My dad, John A. Webster, was a seaman aboard the USS San Francisco (CA-38) at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Fortunately, the San Francisco was docked some distance from Battleship Row (look down to the lower right corner) and so was not subjected to the heavy bombing that damaged or sank so many other ships :
Dad said that the San Francisco’s guns had been dismantled for cleaning and repairs, and so the sailors on board were reduced to using rifles and sidearms to shoot at the Japanese planes.
It was my visit to the USS Arizona memorial in 1975 that led me to realize how many hundreds and hundreds of young men like my father died in those few hours — and how easily our own family could never have been.
Randy Barnett over at the Volokh Conspiracy has a wonderful and extensive remembrance of Pearl Harbor, including quite a few photos and video clips. ..bruce w..
Truly Pearl Harbor is a sobering place. Actually being there looking down over the Arizona and reading the names of the men who died trapped inside…it makes (or should make) one grateful for those that have gone before paving the way with blood and sacrifice.