On September 20, 2001 - nine days after the terror attacks - President George W. Bush addressed the nation during a joint session of Congress and gave us our National Marching Orders: "We will not tire. We will not falter. We will not fail."
Today marks the six-month anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks.
In the "Let's Get This Fixed In Time For The Evening News - or the Leno/Letterman Shows" mentality that most of us currently exhibit, six months is about as long as one of these things is supposed to take.
I suspect you were just as surprised as I was when, about 10 days ago, we found our ground forces were engaged in a furious battle in the Shah-i-kot valley in Afghanistan. We thought that war was over. We had won. Bring on Saddam.
Since September 11, our historical grounding has, of course, been December 7, 1941 - the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Six months after Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Navy defeated the Japanese at the Battle of Midway. The U.S. fleet lost the carrier Yorktown but, for the price of it, destroyed four Japanese aircraft carriers, two cruisers, and three destroyers. Midway marked the end of Japan's eastward expansion.
But no one thought the war was over. Along with the Battle of the Coral Sea, Midway was our first significant victory in the war - in either theater.
In fact, it wasn't until late October, 1942 - almost 11 months after Pearl Harbor - that Allied forces won their first major victory in North Africa, defeating Rommel's forces at El Alamein.
No one thought the war was over. In fact, Winston Churchill said on that occasion: "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps, the end of the beginning."
Allied Forces didn't land in Europe until the invasion of Sicily - an Island, as you know - in July of 1943. Eisenhower didn't launch Operation Overlord for 11 MORE months - June, 1944: D-Day.
No one thought the war was over. For many US soldiers, their war had just begun.
And it was yet ANOTHER eleven months - May 8, 1945 - when we officially declared the war in Europe won.
The victory over Japan was not secured until August 14, three months later, and that needed two atomic bombs or VJ Day might have been delayed yet another eleven months - or more.
In the United States, six months after Pearl Harbor, we were just cranking up our war effort. President Franklin Roosevelt said in April, 1942: "One front and one battle where everyone in the United States - every man, woman, and child - is in action. That front is right here, at home, in our daily lives." Hence, "The Home Front."
Some examples:
-- The first item rationed was rubber because the Japanese controlled the rubber-producing regions in the pacific. Old tires, garden hoses and bathing caps (remember them?) were the subjects of large-scale salvage operations.
-- Although the last new civilian car had been manufactured in February, 1942, nationwide gasoline rationing didn't begin until December, 1942 - a year after Pearl Harbor. The first rationing allowed for civilians to drive a nominal amount for non-work and non-war purposes. It wasn't until 1943 that all forms of "pleasure driving" became illegal.
-- According to the San Francisco City Museum, on May 20, 1942, just under six months from Pearl Harbor, the
last ethnic Japanese were evacuated from San Francisco.
No one thought the war was over.
Six months after Pearl Harbor we had not tired, we had not faltered and - in the end - we did not fail.
The biggest single impact on most of us during the first six months of the War on Terrorism - and the issue which has generated the most press coverage day in and day out -has been: Waiting lines at airports.
Which does nothing to put in jeopardy the title of "The Greatest Generation."
Notwithstanding the constant whining and the petty politicking of many of our elected officials and notwithstanding the furrowed brows of "military analysts" staring out at us from the cable news channels; we will heed the President's words.
We are the daughters and sons - the grandsons and the granddaughters - of The Greatest Generation. Neither will we tire, falter - or fail.
PLAGIARISM NOTICE: Every single fact in this essay was lifted from some previously published source. I hereby credit them all. As I was not born until after World War II I have no first-hand knowledge of what went on. And, while I did speak with my mother yesterday who WAS around during the war, that conversation mostly centered around the weather in Florida and how The Lad is doing.
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