I was stationed on Pearl Harbor when I was in the Navy. Was there for the 50th Anniversary when Bush Sr. gave his speech. I've walked around Ford Island where at the time you could still see buildings with bullet holes in them from the Attack, you probably still can today.

My memories of the Missouri are not as a museam, since that didn't happen until after I was out. I remember her from action during Dessert Storm. More than a few nights while on watch would we hear her firing her guns and watch the rounds glow overhead as they flew by.

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Most of us were not alive at the time of the Pearl Harbor Attack. December 7th has been, still is, and will continue to be a date that will live in infamy. My father enlisted in the Navy in 1940 and was stationed in Norfolk, Va. He was a Radioman and served for 28 years, retiring as a Master Chief. He never talked about what he did or saw during that war.We do know that he was on his ship at sea during the Cuban Missile Crisis and also went on many deployments to the Mediterranean Sea . He passed away in 1983 at a Naval Hospital.

My family and I would very much like to read his service record, but gaining access to it is difficult. Any help would be appreciated.

As for myself, I was a Federal Employee at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Va. for 14 years. I was a Pipefitter and was privileged to work with a few men that were there during WWll. I still remember their gruesome stories about the battle damage they repaired and the body parts that they found aboard the ships.

In addition, my brother-in-law was stationed aboard the USS Cole, but suffered an injury just before that ship sailed off to be attacked by terrorist. He would have been in the very space that received the most damage from that explosion.

Last, my brother and his entire family visited the top of New York's World Trade Center just 2 weeks before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. They still speak of it.

Remembering Pearl Harbor is not difficult, finding people that remember Valley Forge,or the Maine, or Gettysburg is.

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