Pearl Harbor + 66

[KG_Jag]

It was 66 years ago today that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and brought the United States into World War II. Germany and Italy, apparently overtaken by their great success to that point--most recently on the Eastern Front, quickly declared war on the United States. It was Hitler, having years before warned the German people not to again fight a two front war as they had in World War I, who had elected war with the UK, U.S., USSR and their allies.

The youngest survivors of Pearl Harbor are now in or approaching their mid-80's. These soldiers and sailors were from all parts of the country. At least one was from the little town in Illinois where my mom grew up. She told me that when he returned home from war, the young man's hair had gone completely gray. The attack had a deep impact on all of America. It changed everyone's life. Everyone in my parent's and grandparent's generations could tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing when they first heard of the attack in far away Hawaii, still almost two decades away from statehood.

We honor and salute all those who were at Pearl Harbor during this date that still lives in infamy. We salute all who served in World War II, a conflict that, had it it ended differently, would have brought us a much different--indeed almost unimaginable--world.