I have heard that some of the USA intelligence had a reason to believe that Pearl Harbor was going to be attacked. But it seemed so far-fetched that the message was ignored. It was the beginning of WWII but before we ended it we lost so many. I have done a lot of research and digging for information about the battles that took place in the pacific. The reason for it is because I lost my oldest brother on June 15, 1944, the first day we attacked the Japanese on the island of Saipan. His body was never recovered. The United States is still sponsoring programs for recovery of American troops who lost their lives there. Recently I was contacted by a man who was working on cases of lost servicemen. I, my son and my nephew all gave swab samples for DNA purposes. They file the results in files of the ones lost and still not recovered so that when another set of remains are recovered they can take DNA's of the remains (bones) and research their files to see if they can make a match. It is a long shot but for me it is encouraging because of that slim chance that they recover my brother's remains. It has been 76 years and my parents and siblings are all gone. This was the brother that I never knew. My folks didn't speak much about it but I can remember the few times they talked about him and the stories they told. I still have the last letter he wrote to them. It was written in February 1944 and he spoke of upcoming events. One of the last lines was "don't worry about me, we got everything we need".
I also have a picture of the monument in Pearl Harbor that list the names of those who lost their lives in the pacific. His name is on it. We are so blessed to live in the greatest country in the world. But the price of freedom has not come cheap. There are still too many missing from the wars we have been involved in and their families have suffered their loss. But don't cry for them, just remember what they did for us and pray for the ones who are in our military today. Let's keep America strong and pray that we never loose another service man or woman, but also stay prepared because I don't believe that our wars are over. We need to live our lives with the understanding that freedom is the greatest thing we have and when necessary we need young men and women who are willing to put aside their future plans, their hopes and dreams, and step up to the plate just as the ones have done before them. And let's never forget to thank God for our freedom remembering that He gave up his only Son for us.
