Monday, November 11,
2013
"I
urge, then, first of all that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving
be made for everyone... Kings and all in authority...
"I Timothy 2:1
Hey Gang, we just returned from Branson where
we celebrated with a whole barn full of Veterans from the various wars and
police actions that we have fought Today, I am considered weird by
some, because I would fight to protect our “land of the free and the home of
the brave”.
When the tragedy of 9/11 hit our nation, I
wanted to call and volunteer to return to the military. True, I was an
old duck at the time but I still had the energy to sweep floors, do dishes and
be an encouragement to those who would be asked to put their lives on the line.
I want to share a WW II story that is a
favorite of mine, though I don’t remember where I read it..
“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 everywhere 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 you 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 every one
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.
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 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 Fredericksburg, 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"
Soooo, Why have we
forgotten? PRAY FOR OUR COUNTRY and THOSE WHO SERVE in every capacity.
Blessings and pray daily for our Country,
Gramps
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