Author Topic: Pearl Harbor, WWII, and other Service  (Read 11454 times)

Offline sirgilligan

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 229
Pearl Harbor, WWII, and other Service
« on: November 30, 2011, 10:46:19 PM »
I would like to thank those that serve and have served to protect us the citizens of the United States of America, and all of the other countries that have been saved from emperors, dictators, nazis, and fascists.

My Grandfather was a PFC in an infantry unit in the trenches of the Philippines. He never talked about it. We know it was very hard on him to have endured the experiences of World War II.

My good friend at church (who past only a few years ago) was a USS Arizona survivor and was on a few different vessels after that. Here is a piece from an interview with James L. Forbis.

"He was at Pearl Harbor at the beginning of the hostilities that started World War II and he was aboard the U.S.S. Arizona, which was one of the ships that was on Battleship Row in Pearl Harbor, just off . . . or moored up against Ford Island. After the . . . the incident at ar-. . . at the Arizona he went to the U.S.S. Craven, a destroyer, and was at the battle of Midway. And then he went to the U.S.S. Calk, another destroyer, and later he went to the U.S.S. Dehaven and saw a lot of action at the invasion of Leyte and Okinawa and off Japan . . . the mainland of Japan, where he . . . his ship was involved with kamikaze attacks and so fort"

One of my dear friends at work is David Van Valkenburgh. He had a detailed schematic of the USS Arizona so I told him about my friend Jim. He then pointed out that his grandfather was the Captain.

My Grandfather passed when I was young, TB issues I think from the War. My Grandmother gave me this:


My father's first cousin was Army, I don't know which unit, but he fought in the Battle of the Bulge and liberated France. He was infantry as well.

I have been to Dachau and was given a personal tour by a camp survivor. Never forget, never forget.

My first cousin flew a Cobra in the first Gulf War and an Apache in the next.

I am proud to be a citizen of the United States of America.
I am humbled by my family, friends, and strangers sacrifice to protect God given rights.
I am angered by prominent citizens that seek to change the order and freedom of the United States of America.
I am disappointed that people are so selfish and unconcerned that for a meager crumb in the name of welfare that they sell this magnificent birth right.
I am confident that the honest, true, and just will prevail and that the law of the harvest can not be denied.
I am thankful that God raised up this nation and has set it up as a beacon on a hill and that so many nations and people have patterned their governments after the United States of America.

Thank you to all that serve, I will never protest your service, burn our flag, or betray the faith that is intrusted to each citizen of the United States of America.

« Last Edit: December 23, 2011, 10:54:37 AM by GhostWarrior »

bre346

  • Guest
Re: Pearl Harbor, WWII, and other Service
« Reply #1 on: February 23, 2012, 11:08:04 AM »
You're welcome, sir.
 
I wear a ball-cap with the letters WWII * Korea Veteran on it. It's dingy now but I'm proud to wear it. Now and then someone will thank me for my service then.
 
"You're welcome.", I say.