Pearl Harbor Revisted

Mike Heberling did a great job in his presentation about Pearl Harbor and the connection to Michigan at last week's meeting.  He provided an extensive recap of activities leading up to the attack, as well as a detailed overview of the United States arsenal, and the resulting destruction.

Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese Imperial Navy, at approximately 8:00 A.M., Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. The surprise attack had been conceived by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. The strking force of 353 Japanese aircraft was led by Commander Mitsuo Fuchida. There had been no formal declaration of war.

Approximately 100 ships of the U.S. Navy were present that morning, consisting of battleships, destroyers, cruisers and various support ships.

One of the battleships, the USS Arizona (which was commissioned in 1916), had 1440 people on board on the day of the attack on December 7, 1941; 874 still remain entombed in the ship today.  The Arizona had 9 individual brothers on board, one set of brothers from Michigan (Czarncecki) and also a father and son.  The USS Oklahoma also had several Michiganders on board.

All in all, a very enlightening overview of one of America's deadly attacks and a presentation you wouldn't want to have missed!

PS - Check out Mike and Stacy's photo regarding today's presentation (on home page - click on photo albums)!