Yes, We Remember
By Keith Haugen and Bob Nelson
It's been
fifty years since that quiet Sunday morning when Pearl Harbor, and
all the world, woke to the sound of attack planes and bombs. Men
who survived that brutal attack on a nation at peace will never
forget how black smoke darkened the skies over Hawai`i, and how
the Island's smell of fresh air and flowers was replaced by smells
of war, of burning oil, and of blood. The sirens wailed, the smoke
billowed skyward, steel melted in the heat of war. For many, the
mere mention of dive bombers, torpedoes, cannons and explosions,
trigger memories they will carry to their graves. They remember
their buddies who died, and they remember somebody's brother who
was pulled from the inferno to live and fight another day. They
look back through newspaper clippings and scrapbooks--fifty years
of tear-stained pages--and they see things they can never forget.
They remember what it is like to be scared; to look at death all
around you; and to look death in the face. They remember the screams
of dying men in pain. It is like passing through hell and remembering
it.
For those of us who were not there,
the memory is quite different. But we remember too. We remember
the brave acts of the surprised men who brought their wits about
them and who fought back--valiantly. We remember the heroism of
some, the bravery of all. We remember the things they did for us;
for their country, and for what we still believe it. We remember
how this tragic act brought our nation together as never before
and never since, and how we teamed up in a common cause and went
on to win a war and bring about that fragile thing we call peace.
We lay a wreath, say a prayer, and observe a moment of silence in
tribute to those we lost. We fly our flag and we stand proudly alongside
those who are still with us. And, as "Taps" is played
over a watery grave, we shed a tear. Yes, we remember.
Copyright 1991, C. Keith Haugen
