Now, this is what, again, what I call World War CO2.
Right now, this generation is going to decide just how effed up our planet's going to be for the generations that are here in the middle of the 21st century and the late 21st century.
And if these conditions get out of control, this literally could be a planet that is substantially degraded.
Gregory, got your point out of Sherman Oaks, California.
You talk about the home front during World War II.
Did want to note on C -SPAN's American History TV, it was just last weekend that we aired an event from the American Veterans Center, their annual conference.
One of their panels this year featured World War II veterans and one of the last living Rosie the Riveters.
Her name is Mae Cryer.
And her image there on the C -SPAN homepage on that panel.
If you want to watch that panel again, it's the American Veterans Center Annual Conference.
C -SPAN .org is where you can go for that.
Pauline in Jamaica, New York.
Good morning.
You're next.
All I was thinking about was getting a bicycle.
But when they bombed Pearl Harbor, that was over.
No more rubber.
No more sugar.
No more butter.
No more nothing.
Just racer and everything.
And all we could say was America.
And I remember President Roosevelt coming on the air.
My daddy listened to him.
My mama listened to him.
Something that was no TV.
Pauline, what do you think back when you think back about that day?
What do you think about Franklin Roosevelt?
And him addressing a shocked nation on December the 8th and then in the years to come leading this country through World War II.
What are your memories of Franklin Roosevelt?
When he came on the radio and said, we are now, I just can't tell you everything because
I'm 95 years old, like I told you, but I was there.
And you know what we used to talk about the good -looking soldiers and sailors when they used to pass by?
We used to say, hubba.
Pauline, thank you for calling in.
95 -year -old Pauline out of Jamaica, New York.
Let me take viewers back to December the 8th of 1941.
It was about 12 :30 in the afternoon.
Franklin Roosevelt addresses the United States Congress and the country.
A date which will live in infamy.
The United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
The United States was at peace with that nation and at solicitation of Japan, still in conversation with its government,
And its emperor, looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.
I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday,
December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed.
Franklin Roosevelt from December the 8th, 1941.
We are on the 83rd anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, asking you to call in this morning to talk about the legacy of that attack, the legacy of that generation of Americans that fought in World War II.
A special line again for World War II veterans and their families.
I want to hear your stories especially.
202 -748 -8003.
Ron is in Michigan this morning.
Ron, go ahead.
My father served three years in the Pacific fighting the Japanese.
He was with the Americal Division.
I was in Vietnam in '69 to '70.
I served with the Americal Division.
Now, people don't know much about the Vietnam history, but two months after we signed a peace treaty with Japan in August, two months later, United States transport ships, United States sailors were transporting Right.
Go ahead.
What was the Americal Division?
You say you and your father both served in that?
The Americans in New Caledonia.
That was the designation for the World War II division that my father served in.
And the Americal Division was reactivated for the Vietnam War.
The Americal Division also participated in the My Lai Massacre.
That's where Lieutenant Kelly came out of.
And one more legacy of the Vietnam War.
Now we are using Roundup, which is a dose of Agent Orange on the American people, which is poisoning all the bees, all the butterflies, and all the people.
So a legacy of the Vietnam War is the Agent Orange that we dumped on Vietnam that we never compensated those people for, and that Vietnam veterans like me that are dying of.
Now the American people are blessed with Agent Orange.
That's Ron in Michigan.
Ted on that line for World War II veterans and their families in Ocean View, Hawaii.
Ted, good morning.
Hello, John.
Good to talk to you again.
Good to talk to you.
I guess it's late night for you.
Yeah, I'm always up.
I was a manager of the world's largest macadamia nut farm here on the Big Island.
And when you're the manager of the factory, you're up.
Many hours.
So I've got this sleep deprivation thing going on from people that work too much.
Anyway, I'm retired now and I wanted to call and say tomorrow morning my father lost his left arm on Pearl Harbor Day and there's a few things about that.
I grew up on a farm and I grew up about nine years later after that in the early 50s and I'm a two, three -year -old kid looking around and I'm looking at my dad and I'm going, you know,
he's only got one arm and we're running a farm.
And I may be only three, but I kind of know what's going on already.
And it makes you, and other persons would say this, it makes you a better person when you see somebody struggle a little bit to keep things going with one hand.
And at four years old, I became that left hand that he lost.
And it made me think about things.
From a very early age.
It made me a better person.
It made him a better person.
And all through life, I was his missing left arm.
You know, it's always good to be the right hand man while I was the left hand man.
Ted, did your dad talk much about that day itself and losing the arm?
Like many veterans, him and his brother was in Europe and he was a tank.
He was a tank mechanic.
