Darel Leipold on Pearl Harbor

Our Program for December 8th was a presentation by our own member, Darel Leipold, about the events of December 7, 1941, "a day that will live in infamy". It was Darel's first presentation using PowerPoint technology (It's good to see Darel a part of the 21st Century). The background history was the fact that the US had broken off trade with Japan, and at the time of the attack there was a peace delegation ready to meet with President Roosevelt in Washington. The Japanese had a fleet with 6 aircraft carriers 230 miles north of Hawaii for the attack. There also were 5 Japanese two-man submarines in the area for the surprise attack. The USS Ward spotted and sank one of the 5 subs, actually firing the first shots of the war. The attack was more successful than the Japanese expected because the American forces were worried about sabotaqe, and had all of the airplanes on the airfields clustered together so they could guard them. There was no expectation of an air attack. The damage caused by the attack was enormous, but, in the end, the US Navy salvaged almost all of the damaged ships. Darel showed a postcard which was sent from Hawaii on the day after the attack. Because of security, the message was extemely limited, but the receipt of the card told the families on the mainland that their serviceman had survived the attack and was uninjured. (Story by Tad Shaw)