Contributed by Charlton Stanley (aka Otteray Scribe), Guest Blogger
Pearl Harbor
7 December 1941
I remember where I was and what I was doing shortly after one o’clock in the afternoon on December 7, 1941. My dad called me in to where he and a couple of his friends were sitting by the huge Stromberg Carlson 350R console radio, its front doors swung open. They were leaning forward, hanging onto every word coming out of the polished walnut cabinet. The breathless announcer was talking so fast he sometimes stumbled over his words. The usual calm and soothing baritone of a professional radio news reporter was replaced by an almost panicked staccato, an octave higher than his voice would have sounded normally. One phrase has stayed stuck in my mind’s ear all these years, “They stabbed our boys in the back!”
At first I thought they were talking about Japanese soldiers bayoneting our soldiers and sailors in the back, as I had seen them do in the newsreels of the massacre of Nanking. Even as a kid, I knew war was on the horizon. Six weeks earlier, a Nazi U-boat had sunk the destroyer USS Reuben James as it escorted a convoy of cargo ships carrying food and supplies to England.
Everyone thought that when war did come, it would come from Europe. No one but a few farsighted tacticians like General Billy Mitchell were looking west, and even predicting that an attack would come by air. Mitchell was Court Martialed for his outspoken military and political heresy. When Americans were killed in what was to be the first military engagement of WW-2 with the sinking of the Reuben James, President Roosevelt held back committing troops and sailors to combat despite the provocation. Hitler was counting on that kind of restraint, or he would not have been so bold as to sink an American warship. He knew the US was not prepared to fight a war, since American troop levels had been drawn down to very low numbers, and much of the equipment was either obsolete or obsolescent. The country was recovering from the Great Depression, and needed time to re-arm.
Admiral Yamamoto took Roosevelt’s options away from him that Sunday morning. Hitler was said to be furious with his Japanese allies.
Which brings us to the story my cousin Jimmy.
Jimmy Gates was from Cleveland, Mississippi. He grew up hunting squirrels and other game to help put food on the family table during the Depression. He was a crack shot. After he got out of high school, the economy was still reeling from the Great Depression, and opportunities were few in the Mississippi delta cotton fields. Seeing the peacetime military as a way to escape the hot farm fields, He joined the Army Air Corps as a Private. He liked airplanes, and figured it would be a lot better branch of the service for him than being an infantryman. For Jimmy, flying beat walking any day. The Air Corps liked Jimmy too. He was a superb marksman, and had unusually good eyesight, traits which seem to run in our family (when I was his age, my eyesight was 20/13). They made Jimmy a bombardier and nose gunner in a B-17 bomber. It was a good choice, because his ability to put bombs on target was uncanny, at a time when the average bomb fell a quarter mile off the intended target.
Hickam Field
7 December 1941
Jimmy was playing pool in the Day Room that Sunday morning. He heard airplanes flying at combat power settings and bullets hitting things outside. He ran to the window and saw planes with the “red meatball” markings wheeling overhead and diving on Hickham Field. He dove out the open window, because he knew buildings would be a target. After all, he was trained as a bombardier, and knew exactly what bomb aimers would be targeting. He tumbled out the window into the flower bed and took off running. He had only gotten a few steps when a bomb came through the roof , exploding in the room he had just vacated. The blast knocked him down, but he wanted to get as far from the buildings and flight line as he could. Those would be the targets, and he was in no mood to be a target that day. He was a 24 year old Sergeant at the time, and wanted to have a 25th birthday. He knew his next birthday might be his last, if he did manage to live that long.
He got a chance to fight back soon enough. As the runways and ruined hangars were repaired, new B-17 bombers were arriving from the mainland US. After a few more weeks of training, Jimmy Gates went to war. He had lost good friends that December morning. It was payback time.
When his eye was not glued to the eyepiece of his top-secret Norden bombsight, he was handling the machine guns in the nose, looking for enemy aircraft.
