My dad, Lou Staton, was 14 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Not until late in the war did he enlist... in the Army Air Corps. He undertook initial training to be a pilot, but with the war winding down he was reassigned and trained to be a spotter on the ground directing bombers were to drop their ordinance. He tells me he did fly a few times with an instructor before he was reassigned. Not too long ago Sharon told me shed seen on Twitter that the U.S. government knew ahead of time that the Japanese planned to attack Pearl Harbor. That got me to thinking; Ive read a ton of material on World War II through the years. From my recollection, Intelligence knew the Japanese intended to strike, but thought the attack would happen elsewhere, probably Philippines. Did some googling just now. The Japanese attacked the Philippines on December 8, 1941, just 10 hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. With most American aircraft destroyed, the American Asiatic Fleet withdrew to Java on December 12. On March 11, 1942, Gen. MacArthur escaped Corregidor, leaving behind Gen. Wainwright and thousands of starving and sick American and Filipino defenders. When the surrender of Bataans 76,000 troops occurred on April 9, 1942, 7,000–10,000 soldiers died -- some slaughtered in cold blood -- on the Bataan Death March. The 13,000 forces on Corregidor, including Gen. Wainwright, surrendered on May 6, 1942.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 06:19:07 +0000
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