Somber Sunday

77 years ago, the yard superintendent at Pearl was still slogging about in his ruined whites assessing the damage to the Pacific Battle Force.

A crippled socialist had galvanized his country into winning a war to save the world.

In some of the far flung reaches of America's almost colonial possessions, pre-war regulars held the line.

In some cases, they were badly led. And By God were they outgunned. But held the line they did. from Bataan to Java to Wake, they fought with what they had.

And while they held the line, the Citizen Soldier reported for basic. Ford shifted from sedans to Liberators.

H&R shifted from single shot squirrel guns to the M-1 Garand.

Grandpa reported for duty and soon found himself in New Caledonia, equipped with both a sidearm and water cooled machine gun from the War to End All Wars. That wasn't terrible though; they were both designed by John Browning and still better than most anything issued by the Axis at the time.

The battle wagons of Pearl would by and large be salvaged and sent to avenge the Arizona, her damage to complete and substantial to warrant any repair efforts.

On a blog somewhere, I once read the following:

"And come Judgement Day, if the Good Lord needs a Battleship Crew  and her Marine det. at the Plain of Megiddo to fight the Forces of Evil, the best He could find will be at Pearl Harbor serving aboard the U.S.S. Arizona, still at Battle Stations, loyal to the Oath to the Constitution of the United States of America"

That is very true. RADM Kidd flew his flag as Commander, Battleship Division One, aboard the Arizona. He is still listed as missing, presumed dead as a result of enemy action. He was awarded the Medal for his actions on 7 Dec.

Today, 77 years, the Enterprise sortied after a brief seven hour stint tied up alongside the pier at Pearl. Admiral Halsey was in command in the task force. He would go on to harass and agitate the Japanese for the next four months, and then sneak a group of Army bombers to a few hundred miles off Japan. That helped set the stage for the battle of Midway.

And later, the Missouri would be anchored at Pearl. The Battleship finally declared obsolete.

But she was given one last duty to preform. Stand silent sentinel over her older sister, the Arizona. 

Rest easy, Shipmates. We won.