75th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor

75 years ago in Hawaii on a peaceful early Sunday morn

Our nation’s innocence and tranquility was quickly shorn

Two waves of planes 45 minutes apart launched from six carriers some  225 miles away

Without warning attacked Pearl Harbor and surrounding airfields that bloody day

110 minutes of living hell in which almost 2400 Americans died

The Japanese dogs of war released using Honolulu radio stations as guides

The Pacific Fleet minus its carriers soon lay in total shambles

Against all odds of detection the Japanese had won the bet-the-farm gamble

With death and destruction all around, the only silver lining in those stormy, bloody clouds

Is that Nagumo turned home and a third wave against the oil storage tanks and dry docks was not  allowed

A surprise attack without a declaration of war

A déjà vu to the Russo-Japanese War started in 1904

So few of the young men and women who on that day saw the bombs fall and the torpedoes strike

Remain still alive to pass on in vivid detail their bravery and what the carnage was like

At Pearl Harbor today at 7:55 when the attack began a moment of silence, presentation of the colors and the National Anthem sung

Survivors in wheel chairs, with canes or still standing unassisted marking the day when the war for us had begun

Old men and women at least 92 or 93 years of age

Thick glasses, hearing aids, lost muscle weight and tears for the battles they would later wage

While across the nation a growing tidal wave of anger and justified rage

No if ands or buts American almost as one united to step up to the warring stage

No vows to bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice or to a negotiated settlement seek

Only a call to Congress for an immediate declaration of war with only carriers left in the Pacific Fleet

A “day of infamy” noted when the Japanese were everywhere on the march and our future looked pretty bleak

Guam, Wake Island and finally the Philippines lost--a string of painful defeat and defeat

Those men in wheel chairs back then were anxious for revenge not a question of “if” only when

A nation united as one, not cowed or broken only a slight temporary bend

As the notes of the National Anthem faded away and the saluting hands were crisply lowered to their side

Watching on TV the son of a WWII chief petty officer for those ancient warriors of Pearl felt his eyes well up with pride

Praying that when the diminishing band of survivors the rest of us, some children, grandchildren and great grandchildren will never forget

The lessons learned that day and honor the service of vets present and past for to them for our freedoms we owe a great debt

© December 6, 2016, Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
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