Author Topic: 72 Years Ago Today By Jon Gabriel  (Read 722 times)

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Offline mystery-ak

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72 Years Ago Today By Jon Gabriel
« on: December 07, 2013, 05:25:05 pm »
http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/joncgabriel/72-years-ago-today

72 Years Ago Today

By Jon Gabriel on December 07, 2013

Dorie MillerDoris “Dorie” Miller was a Mess Attendant working on the USS West Virginia. Like most mornings, he rose before dawn for a dreary[float=right][/float] day of hauling trash, scrubbing dishes and prepping food for the battleship’s cook. While collecting the crew’s laundry, the General Quarters alarm sounded. Ships have drills all the time — even on Sunday mornings — but a sailor still must answer the call.

However this time he couldn’t get to his designated battle station. The torpedo-twisted metal proved this alarm was for real.

With nowhere else to report, Dorie ran to the deck to see what was happening. Being a former fullback for his Waco, Texas high school, one of the officers told him to carry the wounded to safety. Soon he was told the ship’s captain was seriously wounded and trapped on the bridge. After bringing the mortally-wounded officer through the fire and blood to a safer place, Dorie saw a .50 caliber Browning without a gunner.

Dorie was just a hash slinger. He wasn’t trained on handguns, let alone anti-aircraft guns. But his shipmates needed him.

“It wasn’t hard,” Dorie explained. “I just pulled the trigger and she worked fine. I had watched the others with these guns. I guess I fired her for about 15 minutes. I think I got one... they were diving pretty close to us.” He stayed at the gun until he ran out of ammo. Then he refused to leave his new post until he was ordered to abandon ship.

Dorie earned the Navy Cross that day, pinned to his chest by Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz. A couple of years later, Dorie’s new ship was sunk by a Japanese sub. This time, he didn’t make it.

In his honor, a new warship was named after Dorie. FF-1091, the USS Miller. The photo above holds a special resonance for me. Dorie Miller is standing upon the same warped floorboards I marched alongside my Navy bootcamp drill team in Great Lakes, Ill. Thankfully, I never had to fight active battles, but enjoyed the luxury of merely maintaining the peace.

Since my submarine was based out of Pearl Harbor, I often looked across the waters and skies and wondered what it must have been like that awful Sunday morning 72 years ago today. Thanks to heroes like Petty Officer Miller, I never had to experience a “day of infamy” firsthand.
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Offline mystery-ak

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Re: 72 Years Ago Today By Jon Gabriel
« Reply #1 on: December 07, 2013, 05:31:11 pm »
Excellent Jon....
Proud Supporter of Tunnel to Towers
Support the USO
Democrat Party...the Party of Infanticide

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
-Matthew 6:34

Offline mountaineer

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Re: 72 Years Ago Today By Jon Gabriel
« Reply #2 on: December 07, 2013, 05:48:12 pm »
Thank God for men like Dorie Miller and those who served in WWII.
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Offline musiclady

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Re: 72 Years Ago Today By Jon Gabriel
« Reply #3 on: December 08, 2013, 02:07:45 am »
Thank God for men like Dorie Miller and those who served in WWII.

Amen!
Character still matters.  It always matters.

I wear a mask as an exercise in liberty and love for others.  To see it as an infringement of liberty is to entirely miss the point.  Be kind.

"Sometimes I think the Church would be better off if we would call a moratorium on activity for about six weeks and just wait on God to see what He is waiting to do for us. That's what they did before Pentecost."   - A. W. Tozer

Use the time God is giving us to seek His will and feel His presence.

Offline truth_seeker

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Re: 72 Years Ago Today By Jon Gabriel
« Reply #4 on: December 08, 2013, 02:18:40 am »
Pearl Harbor caused my father to leave high school before finishing, so he could enlist in the United States Marine Corps at age 17, fight on Okinawa for 45 days before being wounded, and be discharged before his 20th birthday.

Later he served in the Army reserves for a short time, at the behest of his older brother who was a career Army officer for 27 years.

My grandfather on my mother's side served in the US Army in France, in WWI.

I'm grateful to have grown up in a family with those experiences.
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Offline Chieftain

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Re: 72 Years Ago Today By Jon Gabriel
« Reply #5 on: December 08, 2013, 03:35:38 am »


 :thud: