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Thursday, March 28, 2024 - 07:46 PM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

On December 7, 1941, I was 9-years old. It was Sunday. I was sitting in my father’s 1937 Ford in front of my grandfather’s house listening to the car radio when the Pearl Harbor attack was announced. My grandfather did not own a radio or a car. He was a country preacher, farmer and house painter. A horse, buggy, wagon or sled provided his transportation. At the time, he had 8 daughters and 5 sons living. Four of the sons bad served in the military. The oldest, Alonzo, served in France in World War I, Dan had served a tour in the Navy, Jim had served in the Army in the Pacific and Paul had joined the United States Marines and served in Panama, Nicaragua and Haiti. Joe, the youngest, was in his late teens and living at home.

I ran in the house and announced that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. The report said it was in the Hawaiian Islands. Immediately someone suggested going across the road and getting Jim who had served most of his Army tour at Schofield Barracks on the Island of Oahu just above Pearl Harbor. Jim would be able to answer our questions. The next day President Roosevelt made his famous speech about the “Day” that would “Live in Infamy,” and the Congress Declared War. Life would never be the same in the Dark Corner of Greenville County or elsewherre.

The following week, Uncle Joe borrowed my father’s car to go to Greenville allegedly to buy a pair of shoes. He was allowed to borrow the car only if I went along to ensure he did not abuse the privilege. He was not pleased that I went along and we rode to Greenville in silence He parked near a theater showing John Wayne in The Flying Tigers. We went in the movie and he suddenly left, saying he was going to look for a pair of shoes. He returned to pick me up a couple of hours later without the new shoes.

We drove home again mostly in silence. Within a few days, the word was out. Joe had announced to his parents that he had joined the Army while we were in Greenville. I had unknowingly been a party to a deception. The teen had decided to go to war. I would never know whether he joined out of patriotism or to get away from home where the rules were quite strict and Grandpa knew how to use his razor strap for disciplinary purposes.

Two cousins who lived with us while attending high school joined the military. All my uncles except Joe were too old for the draft and cousins except Adrian and W. F. Lynn, Brockman Moon and twins George and Bill Morrow were too young. All six of my relatives returned after the war. George Morrow was severely wounded during the invasion of Europe and eventually lost a leg. Uncle Joe was peppered with shrapnel that contributed to health problems later in life.

The country mobilized and was the major force in defeating the Germans and Japanese in four years. Never again would we be so unprepared as to invite a sneak attack, we were promised. However, in 1950 we found ourselves throwing untrained and ill-equipped troops into battle again.

It happened again in Vietnam where the government that entered the war did not have the courage to win and after more than a decade betrayed the troops and abandoned the people we had promised to defend.

Since that time we have been engaged in half a dozen undeclared wars with no clear mission. The current administration appears to have decided that the way to end war is to destroy our military and their will to fight. The Obama Administration and the Democrat Party along with part of the Republican Party and many Americans have apparently forgotten the lesson of Pearl Harbor.

Unless there is a change in policy soon, a lot of American blood will be needlessly shed. Sadly, for the first time since 1876, some of the shed blood will be that of civilians on American soil. Surely we are not dumb enough to allow that to happen.

If we are allowed to have honest elections in 2014 we have a chance to replace some enemies of the Constitution at the polls. It all depends on how many voters are swayed by lies and deception again.

The current White House is determined to bring the U. S. military to its knees and render it the weakest it has been since before World War II when soldiers were training with wooden rifles. We must not allow that to happen.

”Remember Pearl Harbor!”

 

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