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This was sent in an email and makes for great reading.
Subject: Always look for the Silver Lining----Good Stuff......
Tour boats ferry people out to the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii every
thirty minutes. We just missed a ferry and had to wait thirty minutes. I
went into a small gift shop to kill time. In the gift shop, I purchased a
small book entitled, "Reflections on Pearl Harbor " by Admiral Chester
Nimitz.
Sunday, December 7th, 1941--Admiral Chester Nimitz was attending a concert
in Washington D.C. He was paged and told there was a phone call for him.
When he answered the phone, it was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the phone. He told Admiral Nimitz that he (Nimitz) would now be the
Commander of the Pacific Fleet.
Admiral Nimitz flew to Hawaii to assume command of the Pacific Fleet. He
landed at Pearl Harbor on Christmas Eve, 1941. There was such a spirit of
despair, dejection and defeat--you would have thought the Japanese had
already won the war. On Christmas Day, 1941, Adm. Nimitz was given a boat
tour of the destruction wrought on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Big
sunken battleships and navy vessels cluttered the waters every where you
looked. As the tour boat returned to dock, the young helmsman of the boat
asked, "Well Admiral, what do you think after seeing all this
destruction?" Admiral Nimitz's reply shocked everyone within the sound of
his voice. Admiral Nimitz said, "The Japanese made three of the biggest
mistakes an attack force could ever make or God was taking care of
America . Which do you think it was?" Shocked and surprised, the young
helmsman asked, "What do mean by saying the Japanese made the three
biggest mistakes an attack force ever made?"
Nimitz explained. Mistake number one: the Japanese attacked on Sunday
morning. Nine out of every ten crewmen of those ships were ashore on
leave. If those same ships had been lured to sea and been sunk--we would
have lost 38,000 men instead of 3,800.
Mistake number two: when the Japanese saw all those battleships lined in a
row, they got so carried away sinking those battleships, they never once
bombed our dry docks opposite those ships. If they had destroyed our dry
docks, we would have had to tow everyone of those ships to America to be
repaired. As it is now, the ships are in shallow water and can be raised.
One tug can pull them over to the dry docks, and we can have them repaired
and at sea by the time we could have towed them to America . And I already
have crews ashore anxious to man those ships.
Mistake number three: every drop of fuel in the Pacific theater of war is
in top of the ground storage tanks five miles away over that hill. One
attack plane could have strafed those tanks and destroyed our fuel supply.
That's why I say the Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack
force could make or God was taking care of America .
I've never forgotten what I read in that little book. It is still an
inspiration as I reflect upon it. In jest, I might suggest that because
Admiral Nimitz was a Texan, born and raised in Fredricksburg , Texas --he
was a born optimist. But anyway you look at it--Admiral Nimitz was able to
see a silver lining in a situation and circumstance where everyone else
saw only despair and defeatism. President Roosevelt had chosen the right
man for the right job. We desperately needed a leader that could see
silver linings in the midst of the clouds of dejection, despair and
defeat.
There is a reason that our national motto is, IN GOD WE TRUST.
Subject: Always look for the Silver Lining----Good Stuff......
Tour boats ferry people out to the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii every
thirty minutes. We just missed a ferry and had to wait thirty minutes. I
went into a small gift shop to kill time. In the gift shop, I purchased a
small book entitled, "Reflections on Pearl Harbor " by Admiral Chester
Nimitz.
Sunday, December 7th, 1941--Admiral Chester Nimitz was attending a concert
in Washington D.C. He was paged and told there was a phone call for him.
When he answered the phone, it was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the phone. He told Admiral Nimitz that he (Nimitz) would now be the
Commander of the Pacific Fleet.
Admiral Nimitz flew to Hawaii to assume command of the Pacific Fleet. He
landed at Pearl Harbor on Christmas Eve, 1941. There was such a spirit of
despair, dejection and defeat--you would have thought the Japanese had
already won the war. On Christmas Day, 1941, Adm. Nimitz was given a boat
tour of the destruction wrought on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Big
sunken battleships and navy vessels cluttered the waters every where you
looked. As the tour boat returned to dock, the young helmsman of the boat
asked, "Well Admiral, what do you think after seeing all this
destruction?" Admiral Nimitz's reply shocked everyone within the sound of
his voice. Admiral Nimitz said, "The Japanese made three of the biggest
mistakes an attack force could ever make or God was taking care of
America . Which do you think it was?" Shocked and surprised, the young
helmsman asked, "What do mean by saying the Japanese made the three
biggest mistakes an attack force ever made?"
Nimitz explained. Mistake number one: the Japanese attacked on Sunday
morning. Nine out of every ten crewmen of those ships were ashore on
leave. If those same ships had been lured to sea and been sunk--we would
have lost 38,000 men instead of 3,800.
Mistake number two: when the Japanese saw all those battleships lined in a
row, they got so carried away sinking those battleships, they never once
bombed our dry docks opposite those ships. If they had destroyed our dry
docks, we would have had to tow everyone of those ships to America to be
repaired. As it is now, the ships are in shallow water and can be raised.
One tug can pull them over to the dry docks, and we can have them repaired
and at sea by the time we could have towed them to America . And I already
have crews ashore anxious to man those ships.
Mistake number three: every drop of fuel in the Pacific theater of war is
in top of the ground storage tanks five miles away over that hill. One
attack plane could have strafed those tanks and destroyed our fuel supply.
That's why I say the Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack
force could make or God was taking care of America .
I've never forgotten what I read in that little book. It is still an
inspiration as I reflect upon it. In jest, I might suggest that because
Admiral Nimitz was a Texan, born and raised in Fredricksburg , Texas --he
was a born optimist. But anyway you look at it--Admiral Nimitz was able to
see a silver lining in a situation and circumstance where everyone else
saw only despair and defeatism. President Roosevelt had chosen the right
man for the right job. We desperately needed a leader that could see
silver linings in the midst of the clouds of dejection, despair and
defeat.
There is a reason that our national motto is, IN GOD WE TRUST.
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