He worked on Sherman tanks, and during the Battle of the Bulge, his other brother was in the Pacific and was in the Battle of Leyte in the Philippines, and I would talk to both of them, and they all,
I guess there's just a, it's hard for them, and they don't, like many, I hear this story a lot, many of them don't like to talk about it.
I would have to very carefully
And Ted, your dad stayed in the service after losing his arm?
No, no.
His brother was the one in Europe?
Yeah, both of his brothers did on an aircraft carrier in the Battle of Leyte.
He was in a dive bomber.
And real quick, I don't want to drag this out, but he had been shot down in the Battle of Leyte in the Philippines.
He was sitting in his plane and was in the ocean for two days thinking they were dead, you know, just from being shot down, number one, and being in the ocean and whipping sharks for two days.
Finally rescued him, set him on an aircraft carrier, and he's sitting there going, wow, we made it.
I don't believe it.
And he's talking to his buddy sitting three feet away from him.
And he looked over, and all of a sudden his buddy got real quiet, and he looked three feet over where his buddy was.
His head was gone.
A kamikaze plane had come in, and just, you know, one of the blades from the propeller or something took his head off, and it just, you know, after going through all that, you know, being shot down and living, being in the ocean, pulled out, living,
and then to sit there on the deck of an aircraft carrier and have a blade come by, and it changed him forever.
He was a very considerate man.
My dad's older, two years older than him.
But he probably talked more about it than anybody because I used to go visit him.
I lived here in Hawaii, south of Pearl Harbor, 200 miles on a big island for 50 years.
And I just found it ironic that I ended up here after the Air Force and the Vietnam War.
And I told my wife, I said, when this war is over, I used to fuel B -52 bombers and JP -4 into F -4s.
But all these things make you think if you're aware.
And I hear a lot of vets and people that are families of vets, and it makes you aware.
Ted, is your dad and brothers, are they all gone at this point?
Yes, they are.
Not too long ago, but yes, yes, yes, they are.
What do we lose when the last of that generation is gone?
Oh, boy.
Well, you know what?
It depends on their families, because, you know, me and my brothers, And my dad's brother is a double cousin of mine.
You know, World War II, people got together through marriage, through their friends and families.
And I have a double cousin that's Paul, my dad's brother, that was on the aircraft carrier down in Berkeley.
And I stay in touch with him a lot, and we talk about it a lot.
And I always used to ask him, you know, I come by from Hawaii.
I don't get over there.
I used to go once a year and see him.
I would go way out of my way to drive out.
We're good to go.
Yeah, I know he was on an aircraft carrier that was one of the small carriers when the Japanese attacked our fleet, and he was on what they called a jeep carrier, which was one of the smaller transport carriers.
And it's, you know, they were always have been considered the greatest generation, and they really were.
And I grew up thinking, you know, how are we ever going to live up to that?
You know, the people that were born in the early 50s and late 40s.
You know what?
I look around and I didn't...
I ended up getting an engineering scholarship to run the steamships during the Vietnam War because we didn't have enough ships to take materials to the Vietnam War from the U .S.
So they started an engineering school and I got a scholarship to become an engineer.
And again, it makes you think more than the average person and I don't think that the people I grew up with, I don't think they appreciate.
What was your father's name?
Ted, thanks for telling us about Glenn Lilly and being his left hand.
Appreciate it.
Lee in Garrison, New York is next.
World War II veterans and family members line.
Go ahead.
M -I -A -K -I -A, World War II.
He was in the Illinois National Guard on his two -week active duty when the war broke out.
He never returned home.
He became a P -38 pilot stationed in the Aleutian Islands.
They call it sometimes the Forgotten War up there.
He was an escort for bombers, and him and his wingman were both lost.
In a mission, and they never recovered the bodies or the planes.
And you don't really know exactly what happened to them.
The bomber returned, but the P -38s did not.
And then on Valentine's Day of 1944, the Western Union telegram arrives.
And, of course, my grandmother and my mother think that it's from their son and brother.
And it turns out it was the notice that he was missing, and then a few weeks later that he was confirmed dead.
And so I would say that also, since we are kind of the, they call us the war babies, which are the children of that generation, and I think we are starting to leave the planet also,
and I think it's time to go back and keep the memories alive and to think about what happened and what language we would be speaking if it wasn't for that generation.
That's it for now.
That's Lee in Garrison, New York.
A couple of your text messages and Facebooks and tweet posts.
This is Darren saying, it was indeed an attack that lives in infamy.
My family, several members signed up for military service on December 8th.
My grandfather, as well as several of his brothers, fought in the war, as well as my grandmother's brothers.
My uncle, Prentice Lindsey, was a master sergeant in the Texas 36th Division, and he was friends with and later interviewed by Ernie Pyle.