He sank several Japanese warships, one of them by putting a bomb down the smokestack. Apparently one of his crew-mates had bet him he couldn’t do it. It was most unusual for a bombardier shoot down a fighter plane. I know he was given full credit for shooting down at least one Zero fighter. He told of one mission where the crew voted on whether to bail out or stay with the crippled plane. He elected to stay. When he jumped down from the plane, shredded ribbons of his parachute started falling out a hole in the chute pack. There was a piece of antiaircraft shell the size of his hand in the middle of what was left of his parachute.
The August 7, 1942 New York Times reported that Air Corps Sergeant James F. Gates of Cleveland, Mississippi was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in the Solomon Islands area. It would not be his last medal, or his last Silver Star. Jimmy wore very little flash on his uniform. He was as different from soldiers like General David Petraeus as night is to day. After it was created in 1958, he was awarded the Air Force Commendation Medal.
Jimmy survived WW-2, but stayed in the Air Force. Because of his outstanding skill, bravery and intelligence, he was sent to officers candidate school, and was now an officer. When B-29s arrived on the scene in the Pacific, he was assigned to a B-29 squadron. He flew right up until the end of the war, including some of the last raids on Japan. In the early 1950s he came to visit at our house. I had about a million questions, but some he would not, or could not, answer. I asked him if he had been one of the crews selected to train for the atomic bomb. He changed the subject. I remember him suddenly wanting to talk about the outstanding performance of the P-38 in dives and climbs, compared to the Zero. I found out later he had been assigned to the 509th Composite Group, and my suspicions had been true.
Jimmy went on to fly during the Korean war. He was one of those aviators for whom flying was a way of life, so he stayed in the service. At various times he was assigned to B-47 and then B-52 bombers when his squadron got them. He was a three war veteran, staying on through the Vietnam war.
Find A Grave contributor
Jimmy retired from the Air Force with the rank of Major. He eventually became the victim of Alzheimer’s Disease, living his last years in a nursing facility in Springfield, MO. He is buried in the Missouri Veterans Cemetery at Springfield.
I prefer to remember the young man who took his brother Billy and me to the Saturday afternoon matinee, and who loved to go squirrel hunting. He made a joke of diving out that open window into the flower bed that sunny Sunday morning, but I know now something I didn’t realize then. There was a hell of a lot of pain in those memories. Seventy-two years ago this morning.
Arrested human development issues shall remain, until the day that bias yields to the pursuits of truth by doubting Thomas’s first asking for proof of a contention – prior to cavalier/capricious dismissal of a premise.
You know – that thing called science/evidence.
Right Bill, no more false flags.
That’s why I choose to mention that 93 WTC attack, by the court record it seems clear to me that’s what that case was.
But many of us know those aholes are likely right now planning more False Flag attacks like Boston 4/2013 & intend to attempt to blame them on us peaceful Americans who want nothing more then to have those tyrants that have infiltrated our govt run off or arrested.
Remain peaceful & keep shinning a light exposing those cockroaches raping kids, grandmas & shooting puppies, etc…..
oky1 says “In other words we demand our govt stays out of other country’s internal affairs unless the US congress declares that nation to be a threat to our nation.”
IOW – no more false flag operations such as 9/11 or outright lies about
Saddam, Ghaddafi, Assad etal. etc. right?
Back along the topic which OS wrote his article about, the 509th & the direct relationship to the Navy story below.
I actually believe the larger parts of this story & those men ended up in the middle of one hell of a tragedy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_%28CA-35%29
**Given the isolationist sentiment up to Pearl Harbor**
I keep seeing people use the word “isolationist” attempting to define myself & other through history.
There are likely a few isolationist, but I know when it comes to myself & Ron Paul’s stated position the proper definition wound non-interventionist.
In other words we demand our govt stays out of other country’s internal affairs unless the US congress declares that nation to be a threat to our nation.
Thus avoiding foreign entanglements that the founders warned us of.
Randy,
I suppose like the tooth fairy things magically appear….. This is Christmas…. So it’s ok to believe…..
