Remember??? December 7, 1941??? Pearl Harbor??? You Know, The "Sneak Attack" That Officially Injected The U.S. Into World War II???

 But first, a little family history here... My now-deceased brother was born on Columbus Day, 1942, right smack in the middle of WW2, I, on the other hand, was born 1 year and 11 months after the end of WW2: July 12, 1947.

My dear brother (veteran) enlisted in the U.S. Navy back in 1960 and served on the aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Constellation, and was involved in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crises which brought the world very, very close to a nuclear Armageddon...

I enlisted in the U.S. Air Force on July 9, 1965, and was trained as an Air Force cop, later to be known as a Security Policeman, and went to Vietnam on December 16, 1967, I returned home (a changed man) on December 16, 1968...

My now-deceased father was exempted from the military for some specific skill he had that contributed to the (WW2) war effort...

My now-deceased mother also contributed to the war effort by maintaining the home front as a loyal American -- and praying!

(I know she did a great deal of praying for my brother back in '62, and perhaps even more for me when I went to Southeast Asia back in '67!) 

My dear, now-deceased uncle Vincent served in WW2 (in my uncle's honor, my brother's middle name was Vincent!).

I want to relay something at this point, something that occurred less than a year ago regarding my Uncle...

First, my Uncle was a Catholic.  I'm not sure how much he practiced his faith, but what I do know is that he appeared to me in a dream... What I clearly remember is that we shook hands -- as one veteran to another.  I took that to mean that he wanted me to pray for him, as if he needed help -- to get out of Purgatory, perhaps?  

Up to that point, I had always included him, and my other deceased relatives, in our daily Rosary, by name!

So, after that dream, I had a Mass offered for him...

I hope that helped him enter the Heavenly Beatitude!  And maybe, just maybe, I'll find out one day?  

I realize this has been a long "intro" to "December 7, 1941," but I wanted to give a little personal background about our military service to our country, for better or worse.

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Didn't Our Lady of Fatima warn that there would be another "great" war (WW 2) in which many good men would die, if mankind didn't convert, turn to Her Son and bend our knee in humility at the very mention of His name??  For no one comes to the Father except by Him!  As there is no other Name under heaven by which we are saved! 

As we know, wars and rumors of war are a result of grievous sins committed against God.  The unfortunate result is that it is always -- always! -- the civilian non-combatants who suffer, with lives and homes destroyed, sometimes in the most heinous of ways.  E.g., the fire-bombing of some German cities that caused a horrendous, hellish conflagration that snuffed out the lives of countless men, women and children...

As for the "sneak attack" on Pearl Harbor on that infamous Sunday morning -- yes, it was on Sunday morning when many were attending Mass, church, etc., only to realize that they were being plunged into hell on earth, but was it really a "sneak attack"?  Or was there advanced knowledge of the Japanese heading toward the Hawaiian Islands?   And was that knowledge purposely ignored -- or covered up?  And if so, wasn't that a treasonous act resulting in the slaughter of close to 3,000 American military and civilians alike?

Wasn't it eerily similar to the future "sneak attack" on September 11, 2001, by a bunch of Arabs with box cutters taking over several airliners and flying them into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, defeating our intelligence agencies and NORAD?

Conspiracy theories abound, but we see the results of those "conspiracy theories" and the loss of life, treasure and, most importantly, our freedoms and liberties granted to us by our good God -- not by the government!

The question is, when will we ever learn that we all have to change our ways, repent and treat our neighbors as we want them to treat us???

If only we would fulfill the two great Commandments: to love God and our neighbor, all the other Commandments, the law and the Prophets would be fulfilled and there would be -- dare I say it? -- a real peace on earth...

We are now in the Season of Advent... Let's get ready to welcome the Prince of Peace and Love into our hearts -- and the world!  

I'll now get off my soapbox...

Pray for strength and honor!

Viva Cristo Rey!  Bl. Fr. Miguel Pro, Fr. Emil Kapaun and Fr. Vincent Capodanno, pray for us...

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle...

Gene DeLalla