ECHOES OF PEARL HARBOR.``This is our new day of infamy Notoriety; condition of being known as possessing a shameful or disgraceful reputation; loss of character or good reputation. At Common Law, infamy was an individual's legal status that resulted from having been convicted of a particularly reprehensible crime, rendering him .'' - Bill Aupperlee, member of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association The Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, founded in 1958 and recognized by the United States Congress in 1985,[1] is an organization whose members were at or in the vicinity of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii during the Japanese attack of December 7, 1941. Sixty years have passed, but the look in their eyes and tone of their voices remains the same. Full of shock and anger. Our country was under sneak attack again Tuesday, and, like at 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. 60 years ago, the enemy was coming at us from the air. But the similarities ended right there. ``This was a lower blow, cowardly, killing thousands of civilians,'' said George Keene, president of the San Fernando San Fernando, city, Argentina San Fernando (săn fərnăn`dō), city (1991 pop. 144,761), Buenos Aires prov., E Argentina. It is a district administrative center in the Greater Buenos Aires area. chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association. Sixty years ago, these men were running for battle stations at Pearl Harbor. Tuesday morning, they watched this new day of infamy on TV - seniors in their 80s now, reaching for a telephone to call each other. Shocked and angry, again. ``We should have seen it coming,'' Keene said. ``I'm interested in seeing what our nation is going to do about it.'' The whole country was. To a man, these Pearl Harbor survivors had no problem articulating what they'd do. Bomb Osama bin Laden Osama bin Laden: see bin Laden, Osama. , who many suspect was behind the attack, and his sneak troops back to oblivion. Diplomacy, political correctness politically correct adj. Abbr. PC 1. Of, relating to, or supporting broad social, political, and educational change, especially to redress historical injustices in matters such as race, class, gender, and sexual orientation. and dancing around the truth aren't in the vocabularies of these guys. They made it back from Pearl Harbor and WWII WWII abbr. World War II WWII World War Two alive, and figure they've earned the right to tell it like it is when it comes to matters of national security. If you want equivocation, listen to the fence sitters and talking heads
Talking Heads were an American rock band that formed in the early 1970s and was based out of New York City. The group consisted of David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison. on TV, they say. If you want the blunt truth, listen to them. This is how it is, they say. We screwed up again. Got caught napping, just like we did at Pearl. ``Here we are a great nation, unprepared, as usual,'' said Joe Mariani of Reseda, who served on the USS California Six ships of the United States Navy have been named USS California in honor of the 31st state.
``With all the problems in the Middle East, we should have been on high alert. We were supposed to be (on high alert) at our airports, so how the hell did they (terrorists) get the weapons on the planes to take them over? ``Now all the so-called experts are coming on TV saying we have to do something about it. Well, hell, it's a little late, isn't it?'' Out in Newbury Park, Henry Nieblas, who served on the USS Tennessee, thought of Pearl Harbor the moment he turned on his TV early Tuesday morning. ``Right away I thought of Pearl, the sneak attack and suddenness of it,'' Nieblas said. ``It hit me hard, but in a different way. ``We had our orders at Pearl, what to do in case of an attack. I went directly to the signal bridge. But Tuesday, I felt so helpless. ``I had nothing to do, no place to go, no way to help those poor people,'' Nieblas said. A lot of people in this country felt the same way Tuesday. ``Make no mistake about it, we're at war,'' said Bill Aupperlee of North Hollywood, 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 at Pearl. ``This is our new day of infamy, only this time the enemy hit us right on our homeland,'' he said. What we do now, these men say, is what we did 60 years ago after our last day of infamy. We find out who did it, then we go pay them a visit. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Pearl Harbor survivors, from left, George Keene, Bill Aupperlee and Joe Mariani see similarities in the two attacks. Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer |
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