued as an important base. The Dry Docks were used to repair the damaged ships and send many of them off to war in only a few months. Some of the more heavily damaged ships took several years to return to duty. In October of 1944, though, several re-habilitated Battleships sunk in Pearl Harbor were able to avenge themselves and their sisters by destroying the entire Japanese southern force attempt to break into Leyte Gulf, only a few escaped with severe damage, back the way they had come.



I had the opportunity, this last year, to come into contact with a part of the USS Arizona. An Anchor and a mast from the USS Arizona were on display in Phoenix, Arizona. Here they are:


Overall, it has been a great day(weekend), and even though I am suffering from a lack of exercise and sore muscles, bones, and things I can't idenify, I feel good about the weekend. I hope you all have had a good weekend also!


Oh, one last thing!!: A few months ago I discovered that the USS Kitty Hawk will be decommissioning in January of 2009. I sent an e-mail asking about it. I never got anything back until yesterday. I will be getting some invitations to the decommissioning of an aircraft carrier! I plan on attending it! You can see my other site for details, but it is a rare and exciting thing!