** One of my Great Grand Dads rode with William Tecumseh Sherman & his march though the South. Yes, he was Honorable Discharged. **
Sorry for the typo.
My Great Grand Dad likely never rode anywhere with Sherman, that is unless he happened to have liberated a horse or a mule along the way.
He was in an infantry unit formed out Indiana. As I understand it most of them were barefoot not by choice.
That unit was one of which marched in a parade in DC celebrating the end of the Civil War. ( AKA: War of Yankee Aggression. lol wink)
**bill mcwilliams 1, December 8, 2013 at 1:53 pm **
Yes they do Bill, but most of the public sees right through them now.
A most interesting case, semi-current, was the 93 World Trade Towers bombing. That court case is a matter of public record. ie: the audio tapes.
I finding the evidence so spooky I hesitate to write what needs repeated in public again, so I’m not writing it now.
I haven’t read all this piece below yet, but it’s something the cultist chew on.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/pearl-harbor-hawaii-was-surprised-fdr-was-not.html
Wrap your head around this one randy….. Final assembly…. Started in about 41 the summer…read what you want…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willow_Run
rndyjet says ” those who resort to conspiracy theories as explanation lack the intelligence that they assume in others.”
Must be referring to Bushes/Obama and the long-disproven conspiracy theories they promote as explanations. Do they lack intelligence -, or are they intentional liars?
Randy,
Educate yourself….
http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/glossary/world-war-2.cfm
AY I suggest you learn more than reading Wikipedia..
The us had turned numerous auto plants into warri diction efforts about three years before we actually got involved…. Such plants as willow run…. The tank plant in macomb county….Chryslers
You also forget what YOU wrote so I include a passage for refreshing your memory. WWII started Sep 1939 and the US came in on Dec. 41. Three from 1939 is 1936, then 3 from 1941 is 1938. I thought I would help you out on your math problem too. The production of complete planes did not start until 1942 when the first rolled of the line though the plant had started in 1941 to produce parts. Also, you will note that Willow Run was NOT an auto plant until AFTER the war. I suggest you also READ your own posts, and what you recommend to others.
Given the isolationist sentiment up to Pearl Harbor, to even think that the US would shut down any civilian production for war production is ABSURD on its face. The only measures FDR could get through was in fact the resolution allowing the US to sell military supplies to Britain and France. Hell FDR could barely get the draft extended in 1941 and the saying among the draftees was OHIO, Over the Hill In Oct. Then when Britain ran out of money to pay for the supplies, he got Lend-Lease in 1941.
Pete that is outstanding. Since Heinlein was a Naval Academy grad, I think he probably had Pearl Harbor in mind when he wrote that. I would add another corollary, that those who resort to conspiracy theories as explanation lack the intelligence that they assume in others.
When he worked in the WH, Cass Sunstein proposed a CONSPIRACY of his own: that intelligence operatives should infiltrate Web forums where state-sponsored conspiracies are discussed and disrupt them via disinformation, insults etc.
Some of the customers here act like THEY’RE volunteers in that conspiracy.
Hanlon’s razor — A corollary of Finagle’s law, and a play on Occam’s razor, normally taking the form, “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.” As with Finagle, possibly not strictly eponymous. Alternately, “Do not invoke conspiracy as explanation when ignorance and incompetence will suffice, as conspiracy implies intelligence
R A Heinlein
Thanks and excellent article… War is hell I’ve heard….
As to Germans sinking merchant marine ships…. They were guarded by the US Navy…..Well, they usually were carrying multiple types of cargo…. And yes, we were building up the strength and war efforts of other country’s….. Including build up in Africa…..
As far a being prepared for war…. The us had turned numerous auto plants into warri diction efforts about three years before we actually got involved…. Such plants as willow run…. The tank plant in macomb county….chryslers…
AY Once again you show your ignorance, especially about YIP,Willow Run where I fly into all the time. The first B-24 came off the production line in Sep 42, NOT three years before in 1938 before WWII even started. IN FACT, it was Eisenhower who was brought to DC by Gen.Marshall to establish the War Plans division which was the military industrial complex which won WWII. That only happened after the Louisiana war games in 41, I believe.
