60 YEARS LATER GREATNESS IS THERE AT PEARL HARBOR.Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
Her kids will never look at their grandfather in the same way again, Judy McCrary knows. Not after today. Today, Dec. 7, the 60th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor, land-locked harbor, on the southern coast of Oahu island, Hawaii, W of Honolulu; one of the largest and best natural harbors in the E Pacific Ocean. In the vicinity are many U.S. military installations, including the chief U.S. , he stops being just cuddly cud·dle v. cud·dled, cud·dling, cud·dles v.tr. To fondle in the arms; hug tenderly. See Synonyms at caress. v.intr. To nestle; snuggle. n. , loving Grandpa Bill with the big hugs, kisses and corny corn·y adj. corn·i·er, corn·i·est Trite, dated, melodramatic, or mawkishly sentimental. [From corn1. jokes they can't help but laugh at. Today, 85-year-old Bill Aupperlee of North Hollywood, becomes a hero in the eyes of his grandkids, 12-year-old Megan and 9-year-old Cory. It can't be any other way, his daughter says. It's fate. When those Navy jet fighters roar over the USS Arizona Memorial USS Arizona Memorial: see National Parks and Monuments (table). at Pearl Harbor today, and her kids look up at the dignitaries on the platform and see their Grandpa Bill standing proudly at attention with his buddies - a few hundred other Pearl Harbor survivors - it will be something they will never, ever forget. Judy hasn't forgotten that time more than 40 years ago when she was a child, standing at Pearl Harbor on another Dec. 7, holding her mother's hand, and feeling her chest burst with pride as she watched her father being honored. ``It is an incredibly emotional moment, and I can't wait to see the look in my own children's eyes when they see their grandpa standing up there this Dec. 7,'' Judy said Wednesday from her Valencia home as she got ready for a return to Pearl Harbor with her family. The kids will never look at Grandpa Bill the same way again, she says. Not after today. He needed some more time, Bill Aupperlee told his doctors last month as they wheeled him into the emergency operating room operating room n. Abbr. OR A room equipped for performing surgical operations. to remove three aneurysms blocking the circulation in both legs. He had some unfinished business he had to take care of. He wanted to take his grandkids to Pearl Harbor to show them where some of his old buddies - real heroes - were buried. ``I told the docs: Get me off the operating table alive, and I'll do the rest,'' said Bill, who served on the destroyer USS USS abbr. 1. United States Senate 2. United States ship USS abbr (= United States Ship) → Namensteil von Schiffen der Kriegsmarine Ralph Talbot Ralph Talbot (6 January 1897 – 25 October 1918) was the first United States Marine Corps aviator to be awarded the Medal of Honor — for "exceptionally meritorious service and extraordinary heroism" while attached to Squadron C, 1st Marine Aviation Force, in France . ``I was going back to Pearl this year with my grandkids even if I had to row over in a boat.'' It's that important, this trip, he says. Not only for him, but for the hundreds of other survivors bringing their families with them this year on the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. The clock's ticking on these old vets, and they've got some history to hand down to the ones they love - the last generation that will sit in their laps. Personal history of a time when grandpa helped get this country off its knees on one of the darkest days in history to defeat an enemy that wanted to conqueror the world. The kids know all about Sept. 11, Bill says, but what do they know about Dec. 7? ``I was giving a talk a few years ago at a local junior high school, and the teacher opened the book to show me one paragraph on Pearl Harbor,' he said. ``One paragraph, that's all she was teaching. How are today's kids ever going to know?'' Megan and Cory threw a couple of spiral notebooks in their suitcases Wednesday. This is how the kids will know. For the extra days off from Santa Clarita Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, Elementary School elementary school: see school. to make this trip, they have to come back and give their classes a full report on what they saw and learned at Pearl Harbor. Bill's grandkids are doing the teacher one better. They're bringing their grandpa back to school with them, too. ``All my friends asked me what Pearl Harbor was and why I was going,'' Cory said. ``I told them it's where my grandpa fought a war and saved the country.'' Megan agreed. ``I'm excited about going. It's cool that people around the world know my grandpa because he did something great,'' she said. The words are beautiful and a tribute to the grandfather they love, but they are just that - words. Today, they become chills. Today, the McCrary kids and hundreds of other grandchildren at Pearl Harbor will never look at their grandfathers in the same way again. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) While their classmates Classmates can refer to either:
Ronen Zilberman/Associated Press |
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