We truly take a lot for granted. Forget the football "heroes" and movie "stars". Today I am reminded of a picture I saw several years ago.
It’s one of those pictures that you never forget that is a reminder of the price of freedom.
Thank you, to ALL the generations of valor.
Caption reads:
Pearl Harbor survivor Houston James of Dallas embraced Marine Staff Sgt. Mark Graunke Jr. during a Veterans Day commemoration in Dallas in 2004. Graunke lost a hand, a leg, and an eye when he defused a bomb in Iraq July 2, 2003.
Today is the 65th anniversary of the attack on U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor. That horrific event brought America into World War II, forever changing the world.
Luckily, the world vastly has changed over the years. But the memory of that deadly Sunday morning remains, as well it should. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, speaking to Congress asking for a declaration of war against Japan, said it was a “day that shall live in infamy.”
A total of 2,388 Americans died in the attack, and another 1,178 were wounded. Twelve U.S. warships were sunk, 164 aircraft were destroyed and 159 were damaged.
Newly elected Alaska Governor Sarah Palin yesterday paid a special tribute to one of the two American pilots who managed to get their aircraft into the air in Hawaii that day and fight back against the attacking Japanese planes.
Brig. Gen. Ken Taylor of Anchorage died Nov. 25 in Tucson, Arizona. He was a World War II hero, a man with tremendous courage who took the battle back to the attackers, downing four enemy aircraft as the huge Navy base went up in smoke and flames around him.
Pearl Harbor reminds us how much we owe our defenders.
It also changed Alaska forever.
Today, there are 23,000 active-duty military in Alaska, performing the same mission as their predecessors more than 60 years ago. The state is also home to more than 70,000 vets who have done their duty to protect the country.
The mission in 1941 was to keep the Alaska territory strong so that it could protect America.
About 21,500 U.S. soldiers, airmen and sailors were stationed in Alaska when the bombs fell on the battleships at Pearl Harbor early in the morning of Dec. 7, 1941. They were on the job at airfields and Army bases in Anchorage and Fairbanks, and also scattered across the territory at new installations built at Nome, Seward, Sitka and Dutch Harbor -- bases quickly constructed in the fear of war.
Pearl Harbor, unfortunately, proved that fear warranted. By July 1943, military personnel in Alaska totaled 152,000. New airfields, naval bases and the Alaska Highway transformed the territory into a full-time military encampment.
Join all Americans today in remembering those who served and sacrificed at Pearl Harbor, and those who are doing so today -- especially the almost 100,000 military personnel and veterans in Alaska.
The mission in 2006 is to keep Alaska strong so that it could protect America and Canada.
Over the years, our enemies of those days have become friends and allies - and new perils face our country, our servicemen and women, and freedom as a whole.
But as new battles are fought, as new challenges are made to liberty, we are encouraged by the bravery of those who went before us to continue the struggle against oppression.
Indeed, we should always remember Pearl Harbor - and those who died that we might live.
The attack on Pearl Harbor remains a day of valor.
The valor of those who fought and died was stunning, and their sacrifices in the cause of freedom have been long lasting.
Thank You.
Ice
* I am reminded of something I read years ago that I will share.
Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you,
Jesus Christ and the American Soldier.
Information used with this post gathered from articles in the Anchorage Daily News.
Photo by Associated Press.
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