Today is the 79th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. It is a day that is deeply personal to me because my grandfather was a battalion commander at Pearl and my mother and grandmother living in Honolulu at the time.

My mother was about to turn 11 when that day came. She and her parents had gone to church that morning. Her father had to pile in a car with a couple Marine officers to get to the base. They had to cross Honolulu from near Diamond Head to Pearl.

Japanese Zeros strafed cars headed towards the base, including the car my grandfather was riding in. On their way, they periodically had to pull over to take cover from the strafing runs.

This is an excellent article on some little reported aspects of the attack and the mostly ineffective defense.

https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/npswapa/extcontent/usmc/pcn-190-003116-00/sec4.htm

I always talked about that day with my mom. She actually watched large portions of the battle from a sea wall near her home. I don't know how aware she was of what it meant when she was just 11 years old. I wish I could ask her now, but she passed away three years ago.

I miss my mom and I am both tremendously proud of her father, who was KIA on Okinawa in 1945, and heart-broken for her and all the other kids who grew up without fathers because of the war.