That last post says it was written on Friday cuz I wanted to keep em all together, but it was actually written on Saturday...at about 3am.
After posting "Remembering" I went by Cookie's place, then got curious.
I started reading everything I could find on the attack at Pearl Harbor. That's when I went back and added all the pics. I read and read and cried and cried that night. Well into morning. I don't know (or care) if you believe such things, but I felt like this room was full of soldiers urging me to learn...then to teach. So that they should not be forgotten as another generation comes of age.
Here's what I learned.
1) The United States of America is the BEST damn country in the world.
2) You may knock us down, but you'd better watch out when we get back up.
3) We ALWAYS get back up.
Let me tell you folks, I am now totally in awe of Navy "SeaBee's" such as Cookie and Diane's Dad. For folks who are unversed in the lingo. SeaBee is a slang for C.B. which stands for Construction Battalion (Cookie, jump in here if I get anything wrong!) These are the folk who build and repair all Navy craft.
We had 12 ships "sunk or beached" and 9 "damaged" in that attack.
Not to menton all the planes and buildings.
Now, to this city girl, "sunk" means dead. Sitting on the bottom rusting. But "All U.S. Ships except Arizona, Utah, and Oklahoma were salvaged and later saw action."
Most of those ships were saved and sent back to war within the year. And the cleanup was dirty, oily work.
Follow the links folks, look at the pictures. This is an AMAZING story that you won't soon forget! And remember that no matter how bleak the scenery looks, there's always a way to rebuild, and strike back.
7 comments:
Just rooting for the home team here.
After the ball dropped in Pearl Harbor it was the sub force that did most of the heavy lifting for the Navy until the surface fleet got back up and running.
At least one squadron out in the Pacific had a 75% casualty rate (i.e. sunk, normally with all hands aboard).
Until that time there were doubts about the effectiveness of submarines as warships. Though the Germans had managed to utilize them during WWI the development of ASDIC (precursor to sonar) and other technology had been thought to render the subs ineffective.
Good thing they weren't taken out on 12/7/41.
"At least one squadron out in the Pacific had a 75% casualty rate (i.e. sunk, normally with all hands aboard)."
do you mean a squadron of subs or a squadron of surface craft sunk?
Subs
well, Subby said that the SeaBees actually built the land structures...buildings and such..not the ships....
For the record, I'm giving a big old curtsey to ALL groups who were involved in that salvage and rebuilding project.
I know my Dad was a heavy equipment operator and repairman of such. His final rank was Sub Machinist's Mate, 3rd Class. He drove road graders, earth movers, tractors, etc. and his personal favorite, the beer truck. Really.
He also operated a coral crusher. They paved roads and runways with the crushed coral, then ran steam rollers over it to pack it down. No gravel or much rock available on most of those tropical islands so coral was the only thing that wouldn't have to be shipped in for roads and runways.
One thing you don't often read or hear about, when our Seabees first occupied most of those islands and other territory, they often had to clear out the remaining enemy before they got to work on the construction. Daddy said they had to watch for snipers and dodge bullets as they worked, and sometimes had to clear out caves and such that were occupied by holdout enemy. This is Okinawa mainly that I'm speaking of here.
Sorry, there's only about one small bowl of the chicken noodle soup left, and I'm not making pecan pies for Christmas. I made some for Thanksgiving.
I am, however, making coconut bon bons, 3 batches of fudge, peanut butter fudge, butter pecan toffee, seasoned toasted pecans, Scottish Shortbread, glazed pecans and an Italian Cream cake. I think that's enough. *Sigh*.......
Love and hugs,
Diane
well, you can keep the stuff with coconut and sent me the rest :-)
YUMMMY!!
Great Post amiga...and thank you for acknowledging the Navy Seabee's. Ye...your hubby is correct..."we built-we fight" is one of our motto's, and the structures we build are one land, such as buildings, runways, etc.
If you ever get a chance, rent "The Fighting Seabee's" with John Wayne...it'll give you pretty good history of how, when & why the "B's" were formed...
It was the Seabee's who built the various airstrips and air stations on various Pacific Islands during WWII, after our Marines, Sailors and soldiers had secured them...
Thanks you again my friend for this Seabee post...
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