Pearl Harbor Day 2011, USS Midway

[Bob Hudson]

My dad turned 13 on Dec. 7, 1941. Four years later when he turned 17 he joined the Navy - too late for WWII, but he spent 20 years in the service as an airship rigger and jet mechanic.

 

For his 83rd birthday we took him to the Pearl Harbor Remembrance aboard the USS Midway, now a museum ship in San Diego Bay.

 

Today was the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor and a large contingent of active and retired military, civilians and Pearl Harbor survivors turned out for what one retired admiral said was the largest Pearl Harbor remembrance yet on the Midway.

 

In the front rows with their distinctive white caps and white jackets covered with pins and patches were members of the San Diego chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association. The national association has actually disbanded, in large part do to the age of its members.

 

Consider this: if you were in the military on Dec. 7, 1941, then you basically have to be at least 87-years-old!

 

I've got some photos of folks greeting the PH veterans after the ceremony and then after the photos I will post a link to a video that is at this moment still uploading to You Tube. In it one of the survivors reads the name of each of their fellows who has died in the past year, while another rings the bell twice in a moving ceremony.

 

 

 

[Bob Hudson]

 

 

[Bob Hudson]

 

 

[Bob Hudson]

 

My wife decided she would hand out hugs: we'd watched one of the PH documentaries the night before - one that had some moving interviews with survivors recounting their experiences on Dec. 7, 1941 - and she was full of empathy for what they went through that day.

 

 

 

 

[Bob Hudson]

The video has uploaded. Click the image to see it on You Tube:

 

[Dirk]

FS: a very nice thread....thank you for sharing and your wife and yourself attending in support of your dad and the other vets.

[Bob Hudson]

The speaker in the video is 90-year-old Stu Hedley who was on the West Virginia.

[bobgee]

Thanks Kevin and Bob for this inspiring thread. Semper Fi......Bob

[KASTAUFFER]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Bob Hudson]

I should throw in a photo of my dad: he's spent most the last 20 years living in rural Pennsylvania where there's not a lot of fellow sailors - especially from the brown shoe Navy - with which to share sea stories, so he got a big kick out of talking with pretty much everyone on the Midway.

 

Here he is next to an A-4F one of the museum aircraft on the Midway. He worked on these in the 1950's when he was with VA-83 and they had the A4D-1 Skyhawk configured to carry a nuclear weapon.

 

 

On his head is his birthday present: a ball cap to go with his new membership in the Naval Airship Association (he spent seven years as an airship rigger before going to work on jets):

 

 

Something he never, ever got to do in the Navy was to sit in one of the only two chairs on the bridge of an aircraft carriers (one for the skipper and one for the navigator).

 

 

 

My wife said she wanted to watch the local news tonight because one station's camera had been pointed at her. She didn't make it on TV, but I found they caught me in the background with my iPhone filming the bell-tolling ceremony:

 

[skinsfan]

thanks for posting that,your dad looks pretty pleased!....saw on fox news today they turned up 5 minutes of previousley unseen attack footage-scott

[zepher11]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Sabrejet]

Very moving. Thank you. :thumbsup:

[gunbarrel]

Awesome, Bob! :thumbsup: You are SO lucky to be able to share this with your Dad. God bless him!

[capa]

This is simply awesome. Thanks for sharing and pass on to your dad our collective Hello! What a great woman you have there, too!

Fielding

[Jack's Son]

Great job as usual Bob.....Thank you.

[Bob Hudson]

For the record here's some names to go with a couple of the photos:

 

 

[trenchbuff]

What a wonderful tribute to your Dad.

[disneydave]

I had the opportunity to interview Donald Stratton several years ago. He was aboard USS Arizona when the forward magazine exploded. You can read my interview with him here.

 

I've interviewed around 4 dozen WW II veterans and his was one of the most emotional.