That's some of your comments via text message this morning.
Taking your phone calls as well on phone lines as split by region.
202 -748 -8000 if you're in the eastern central time zone.
202 -748 -8001 if you're in the mountain or Pacific.
One more had pulled up for you before I hit the wrong button.
Timbo in Mountain Home, Arkansas.
On the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, let us pause and reflect on the sacrifices of the American heroes who stood up and said, we will fight for freedom.
Let us celebrate today the freedom that these heroes brought us with their lives and let us never forget.
Tom is in New York this morning.
You're on The Washington Journal.
We're a special breed, the American people.
We love God, and we're very patriotic.
Thank you very much, and may all the souls that perished in Pearl Harbor rest in peace.
Amen.
Pam, Randolph, Ohio.
Good morning.
Good morning, John.
Sorry.
I'm the daughter of a World War II vet.
My dad enlisted after Pearl Harbor.
He wasn't married yet.
He enlisted and spent a few years in the service.
As a radio man in the Pacific Islands, and I will say, and I guess maybe this is a point I want to make, he came home a different man.
Unfortunately, alcohol took over as he tried to deal with the stress of those battles he fought.
He, being a radio man, always told me that he was a target, had a target on his back.
So it was difficult for him, for sure.
I think?
I wish I had him around today that I could talk to him more about this.
But unfortunately, as an alcoholic, it was hard to have those conversations.
What would you ask him, Pam?
You know, John, I would want to know more about, I guess more than anything, would want to help him deal with the stress that he brought back with him.
He had seven children.
He was a wonderful person in so many ways.
He just, he couldn't really be the father that we all needed.
What was his name,
Pam?
His name was Charles Burbrick.
He died in 1989.
But yeah.
Pam, thanks for telling us about him.
Great guy.
Yeah, thanks, John.
Appreciate that.
That's Pam in Ohio, coming up on 7 .30 on the East Coast, setting aside this first hour of the Washington Journal today to talk about the 83rd anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7th, 19...
We're good to go.
I think?
That attack lasted 110 minutes from 7 :55 a .m. until about 9 :45 a .m.
Half of the dead that day were on the battleship, the USS Arizona.
Seven U .S. battleships were at Pearl Harbor.
That included all the battleships of the U .S. Pacific Fleet except for one, that would be the USS Colorado.
All those there that day were either sunk or damaged during the attack, but all but two, the Arizona and the Oklahoma, were eventually able to return.
To active duty.
I want to show viewers the Universal Pictures newsreel that aired in the months after Pearl Harbor about that attack.
As they dropped their load of death on the naval base, on Wheeler Field, on civilian homes and schools.
A hundred Japanese planes and a number of midget submarines took part in the attack.
In an hour and five minutes, the battleship Arizona was completely destroyed and four others severely damaged.
Three other battleships and three cruisers suffered lesser damage.
Nearly 200 planes were destroyed.
In that Sunday morning inferno the Pacific fleet appeared to be completely immobilized by the sneak attack.
Nearly 3 ,000 casualties added to the catastrophe.
Within hours the United States declared war.
The attack on Pearl Harbor united Americans as never before in history.
In the explosions at Pearl Harbor, there was forged the will for complete and absolute victory over the forces of evil.
In Hawaii, civilian and soldier alike turned to the task of caring for the wounded and homeless.
At the time, an actual landing by the Japanese was expected, and makeshift plans were made to fight the invader on the beaches and in the streets.
The Japanese lost five midget subs as well as 29 planes and 100 men.
A Universal Pictures newsreel from back during that time, taking your phone calls.
83 years later, the 83rd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
This is Elaine in Texas on that line for World War II veterans and their family members.
Elaine, good morning.
Hi, good morning.
I don't really know much about that time.
My dad didn't talk a lot about it.
I remember being real concerned about having...
Like a cerebral hemorrhage, because my dad had a cerebral hemorrhage.
And he said, "What are you worried about having a cerebral hemorrhage for?" And I said, "Well, you had a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 18.
So, yeah, I'm concerned about having a cerebral hemorrhage." And he said, "No, didn't anybody tell you I was in the war?" And I said, "No, I didn't know anything about you being in a war."
At 15?
So he was in the Navy.
He enjoyed being in the Navy.
He said that he got to see all sorts of parts of the world that he'd never seen before.
He probably never would have been able to see.
And one day, he was still really young.
I think he was like around 20.
And he was out in the ship.
He was with the Navy.
And they brought him out in the middle of the ocean.
Told everybody to go up on the top deck of the ship and said, "Watch this !" So they all went out and watched and he said, "They set off an atomic bomb and let us all watch it." And so we all stood and watched the bomb.
