I recently read a book titled, "Day of Infamy". Author Walter Lord pieces together the events of that day through interviews and documentation, as well as tours of the Harbor, air fields, and surrounding areas.
Lord's work has the feel of reading a work of fiction. He starts with the story of Army Nurse Monica Carter and her fiancé, 2nd Lt. Barney Benning watching the launches take men back to the warships anchored in the harbor.
We learn why all the battleships are in port at the same time. The battleships were "too valuable to maneuver alone without carrier protection" and the USS Enterprise was taking Marine fighters to reinforce Wake Island from what was believed to be an impending Japanese attack.
As we start relaxing with this nice, easy flowing story, and with our characters Nurse Carter and Lt. Benning, we read:
"Somebody suggested calling Lieutenant Bill Silvester, a friend of them all who this particular evening was dining eight miles away in downtown Honolulu. Monica called him, playfully scolded him for deserting his buddies -- the kind of call that has been placed thousands of times by young people late in the evening, and memorable this time only because it was the last night Bill Silvester would be alive."Suddenly, we are jerked across time to the reality behind the words. This is a story in the sense that it is the story of real people on a real day in history making real decisions with real life and death consequences.
The reality of the three sailors on the USS West Virginia "hopelessly trapped in the pump room" where "they cling to life until the day before Christmas Eve". The reality of the 32 survivors pulled from the USS Oklahoma's upturned hull. The spreading rumor that a Japanese invasion was imminent. The reality of the sailors on the Japanese midget subs.
I recommend this book. This is an enthralling book, which breathes life into a moment of history, which needs to be remembered by all of us, even as the generation that lived it slowly passes away.
For all those who have defended this country and the cause of freedom, whether in the past or currently, to you I say,
"Thank you"
