Thought for Sunday, December 7, 2014: Pearl Harbor and Forgetting History

(U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Ryan J. Courtade/Released)

This photo has slipped through all the "bullshit" filters and was finally caught and declared "inaccurate."  Story has it that all five carriers were ordered back to port for "routing maintenance," which is the issue in dispute.  MPR News says they have ferreted out the truth, an excerpt of which I have added below along with the link so you can read the short article.

What’s the real story? Welcome to the sequester. 

First, the picture was actually taken in mid-December, not this month. Second, none was ordered into port for “routine maintenance.” 

The USS Enterprise was retired from the Navy in January. It’s being dismantled. 

The USS Eisenhower deployed on Thursday and is on its way to the Middle East to relieve the USS Stennis, which will return to its home port on the West Coast. The Eisenhower was in port for two months to get its flight deck resurfaced. 

The USS Harry Truman was to depart on a mission to the Central Command in early February, but Navy officials asked the secretary of defense to cancel that mission, which presumably was to the Persian Gulf where the U.S. has had two aircraft carriers. Now it will have one — the Eisenhower. 

The USS Bush was not ordered into port for “routine inspections.” It had been undergoing tests of its ability to have aircraft, which it does not presently have. Its cruise was canceled because of the sequester. 

The USS Lincoln also was not ordered into port for routine maintenance. It was in port for a two-year refueling mission, which the Navy has now canceled because of the sequester cuts. 

http://blogs.mprnews.org/newscut/2013/02/the_truth_behind_the_aircraft/

All things being equal, and knowing we can believe everything we read on the internet, I'll make the assumption their story sucks less than the one currently circulating.  They address the inaccuracy of the original story, but they do not address the vitally important point of the story.  Why they're in port is immaterial to the fact we have four aircraft carriers lined up and vulnerable to a strafing run by any incoming fighter force.  The photograph depicts what a Japanese Type 99 "Val" or Type 00 "Zero" would have seen just prior to the destruction of the American fleet at Pearl Harbor.  How could they miss?

"Always we will remember the onslaught against us." 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Pearl Harbor Speech - December 8, 1941

It would seem the U.S. Navy has forgotten "the onslaught against us."  As a military man I find this kind of seeming incompetence troubling.  I'm sure they ran the idea up the flagpole and came up with an acceptable excuse, as the military hierarchy always does, for seemingly putting these carriers in harm's way.  A sequester is not a reason, and the Navy should have balked at the idea of this ,regardless of who ordered it.  Their reasoning will fly high, until the carriers are destroyed.  "Always we will remember..."  Will we?  Always?  History repeating itself.

I would like to think we have fighters on strip alert while these ships are in port, ready at a moment's notice to take down any encroaching aircraft.  Let's hope they do a better job that the Secret Service does in protecting the White House, or the military did in protecting the Pentagon.  Rule of thumb, no matter how prepared you are, something will always go wrong.  Be prepared for what you didn't prepare for.  According to a couple of Murphy's New Military Laws:

1.  There are two kinds of naval vessels: Submarines and targets.

2.  Surprise is an event that takes place in the mind of a commander.

I will remember history this Sunday.  I will remember the lives that were lost due to our smug incompetence.  I will remember what it took to get our navy back into fighting condition after the attack.  I will remember that we did all this with a President, a Congress, a military, and a people that were capable of coming together, uniting against a threat to our existence as a nation.  As a patriot I have to hope we have the ability to do this again if, God forbid, it is required of us.  I am a bit concerned.

Of course, all of this is just an opinion.  It could be wrong.  I doubt it, but it could be.


I invite those interested in additional reading to visit last year's post on this subject.  Please follow the link to Revisiting Pearl Harbor.

Note from the founder of the Congregation for Religious Tolerance, as well as the author and editor of "The Path," the Congregation's official blogsite:  

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion.  It doesn't make either opinion more right or wrong than the other.  An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already.

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and then engaging in peaceful, constructive, discussion and debate in an arena of mutual respect concerning the opinions put forth.  After over twenty years as a military intelligence analyst, planner, and briefer, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human.  God's test for us is what we do afterward, and what we learn from the experience.
  

Frank Anthony Villari, Pastor