And then they took half the guys off the ship and left the other half to eat the food.
And it was just not long after that that I had cerebral hemorrhage.
He said, I'm pretty sure it was because of the radiation from the bomb.
You know, because in the Navy, they'll let you die by yourself.
But when I woke up, there was all these guys with lab coats around me and clipboards and stuff.
And I was partially paralyzed, and they gave me a discharge from the Army, a medical discharge from the Navy.
And so...
That's how I had the cerebral hemorrhage.
It doesn't have anything to do with heredity.
Did he ever find out which atomic test it was?
I don't know anything about it.
The thing that I asked him was, didn't you get really mad?
I would get really mad if they set up a bomb and I was paralyzed for years after that trying to get something.
You know, to happen.
He said no.
You know, we said we'd do anything they told us to do.
And if it was to support the government, we were going to support the government.
You know, I had friends that went out and they went to war and they died.
You know, they asked me to do this.
I agreed beforehand that I would do whatever they asked.
And so he really didn't have any kind of a problem with it.
Elaine, thanks for telling us about it out of Texas.
This is Ming next in Harwood, Maryland.
Good morning.
Good morning.
You're on that line for World War II veterans and their family members.
Yes.
Good morning.
Good morning.
So who are you thinking about today?
My father served in World War II out of the Philippine Islands at Luzerne.
And as well, I had a cousin that was a Tuskegee Airman, Andrew Turner, and three other cousins that were in the 555,
which were firefighters that were paratroopers.
So I have many family members that I look back on and think of and honor as being defenders of our country.
It's so sad that so many of them are gone and family members, the younger ones, don't recall or remember their erotic moves that they did to help our country.
And so I just wanted to express it and to say that I'm so honored to have them have been family members of mine.
That's Ming in Maryland.
This is from Hawaii News Now from earlier this week.
A 104 -year -old respected war veteran and Pearl Harbor survivor is back in Hawaii this week.
Ira Ike Schaub Jr. of Portland touched down in Highland Lulu on Tuesday ahead of the 83rd commemoration of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
He's one of the few remaining survivors from that day and the only one left from the USS Dobbin.
His flight was met with a water cannon salute at the gate and sounds of the Navy's U .S. Pacific Fleet band filling the air.
What do you remember about that day?
He was asked, oh, being scared more than anything else, wondering about my brothers, where they were.
As a musician in the Navy band, Schaub was starting a seemingly quiet day when the attack in 1941 began.
He quickly sprang into action, feeding ammunition to gunners.
All these years later, he's back in the islands to commemorate that solemn anniversary.
And the lives of those lost that day.
That from Hawaii News Now.
This is Sandy in Columbus, Ohio.
Good morning.
I was calling because my father, he served in World War II along with many family members.
He was a sergeant, and I'm reading his papers, administration, NCO, sergeant of rifle company.
He was in combat areas, it says.
And this was, and I can remember as a child, because I was a late child, I can remember him talking about D -Day.
And his first cousin, they were all over there together.
And he would just constantly, they talked about D -Day.
And then my brother, oh, this brother that I never met, he went in at 16 years old in the Navy.
And he...
They were going out over a cleanup crew.
Somehow they said it was a storm and he washed ashore in Norfolk, Virginia.
And I never got to meet him, but they lost his records.
So he's in like a nameless grave, but me and the family are working on trying after all these years to get him a stone.
So it's been challenging and some have, but I have an uncle with a purple heart, my father's brother.
And one thing that my mother's brother told, they used to tell things more so and talk sometimes about seriousness of what they went through.
They talk about some of the funny things.
My uncle, he said that the border had stopped, so they decided to go to the latrine, him and his buddy over there.
And he said, when they got there, he asked his buddy, he said, are you scared?
And the man said, no.
I'm not scared.
He said, well then why are you wiping me?
And they would laugh and make some jokes, but it was a serious time.
And a lot of them have been forgotten, but I honor all of them.
All of them.
And like my youngest uncle, he just died two years ago with pancreatic cancer.
And he was a paratrooper, 75 jumps.
So I've seen him through that.
So I honor our soldiers.
You know, they went through a lot, and I'm hearing from other people and all, but they were proud of their service.
Sandy, thanks for that from Columbus, Ohio.
You talk about unidentified remains and working to identify them.
You might be interested in this afternoon on C -SPAN 2's American History TV, ahead of the 12 .50 p .m. remembrance ceremony that we're going to air live on American History TV.
12 .20 this afternoon.
We're going to re -air an event that we first showed back in September.
It was the burial at Arlington National Cemetery of mess attendant third class David Walker of Virginia.