Beginning the Christmas Season but first:

[TwoWalks Baldridge]

I hope and pray that each member of CasCity has a wonderful Christmas Season ... But first,. all Americans should begin the season remembering the thousands of Americans that have given their lives to keep this country free. Men and Women that have given freely of their lives to allow each of us to celebrate the Christmas season our way.

What better way to begin the Christmas Season than remembering Pearl Harbor and those that gave their lives that day.

[PJ Hardtack]

Backatcha! Even though it wasn't just Americans that gave their lives in the wars to preserve freedom. You had a few allies .... ;>)

And thanks for saying "Christmas Season" as opposed to "Happy Holidays". Those come between June and August.

[The Trinity Kid]

My great grandfather was a relief radar operator at Pearl Harbor.  He passed away in 2011.  R.I.P.  Grandpa, and all the others who have fought to keep this country free.  Merry Christmas.

--TK

[Major 2]

Today is special to me, there was an old gentleman in town who I'd see at McDonald's most mornings I'd stop for coffee.  
He be alone wearing Pearl Harbor Survivor ball cap, he'd get the same thing, black coffee & a Biscuit.
People just scurried in and around never noticed him perhaps, but I watched him discretely.

He would sit with his two hand hold on his cup , or take a careful bite of the Biscuit , just a bit and deliberately set it down  
slowly, as to savor it somewhat longer. Some times he'd glance up and follow the people with his eyes other times he'd be deep in thought it appeared.
I decided one morning to summon up the idea of first contact,  Though I'm a baby boomer, I have a real honor for the Greatest Generation.
I'm glad I did, he was on the Nevada, told me how they were able to get underway during the attack. They fought back but were hit several times and had to run her a ground to keep her from going down in the Harbor.
He had SUCH love for his ship , his eyes would brighten when he spoke of her.
He like the Nevada is gone now...  

I had two Uncles at Normandy  June 6th. one in the 44th. Artillery who went ashore D-Day + 4  and My other uncle, a cook on the Nevada.  After her refit from battle damage at Pearl she saw duty at Normandy....

[PJ Hardtack]

Today also marks the anniversary of the Halifax Explosion that occurred in 1917, killing over 2,000 and 9,000 injured, levelling a large part of the city. It was the largest man-made explosion until the advent of nuclear weapons, an estimated 2400 metric tons of explosives.
It happened when two merchantmen collided in the harbour, one of them carrying munitions, the other war relief materials. One of them was the "Mont Blanc", if memory serves.

The British Commonwealth had been at war since 1914, and had endured hundreds of thousands killed and injured in the fighting. This was deaths amongst the civilian population, a demoralizing blow both at home and for the men in the trenches.

There is one lone female survivor who remembers the horror of that day.