{"id":38767,"date":"2013-12-07T10:47:50","date_gmt":"2013-12-07T15:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=38767"},"modified":"2013-12-07T10:51:27","modified_gmt":"2013-12-07T15:51:27","slug":"remember-december-6th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=38767","title":{"rendered":"Remember December 6th"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"dec6three1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I know the date of the attack was December 7th, but I want to take a different view. Because on December 6th 1941<\/a>, the 7th was going to be a ordinary non-eventful day. <\/p>\n

Jack Miller and his shipmate, Clifford Olds(right) joined fellow sailor Frank Kosa (Center) for a night at the “Monkey Bar”. It was December 6, 1941 in Pearl City, Oahu, and Miller and Olds were on liberty from the USS West Virginia. A barmaid snapped their picture and offered it for sale. “What a scam” they thought-keep it. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The next day Clifford Olds along fellow shipmates Ronald Endicott, and Louis “Buddy” Costin were trapped in the USS West Virginia<\/a> after the order for Set Zed <\/a>was given.<\/p>\n

\nEvery sailor knew fate could place them in a doomed area to be drowned like rats. Old Timers would tell 17 and 18 year old “boots” that if that time came “just inhale water quickly and get it over”. This, the “grizzled Ones” claimed, was preferable to a slow death in a pitch-black void.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Except that Clifford Olds, Ronald Endicott, and Louis “Buddy” Costin survived the attack and the compartment that they were in was intact. They lived off of C-rations near by, water from a operational water pump that was in the vicinity and any available batteries for a light source. The had a calendar that they used to keep themselves orientated to how many days had passed. They were recovered on Spring of 1942.<\/p>\n

Late spring 1942 found Navy salvage teams finally getting to work on the WV. An Inventive series of tremic cement patches were fitted to her port side, and enough water pumped out to partially float the once grand ship. BB48 was nudged across the Harbor into drydock and the grim task of finding bodies began. For Commander Paul Dice, compartment A-111 was expected to be like the rest: Put on gas masks, place some goo into a bodybag and let the Medical boys worry about identification. They had seen it all, but this compartment was different. Dice first noticed the interior was dry and flashlight batteries and empty ration cans littered the floor. A manhole cover to a fresh water supply was opened. Then he saw the calendar. It was 12″x14″ and marked with big red Xs that ended December 23. Hardened salvage workers wept uncontrollably as they realized the fate of these men. Word quickly spread among salvage crews: Three men had lived for 16 days to suffer the most agonizing deaths among the 2800 victims at Pearl Harbor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They oldest one was twenty one at the time of the attack. Perhaps I should have given advance warning that this story did not have a happy ending, but I think that it helps drive the point I am trying to make. Now lets go back to December 6th 1941 when the sailors were at the bar<\/a>. <\/p>\n

We remember Veterans of the older generation in the contributions and deeds that they performed that allow us to enjoy the life that we live today. But I think that we often forget that they were young too at one point. That they would sometimes do the same crazy things that teens and twenty year olds are know to do. For example Frank Kosa, the Sailor in the middle seems to be enjoying his booze very much. How many times have we been offered a overpriced service by a attractive waitress. Go to a place like Hooters if you want to experience this first hand. I think Clifford Olds is giving a nice irritated look of why someone is interrupting a toast among friends. That they acted like “Boots”. <\/p>\n

But I wonder what were the biggest worries about December 7th 1941 were going to be on December 6th 1941? The dreading having to do PMCS. Wondering why I have CQ on the weekend again. Making sure the family gets to Church on time. The second question is does anyone remember these things after December 7th 1941? How much do these things amount to a hill of beans afterwards?<\/p>\n

To put this into perspective, does anyone remember what they were doing on 10th 2001 or what their biggest concern or worry was on that day? <\/p>\n

Which comes to my point of take advantage of today, do not let worries and concerns about tomorrow distract from taking for granted what each of us has today. Because we cannot know what tomorrow will bring. <\/p>\n

That is why I say to remember December 6th along with December 7th. It should not only be remembered for those who died, be remembered that they lived. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know the date of the attack was December 7th, but I want to take a … Remember December 6th<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,119,217],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historical","category-navy","category-we-remember"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/610"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38767\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}