Wind or War

Just last week we had a devastating wind event that destroyed property, damaged homes, altered landscapes and gave opportunity to serve. Today, 70 years ago there was another wind that came to our land from the west. It was an attack on what was then U.S. Territory at Pearl Harbor. Much has been written about the beginning of our country's participation in World War II, precipitated by that event. It has been revealed by diligent research that quite possibly this was the only way the Japanese government and military could respond to sanctions and restrictions that were placed upon it. In all honesty too, there is every indication that in Washington DC there were some that knew the attack was imminent from intelligence gathered through intercepted Japanese communiques.

No matter. The attack was abrupt, the destruction was great; even so Providence did look down on this nation. The might of the Naval Forces was out at sea, the carriers which were supposed to be in Pearl Harbor were not there. The battleships were damaged and destroyed, young lives were taken and for the next three and three quarters years nary a person in this country was not affected by the war.

In Europe there had been war already for 2 years. Devastation, death, destroyed and divided families lived day by day. Some were occupied by foreign soldiers, others had to withstand air assault and constant bombings. Homes, businesses, roads, utilities were all destroyed sometimes in just an instant.

Looking about our landscape from our wind event it is obvious that this was a minor inconvenience. As I think of what the world was like 70 years ago, very few of us can relate to the Wind of War. As I stood at one time on the deck of the USS Missouri where the Surrender was signed to end the war in the Pacific; there I could look and see the buried hulk of the USS Arizona; I could imagine the incredible chaos that comes from an organized attack. There in the Punchbowl Cemetery as well as other military cemeteries I have visited one thought comes to my mind: "Walk softly, this is sacred ground, Fallen Warriors are here"