THE DAY THAT LIVES
Our President Franklin D. Roosevelt told us it would “live in infamy - the day of December 1941.
And it has done so, I think, to a remarkable extent.
I spent most of the day today in rather strange location for the observance of Pearl Harbor Day but very fitting in many ways It happened to be the date of one of my periodic visits to the Veteran's Hospital facility in Salem, Virginia. Yet, walking through - and wheel-chairing, at times - in some of the old buildings there on that spread-out, campus-style installation, I did find myself “remembering” Pearl Harbor – the Day - the sneak attack brought deaths to thousands, injuries of many people in so many tragic ways – and the day which set a pattern which changed the rest of my life and the lives of those I loved, continue to love and will love. It changed everything I ever did.
I noticed on the way into the grounds that one of the major buildings had a banner above the door proclaiming seventy years of service and that's why I spoke of the building as being “old”. I remember when the site was what we called a “flying field” I don't think we ever called “Cook's Field” an “airport” It was simply a field reasonably flat and clear or trees, from which a farmer had evicted his cattle and which visiting airmen used as a place to base their planes with hobby or profit plans in mind. I always assumed the farmer's name had been Cook.
Why should any or all of that mean something to me on Pearl Harbor Day? I suppose it is called “specific reference”; or “association”. I was just a kid and one Sunday afternoon I saw a young man jump from a small bi-plane roaring high above the field and fall to his death on the fare edge of the field. His case was a suicide, and that doesn't “count” for much in my book, but because of Pearl Harbor day in 1941 I have since felt the effect of flying deaths multiplied many times over.
We have yet to solve the complex background which led to the attack on Pearl Harbor, but we have all felt the after-effects deeper than we dare to imagine. Prior to that day, I, for one, was not eager to join, but after Pearl Harbor it was a set thing which was sure to happen and I welcomed it when it came to me. I went where the sent; asked no favors, did as I was told drilled, marched, hiked, underwent thirteen weeks of infantry basic training in swampland with bugs and by some strange quirk I was suddenly - with my entire outfit – into the, then, U.S .Army Air Force. All in all, when I got out I had spent, or mis-spent four or five years in the military mode – more than precise enlistment time, because a civilian could not get a good job if he was “going” and he had to take what he could get when he got back. Mine was an odd military career and we will look at particular aspects in the future, perhaps. but for the moment let me say that the Veteran's Hospital routines remind me, in so many ways, of life in the army. The “hurry-up and wait” element is still alive and well. “Sick Call” is still sick.”
This “infamy” idea F.D.R. used so well. He chose exactly the right word and if you look it us in the dictionary or the thesaurus to see all of the subtle meaning of the term. You will see his choice was a wise one and accurate.
The American people need some reminders. I find young people today who do not respond at all to any mention of December 7th ,or of “Pearl Harbor”, for that matter.
We can't point fingers to establish “fault, either.
This, and other related lapses, are no ones specific fault. It's a collective thing concerning a loss of values with which we are dealing in so much of living today. It is, I fear, a major problem of our era.
A.L.M. December 7, 2004 [c707wds]
