Theodore's World

Oh those were the good ole days of the US
Army Air Force... carpet bombing... neighborhood
bombing... incendiary fire bombing... and
atomic bomb drops on Hiroshima and Nagasaki!
We used to call it... US AIR POWER!!

Lt. Nolan A. Herndon, job well done. Go with G_d and thank you for all you have done. Peace.

Sad, may he rest in eternal peace. Most people have no inkling that what he and the others did amounted to a virtual suicide mission because they didn't have a base to return to. Let's also not forget that our Russian ally at the time denied access to Japan from their airfields which were 600 miles closer. Some things never change.

Can you imagine this happening today ? Pearl Harbor happened 4 months ago and the US had nothing but defeats. After Pearl, Wake Island went down and Bataan and Corrigador were on its last legs.

But the country was behind the President, because 'God was on our side'.

The date, April 18 is significant too.

"Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year".

So a 167 years later, the same date was not missed on the planning of the Doolittle Raid.

Everything they did was for our country. I don't know if they were the 'Greatest' generation, per Tom Brokaw, but they are/were one of the great generations we have producecd.

As far a damage done to the enemy it was insignificant but it served two purposes, it told the Japs you are still within range and what it did for the morale of the American People was HUGE in proportion. It was what we needed at the time and it propelled us toward the victory, FDR had promised.

Fast forward 60 years and 1 in 5 democrats think defeat would be the best thing for our country.

Proof positive American History is NOT being taught in Public Schools.

Hey Mark. I caught your Cowboy remark, but you may be a bit disappointed. Instead of the Cowboy game I watched PBS's second installment of "War" by Ken Burns. This program is as stunning as the Victory at Sea series was.

To me, the effort put forth by America in WWII, both on the battlefront and at home, was unparalleled in modern history. America came out of the Depression and with great energy and sacrifice, turned the tide to freedom in WWII. That effort gave us the booming, energetic 50's and 60's. I think the 50's and 60's may be the apex of the American Dream. It was a great time to grow up. Our parents generation gave us the "can do anything" spirit. Ronald Reagan highlighted that generation in his presidency.

Sadly, that is all being squandered by too many of the next generation that was overly pampered and sees socialism as the answer to all, including personal malfunctions.

Goodbye Lt. Herndon. Your Dolittle Raiders signify the best of America. Thank you.

Tom

Sorry about the Cowboys remark, Its just that I am originally a Bills fan and two superbowls still stick in my craw.

But I had watched parts of that series during the commercials. It is a great series. But I think they spent too much time on some of the negatives, that today are made a big deal of. The Japanese interment camps.

What todays authors seem to forget is that 65 years ago there was a different attitude. Regardless how the media tries to spin it. The Japanese were the enemy and that is all there was to it. It was Homeland security at its best and maybe at its worst, according to todays X-perts on how war should be run. When German spies were caught they were executed.

In the early 50's I remember my neighbors who almost all were veterans, referred to the enemy as, those dirty 'Japs'.

Lt. Herndon is the last of a dying breed. We are losing them at a horrendous rate and soon they will be all gone. And only us the generation they fathered will be left to carry on and remember what they did do.

The left is laughable, when they tell the American people that our army is stretched too thin. My god, we fought a war on three fronts during the second world war and won all of them.

We supplied munitions to the British, the Soviets and the Chinese. We turned out the Sherman Tank like they were Fords coming off the assembly line, Warplanes the same way and supplied the personnel to run, fix and fly them.

This is what is so aggravating, the truth is not being taught and the kids of today, at least a good deal of them think there is a 'free lunch' for them and the freedoms they have all come with being an American. Nobody, teaches what the cost of those freedoms have been.

I'm just thinking what the pucker factor must have been like in the first B-25 to go rolling down the flight deck.

There were giants in those days.

One thing we forget during WWII is the American People back home. They rationed food, clothing, gasoline, rubber, and just about everything else you can think of. The had curfews and went without luxuries during the war. These people sacrificed for the war effort. Today, except for the families of the service men and women, who is sacrificing? Nobody is going without anything. Jobs are plentiful, money is good, and their are more "toys" for us to buy than the mind can imagine. Today people in America have it made but they're "war weary". War weary from what? Only the GI's and their families can make that statement as nobody else has the right.

Darth, God bless US Air Power.

SSgt Steve, USMC, thank you.

Jack that is so true. It is so sad how so many especially today have no clue about men like this.

Mark great comment, thank you.

Rick good way to put it too.

Bob that is so true, how different it is today. I honestly don't know if today's people would make go without like that did back then as well.