Pearl Harbor
Really interesting,
and I never knew this little bit of history:
Tour boats ferry people out to the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii every thirty minutes.
Tour boats ferry people out to the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii every thirty minutes.
We just missed a
ferry and had to wait thirty minutes. I went into a small gift shop to kill
time.
In the gift shop, I
purchased a small book entitled,
"Reflections on
Pearl Harbor "
by Admiral Chester
Nimitz.
Sunday, December 7th, 1941--Admiral Chester Nimitz was attending a
Sunday, December 7th, 1941--Admiral Chester Nimitz was attending a
concert in Washington
D.C.
He was paged and told
there was a phone call for him.
When he answered the
phone,
it was President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
on the phone. He told
Admiral Nimitz that he
(Nimitz) would now be
the Commander
of the Pacific Fleet.
Admiral Nimitz flew to Hawaii to assume command of the Pacific Fleet.
Admiral Nimitz flew to Hawaii to assume command of the Pacific Fleet.
He landed at Pearl
Harbor on Christmas Eve, 1941.
There was such a
spirit of despair, dejection and defeat
--you would have
thought the Japanese had already won the war.
On Christmas Day,
1941, Adm. Nimitz was given a boat tour of the
destruction wrought
on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese.
Big sunken
battleships and navy vessels cluttered the waters
everywhere you
looked.
As the tour boat returned to dock,
As the tour boat returned to dock,
the young helmsman of
the boat asked,
"Well Admiral,
what do you
think after seeing
all this destruction?"
Admiral Nimitz's
reply shocked
everyone within the
sound of his voice.
Admiral Nimitz said, "The Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes
Admiral Nimitz said, "The Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes
an attack force could
ever make, or God was taking care of America.
Which do you think it
was?"
Shocked and surprised, the young helmsman asked,
Shocked and surprised, the young helmsman asked,
"What do mean by
saying the Japanese made the three biggest
mistakes an attack
force ever
made?" Nimitz explained:
Mistake number one:
Mistake number one:
the Japanese attacked
on Sunday morning.
Nine out of every ten
crewmen of those ships were ashore on leave.
If those same ships
had been lured to sea
and been sunk--we
would have lost
38,000 men instead of
3,800.
Mistake number two:
Mistake number two:
when the Japanese saw
all those battleships lined in a row,
they got so carried
away sinking those battleships,
they never once
bombed our dry docks opposite those ships.
If they had destroyed
our
dry docks, we would
have had to tow every one of those
ships to America to
be repaired.
As it is now, the
ships are in shallow water and can be raised.
One tug can pull them
over to the dry docks,
and we can have them
repaired and at sea by the time
we could have towed
them to America.
I already have crews ashore
anxious to man those ships.
Mistake number three:
Mistake number three:
Every drop of fuel in
the Pacific theater of war is in top of the
ground storage tanks
five miles away over that hill.
One attack plane
could have strafed those
tanks and destroyed
our fuel supply.
That's why I say the
Japanese made three of the biggest
mistakes an attack
force could make
or, God was taking
care of America.
I've never forgotten what I read in that little book.
I've never forgotten what I read in that little book.
It is still an
inspiration as I reflect upon it.
In jest, I might
suggest that
because Admiral
Nimitz was a Texan,
born and raised in
Fredericksburg, Texas
--he was a born optimist.
But any way you look
at it--Admiral Nimitz was able to
see a silver lining
in a situation and circumstance
where everyone else
saw only despair and defeatism.
President Roosevelt had chosen the right man for the right job.
President Roosevelt had chosen the right man for the right job.
We desperately needed
a leader that could see silver linings
in the midst of the
clouds of dejection, despair and defeat.
There is a reason that our national motto is:
There is a reason that our national motto is:
"IN GOD WE TRUST"
Why have we forgotten?
Why have we forgotten?
PRAY FOR OUR
COUNTRY!!
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