"A Date which will Live in Infamy"

Silverfiddle Rant!

I wrote this years ago to commemorate Pearl Harbor day.  The chances of our nation being attacked militarily now is almost nil.  An ignorant and debased nation of people easily propagandized is vulnerable to a variety of more subtle, non-violent attacks. Nonetheless, the lesson still applies.

My wife and I took our kids to a museum here in town on December 7th a few years ago. While there, we had the good fortune to meet a WW II Navy veteran who had survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. We also encountered the famous WW II picture of the Frenchman crying. These two contrasting encounters taught my family a lesson that I want to share with you.

At the beginning of our tour I spied the aging sailor wearing a veteran’s garrison cap emblazoned with the words “Pearl Harbor Survivor.” I crouched down and quickly tutored my children on the man’s significance upon that historical landscape. Fortunately, the kids grasped the meaning of the moment and we approached the gentleman. A mellow, unassuming man, he treated our questions with kindness and received our thanks with humility.

At the end of our museum tour we came face to face with the elderly veteran’s polar opposite: the picture of the Frenchman crying. Many of my fellow Americans would probably enjoy hearty anti-French belly laughs at this picture, but I feel only sadness.  This is the face of  people everywhere who lack the means or the will to defend their freedoms. This is the face that trades death and destruction for subjugation and humiliation.

I felt just as compelled to introduce my children to the Frenchman crying as I did to the aging hero. I directed my kids’ attention to the picture and asked them to describe it. “He’s crying,” and “That man is sad,” were the answers I got. They could see his distress and wanted to know what had caused it.

I told them this is how you end up when you're unable or unwilling to fight for your freedom. I told them that if they were not prepared to risk their lives for their country, they had better be prepared to stand on the street crying as the conquerors march by. I insisted they study the picture some more, observe the pain on the man’s face, notice the tears running down his cheeks. “Remember that face,” I told them, “and may that never be you.”

Reliance on Maginot Lines and international organizations provides a sense of security--up until the inevitable failure of such contrivances. Then, alas, it is back to blood and steel. Sadly, we are all too human after all.

The veteran and the Frenchman stand in stark contrast. Taken together, they remind us of two unyielding truths: The opposite of war is not necessarily peace, and freedom is never free.

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As of September 2020, "according to US Department of Veterans Affairs statistics, 325,574 of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II are alive in 2020." (National WW II Museum)

75 Years Ago On The Beaches Of Normandy

Honor The Greatest Generation....

The assault phase of Operation Overlord was known as Operation Neptune.  Operation Neptune began on D-Day (6 June 1944) and ended on 30 June 1944.

Reading for today, from The Last Longest Day by Richard Fernandez:

...It was an all-out throw of the dice. A maximum effort. There was no plan B if it didn't work. Had it failed, Eisenhower would have said: "Our landings have failed and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone." The consequences of defeat would have been incalculable....

[...]

...It is for the current generation to decide whether to build a new dark age of universal surveillance or one of expanding freedom. It is for the present to decide whether to succumb to new cults or keep the flame. The men of the Longest Day have done their job. Only the living can still make history. The past has already made it.

Read the rest HERE.  Worth your time.

The American military cemetery in Normandy, 2003

Claude and Kenneth, two of my cousins, served on the beaches of Normany during Operation Overlord — one cousin in the US Army and one in the US Navy. They were 19 and 21 years old. Miraculously, they both came home physically whole. But psychologically, Claude and Kenneth were forever changed and never again slept through a night without nightmares. Both of my cousins died young, one at the age of 39 and the other at the age of 44.

75 Years Ago Today

One of the World War 2 veterans  in our family stated the following about that infamous day, and he enlisted in the US Navy the next day:

"My heart came up into my mouth when I heard the news."

Also note this warning about losing our American heritage:

Curmudgeon's excellent comment to this thread:

The bonds between the crew members of the Arizona have lasted far beyond the ship’s loss on December 7, 1941. Since 1982, the US Navy has allowed survivors to be interred in the ship’s wreckage upon their deaths.

Following a full military funeral at the memorial, the cremated remains are placed in an urn and then deposited by divers beneath one of the gun turrets. To date, more than 30 Arizona crewmen who survived Pearl Harbor have chosen the ship as their final resting place. Crew members who served on the ship prior to the attack may have their ashes scattered above the wreck site, and those who served on other vessels stationed at Pearl Harbor that fateful day, may have their ashes scattered above their former ships. In 2011, only 18 of the 355 crewmen who survived the bombing of USS Arizona were still alive. Today there are only six. All of them are in their 90’s or older. This will be their final commemoration appearance.

If you have never visited Pearl Harbor or the Arizona Memorial you are missing one of the more poignant testaments to the madness of man’s inhumanity to man.

June 6, 1944

(Two posts today. Please scroll down)

70 years ago today:


D-Day photo essay at WTOP

Israel 2013 - Czechoslovakia 1938?

(Two posts today, the earlier one about the fiscal cliff "deal."  Please scroll down)

Is history repeating itself?  Please watch the video below the fold.

Remember D-Day: June 6, 1944

The following video was made by an 8th grader for a school project:


Two of my cousins served that day; one cousin was in the Army and the other in the Navy — at Omaha Beach, I believe.

Both men, in their late teens and early twenties respectively, came home physically whole, but they were never again whole psychologically. They refused to speak about what they experienced there, but we all knew that what they did and saw was horrible because they had nightmares for the rest of their lives. Nonetheless, they were among two of the staunchest patriots I have ever known, and they often said, "No regrets!" [about serving].

Both of my cousins died young: one at age 39 and the other at age 44.

Remembering Pearl Harbor

Even though 70 years have passed since December 7, 1941, interment services continue in Honolulu: