Pearl Harbor Remembered

MECHANICVILLE – Note: This is a transcript of a speech Eugene Corsale made at the Pearl Harbor Day Remembrance Program at Mechanicville American Legion Post # 91. Its message remains as powerful today. December 7th at 7:55 a.m. A Sunday morning in 1941 – 59 years ago – in an unheard place at the time to many Americans – Pearl Harbor, Hawaii – 353 planes of the Japanese Imperial Navy struck, the US Navy Pacific Fleet ships anchored at the Pearl Harbor Base – without a warning or declaration of war – a sneak attack – a cowardly attack – a premeditated attack. And to this day – the attack is still known in world history as a day of infamy. Five hours later, the holocaust was over. 2,335 valiant American Servicemen, Soldiers, Sailors and Marines made the supreme sacrifice and became our nation’s first causalities of war since the great war of 1918. Our Country was at war, the world was now at war. Our main Naval fighting force, the Pacific fleet battleship row, was decimated in the savage attack. Three battleships were sunk and 14 other naval combat ships were damaged and rendered useless in the air raid. The destruction was so devastating that the country’s west coast was now defenseless against a foreign invasion. To state the situation was grim would be an understatement. Ironically enough that day, while the Japanese military celebrated their surprise naval victory, Admiral Yamamato, their fleet commander and architect of the raid, remarked to his fellow officers, “Today I am afraid that we have awakened a sleeping giant.” How true his prediction was. From that day forward a United America - the arsenal of democracy - their fighting spirit, courage and perseverance, carried our country to victory. In that victory, American ships damaged in the Pearl Harbor sneak attack had been repaired and participated in naval battles leading to the eventual destruction of the Japanese Navy. In that victory, every Japanese aircraft carrier who participated in that dastardly Sunday morning attack was sunk by American combat action. Retribution was complete. –unconditional surrender of the enemy was the order of the day. On that day and to that final victory four years later, began the saga in American History of the heroic efforts of American servicemen who fought and were victorious in the preservation of ours and the world’s freedom and who later became known as the our nation’s “Greatest Generation.” We pray not only for all of our World War II servicemen and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in the defense of our Country and freedom, we especially pray for those 1,100 Naval and Marine personnel forever entombed aboard the sunken battleship, USS Arizona, now a naval shrine at Pearl Harbor Hawaii.. On September 11, 2001, we suffered a second Pearl Harbor of sorts. Regretfully those entrusted with our nation’s security and well-being failed their fellow Americans. Again, we survived another infamous attack, and live to fight another day. This War on Terror continues to this day. We pray to God that a sustained mission of eternal vigilance will prevail against the cowardly, barbaric enemies we face today. Our very survival depends on it. God bless all of our dedicated military people, those who preserve and protect our way of life, and God bless the United States of America-- Our nation that we love.