Chuck Norris declares, ‘Time to cease the friendly fire on fellow Americans’.
For days, nearly every news media outlet has been consumed in the Ferguson fallout. From coast to coast, pundits and populations have been debating the efficacy of justice and demonstrations. But maybe a true solution for Ferguson – and every other social skirmish like it – can only be found in changing the narrative. I think I found it – or more likely, him – at Pearl Harbor, and just in time for its 73rd anniversary.
You know the history. On a quiet Sunday morning, Dec. 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on U.S. military bases on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Two waves of 353 fighter planes hit military installments. The first was at Pacific Naval Air Base, destroying or crippling 36 seaplanes and taking the lives or maiming 84 Americans. Seven minutes later, the Japanese hit Pearl Harbor, where 96 U.S. warships were anchored. All eight battleships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet were sunk or badly damaged, including the USS Arizona. Amazingly, all of America’s aircraft carriers were untouched. A full 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed. Of the 2,300 Americans killed, 1,102 were aboard the USS Arizona.
Seven of the wasted U.S. battleships – excluding the U.S.S. Arizona – were eventually raised, six of them deployed in World War II battle. Most inspirational, however, were the myriad of heroic stories that also surfaced from the devastating day that “will live in infamy.” Here’s one about an unexpected hero who can still inspire the extraordinary in all of us.
Doris “Dorie” Miller grew up in Waco, Texas, tending to his father’s farm and playing football. He was 19 years old when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1939. Dorie wanted to improve his life, serve his country, see the world and earn some money to help out back home, according to National Geographic.
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