Warbird Information Exchange

Time flies!! ... remembering doesn't hopefully.


Panorama view from Aiea Heights (Camp Smith) of Pearl Harbor, during the Japanese raid on 7 December 1941.



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Zenji Abe Standing by a Val, December 1941.


B-17E 41-2416, one of the B-17s that landed in Hawaii on 7 December, 1941, in Australia in February 1942.


This shows a large group of soldiers and young ladies gathered at a picnic at Austin TX Camp Mabry on December 7, 1941 --- the day of the attack. It was at 2:30 p.m. central time that Franklin Roosevelt received word of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. If we assume that this picnic was scheduled for noon or 1:00 p.m. or 2:00 p.m. (probably a fair guess, I think), this affair was no doubt going on as the Japanese were attacking. These smiling, unknowing folks were right there on the edge, at the far end of the teeter totter of history. The cusp. They will go home from this event and the entire world and their entire lives and futures will have changed. Some, probably, did not survive the war. A crazy thought on a sunny December day in Austin.

Thank you for sharing - never forget!

Thank you Mark.
And keep in touch with whoever has those color slides you mentioned - hope they come to their senses about the value.

_________________

All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)