The Japanese code had been deciphered so there were no surprises. The valuable ships, the aircraft carriers, were all at sea, well out of range. Only “old iron”, the 22-27 year old battleships were actually in port. An amazing coincidence?
betty You are simply wrong about the Japanese codes. They had NOT been broken and the only one the US could read consistently was purple, the diplomatic codes. Even after we went to war, the codes were being changed, and the US had a lot of work to do to keep abreast of these changes. You obviously have NO knowledge of this subject and I suggest you learn more by reading about the subject. As for the so called valuable ships, you take what was learned LATER in the war and apply it to US Naval doctrine at the time of the attack. The FACT is that the battleships at the time were regarded as THE main prize, NOT the carriers. Once again,your ignorance is showing.
The ONLY thing Kimmel knew for sure from radio intercept tracking where the transmissions were coming from was that his intel officers had LOST the location of a good part of the Japanese fleet. They told him they ASSUMED that they were headed south. They did NOT have the Japanese Naval code broken at the time. Even if they had, the order telling the strike force to proceed to the attack, was “CLIMB MT. Nitaka” Now if YOU could figure out those words meant attack Pearl Harbor, YOU are in the wrong business. Then the strike force had strict radio silence for a couple of WEEKS when they were assembling In the north of JAPAN.. THAT is why Kimmel had NO idea of where they were.
Given this state of affairs, Kimmel knew the US was probably going to be at war with Japan in a matter of days from the war warnings and alerts he had gotten from Washington. Yet he had no air patrols out, nor did Short take any actions to defend Pearl Harbor from Japanese attack which was his responsibility. He too had no patrols out or even put his forces on alert. That he had no knowledge of where a good part of the Japanese Navy was, that the Japanese were going to attack somewhere in a few days, yet both commanders did little to prepare to defend their own base against such an attack. THAT is the responsibility of commanders. That is their failure alone, not some conspiracy on the part of FDR. FDR’s job is NOT to tell his commanders HOW to do their jobs.
OS,
It is amazing that people seem to confuse the war with the men fighting that war. I have heard that nonsense about FDR “knowing” that the Japanese were going to attack Pearl Harbor all my life. No one has yet provided any substantive evidence of that scurrilous claim.
raff The people who put forward the idea that FDR wanted the Japanese to attack us and knew of the attack are basically ignorant and/or stupid. They either don’t know or care that the US only declared war against Japan on Dec 8,1941. They also forget that we only declared war on Germany after Hitler had declared war against US, and he was under NO obligation to join Japan in war against the US. Hitler also knew, thanks to the treason of conservatives at the Chicago Tribune and the Pentagon, that FDR and Churchill had decided on a Germany first strategy if the US went to war. Had Hitler not declared war, FDR could not have declared war on Germany. Even after the US was at war with Germany, FDR was facing strong opposition to sending military aid and troops to Europe since the conservatives only wanted to get Japan. Thanks to Hitler, he solved FDRs problem to some extent. The US could have remained at peace with Germany as the Soviet Union remained at peace with Japan for most of the war. The folks who believe the conspiracy crap have NO answer for these facts.
I now what planet my family lives on………
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-07/highest-radiation-level-ever-lethal-20-minutes-recorded-outside-fukushima-reactor
OS,
See how we learn something new everyday?
I posted about about Oklie’s 45’th,
Lookie here. I’ve seen this symbol on local Indian property here yet I didn’t know it was part of US military history.
(From a guy that hates Nazis night n day no less, lol, right here in Okie land)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:45th_Infantry_insignia_%28swastika%29.svg
randyjet,
I’d triple down the bet that you’re a decent person as are most of the guys/gals that hangout here on JT’s Blog.
We all care a great deal about our families, friends, our nation & the planet.
All any of us have to do is everyday be a decent person & if we screw up just attempt to be better tomorrow.
( and if you’re into heavy metal bass turn Rammstein wide open LOL Ph those eardrums )
Gnite.