REMEMBERING PEARL HARBOR : ATTACK SURVIVOR, OTHERS REFLECT ON LESSONS, MOURN.Byline: Stacy Brown and Keith Stone Daily News Staff Writers When the first Japanese torpedoes slammed into 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. 55 years ago today, gunner's mate The United States Navy occupational rating of Gunner's Mate (abbreviated as GM) is a designation given by the Bureau of Naval Personnel (BUPERS) to enlisted members who either satisfactorily complete initial Gunner's Mate "A" school training, or who "strike" for the rating Leon Kolb says, he was well beyond fear. He was waiting to die. ``I thought: There is nothing I can do. It is just what fate has in store for me,'' said Kolb, now 78. ``If I could have been on a gun, shooting back, it would have felt a lot better for me.'' The North Hollywood man survived the attack on Pearl Harbor, but more than 400 of his shipmates Shipmates was an American syndicated television show that ran for two seasons from 2001 - 2003. Reruns later ran on the cable channel Spike TV. The show was created by Hurricane Entertainment and the executive producer was John Tomlin. Chris Hardwick was the host. on the battleship battleship, large, armored warship equipped with the heaviest naval guns. The evolution of the battleship, from the ironclad warship of the mid-19th cent., received great impetus from the Civil War. Oklahoma did not. Altogether, some 2,400 troops were killed Dec. 7, 1941 - what President Franklin D. Roosevelt said was ``a date which will live in 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 .'' Today, more than half a century since Japan declared war on the United States, the nation will reflect on lessons learned and mourn the troops who died in the surprise attack. Veterans and civilians alike will gather at national cemeteries. They will lay wreaths at the Pearl Harbor memorial in Hawaii over the sunken battleship Arizona, where the remains of 1,102 sailors are entombed Entombed, or entomb, may refer to:
In the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. , a veterans memorial, honoring men and women who have performed military service for the nation in all wars, will be dedicated at the Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks Park. Veterans will gather at 10 a.m. at the park, 14201 Huston St. For Kolb, one lesson lingers from the attack on Pearl Harbor: ``Never underrate your potential enemy.'' He managed to escape from the Oklahoma as the mighty ship listed and took on water. And in the ensuing weeks, Kolb ended up on a destroyer, launching the first attack on Japanese troops entrenched en·trench also in·trench v. en·trenched, en·trench·ing, en·trench·es v.tr. 1. To provide with a trench, especially for the purpose of fortifying or defending. 2. on the Marshall Islands. ``It was better to be out fighting,'' he said. Even now, 55 years later, the images are only beginning to soften for Kolb. ``It doesn't give me as bad a feeling as it did in the past,'' he said. ``But it still seems like just a short time ago that it happened.'' The attack on Pearl Harbor rocked the nation. Sherman Oaks resident Goodman Epstein could think only of his brother, Moray Moray, alternate spelling of Murray Moray. For Scottish names spelled thus, use Murray. Moray, council area and former county, Scotland Moray (mûr`ē) , who was working as a reporter for the Honolulu Star Bulletin. ``My first thought was my brother, and immediately I knew I was going to defend my brother and my country,'' he said. A high school senior at the time, Epstein, along with a friend, hitched a ride to a U.S. Army base to sign up. Epstein ended up as a radar technician, fighting not the Japanese but the Nazis with a group called the Pathfinders. Yet, as most Americans then, Epstein considered the attack on Pearl Harbor a wakeup call to a war that no one expected. ``I couldn't believe it,'' he said. CAPTION(S): 2 Photos Photo: (1--color) Goodman Epstein pins on his World War II victory medal as his wife, Florence, watches. (2--color) Fifty-seven victory medals were awarded Friday. Myung J. Chun/Daily News |
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