Daily Verse | Colossians 3:8
But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
Tuesday’s Reading: 1 Thessalonians 1-5
Happy Tuesday my friends. Cleaning my vacuum cleaner makes me a vacuum cleaner.
Today, December 7, is National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. On this day eighty years ago, Japan conducted a preemptive attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii. Just before 8:00 a.m. that morning, and continuing for the next 90 minutes, the swarm of 353 Japanese planes dropped bombs and torpedoes, sinking, destroying or severely damaging our fleet of battleships, killing over 2,400 soldiers, sailors and civilians, and pulling the United States into World War II.
The day of remembrance is good. WWII is a distant memory now, and we’re still losing those who fought in that conflict. Former Senator Bob Dole died this past week at 98-years-old.
“It is with heavy hearts we announce that Senator Robert Joseph Dole died early this morning in his sleep,” the Elizabeth Dole Foundation tweeted. “At his death, at age 98, he had served the United States of America faithfully for 79 years. More information coming soon. #RememberingBobDole”
Dole very nearly lost his life in Italy after being shot, and bore the resulting scars and paralysis for the rest of his life.
“Some high-explosive bullet entered my right shoulder, fractured my vertebrae in my neck. I — I saw these — things racing — my parents, my house. I couldn’t move my arms, my legs,” Dole recounted in a 1998 campaign video of the injury he endured.
The injury shattered his right shoulder and damaged his neck and spine, leaving him temporarily paralyzed, and caused him to lose a kidney.
He was given morphine on the battlefield and a medic marked him with the letter “M” in his own blood on his forehead. He then remained on the field for more than six hours before he was evacuated and not expected to live.
We also lost the last surviving member of the “Band of Brothers,” Edward Shame. He was 99.
Shames enlisted in the Army in 1942, parachuted into Normandy and fought in the Battle of the Bulge as part of the “Easy Company,” 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.
Their combined efforts – and sacrifices – made in the name of freedom inspired the 2001 HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, the Virginian-Pilot reported.
These men were part of the “Greatest Generation” and fought against the enemies of freedom here and around the world. Given the soybois of today and our woke military, we could use a good dose patriotic inspiration from these men.
Take a moment today to remember those we lost at Pearl Harbor on that day which will live in infamy, and the men and women who gave the last full measure of devotion in service to liberty during the war (some 400,000 dead and 600,000 wounded Americans). You and I are beneficiaries of their sacrifice.