A Glibertarians Exclusive – Too Many Goodbyes II
Honolulu – December 10th, 1941
The smell of smoke still pervaded Pearl Harbor.
Admiral Halsey, who had been at sea with the Pacific Fleet’s carriers during the attack, had been on the radio, angrily announcing that “…when this war is over, the Japanese language will only be spoken in Hell.” Sally was skeptical about that. So was Lieutenant Commander Thomas Braxton, now her fiancé, who held Sally’s hand now as they walked down Waikiki beach.
“I’ve got twelve hours liberty.” he had told Sally when he arrived unexpectedly at her apartment early that morning. A quick phone call to a friend, and Sally had traded shifts, leaving her free until 1600.
“Have to be back on board by 1800,” Tom told her. “I wish we could get married before I ship out, but the captain says our repairs will be completed late today. Well, they’ll be completed well enough for us to put to sea. So, I’ll be gone for a while – maybe when I get some time back here, I’ll be able to take enough time to get a license, to arrange with one of the chaplains to do it up proper.”
“I hope so,” Sally said quietly. As she had predicted, Tom had proposed, even going down on one knee to do so, on a balcony overlooking a garden on the Pearl Officer’s Club grounds. She had a ring, too, a slim gold band with a modest chip of diamond set on it. Sally wore the ring now, on her left hand.
She hadn’t even had a whole day to enjoy her newly engaged status before their world blew up around them. She looked at her left hand – she was holding Tom’s hand with her right – and could still see blood under her fingernails, despite the constant scrubbing. At least the ring was clean. She had taken a moment on Sunday morning to remove it and stash it its tiny velvet box before rushing to the hospital.
Tom had said very little about his own experiences that day. When Sally asked, all he would say was “It wasn’t good. I ruined a set of khakis; I can tell you that.” His light cruiser had been strafed and suffered two near misses by Japanese bombs. Only luck had spared it any torpedo hits.
A Day That Will Live in Infamy, the President had described it. When Sally and Betsy had heard his gravelly voice on the radio, when he described December 7th, 1941, they could hear the capital letters thudding into place. Her memories of that day were already a blur, images of blood, screaming men, Japanese fighters strafing, bombs falling even on the hospital grounds. Every doctor and nurse on staff at the Navy hospital had rushed to duty, but it wasn’t enough – ten times as many wouldn’t have been enough.
As of yet the Army and Navy were still counting the dead.
The waves coming gently to shore didn’t seem to notice the new war. Neither did the gulls squawking; neither did the wind that blew gently along the beach or the billowing clouds in the clear blue sky. Sally looked up at one long, wispy cloud that appeared to take the faint shape of a dragon, open jaws extended to the west, towards Pearl Harbor.
Sally shivered.
“What are you going to do?” Tom asked.
“What can I do? I’m in the Navy, Tom, just like you. There’s a rumor going around that some doctors and nurses will be sent out to support the Marines if they land anywhere. I suppose in the Philippines, or on Formosa, or somewhere like that. I’ll do my part, same as you.”
Tom let go of Sally’s hand and put his arm around her. “That’s what I expected you’d do.”
Sally leaned up against Tom’s six-foot frame. “Do you know where they’re going to send your ship?”
“No. And if I did know, I probably wouldn’t be able to tell you. Chasing after Halsey’s carriers would be a good bet, but you didn’t hear that from me.”
“Hush-hush,” she agreed, and turned her face up to him for a kiss.
When they separated for a breath of air, Tom smiled. “Well,” he said. “That’s a memory to take with me on the ship.”
Sally slapped him lightly on the chest of his khaki shirt. “You’d better. And I better not hear of you taking up with any island girls anywhere out there in the broad Pacific.”
“Not me,” Tom said. He held up two fingers. “Scout’s honor.”
“I suppose you really were a Boy Scout?”
Tom nodded. “Yep. Troop 141, back in Ashtabula, by-God, Ohio. Didn’t stick with it long. Didn’t care for the uniform.”
“You seem to fit this one all right,” Sally said.
“Well, the money’s better. A little better.”
Arm in arm, they walked down the beach. Martial law was still in effect, so the stores and restaurants were for the moment, closed. When they came to a bench, they sat. Tom pulled a pack of Chesterfields out of his shirt pocket and, after receiving Sally’s nodded permission, lit one.
“I mean it, you know,” Tom said seriously. He took another drag on the cigarette and blew out a smoke ring. “About the island girls. Or any kind of girl. I… well, I don’t play those kinds of games anymore.”
“Any more?” Sally prompted.
“I won’t pretend, honey,” Tom said. “And I won’t lie to you. Ever. I’ve had girls before. Just like you’ve probably had boyfriends before.”
When Sally nodded, he went on. “Just so. But I know you were different right from the get-go. Girls I went with before, well, it wasn’t really any big thing. The Navy was more important. But not you, honey. When I met you, the first time I took you to dinner, it was like I was hit by lightning – or one of the six-inch shells from our main battery. I knew it was different.”
“I won’t ask you to leave the Navy, Tom.” She took the hand that bore his Academy ring. “You’re going to be an admiral one day, I bet.”
He kissed her. “Just another of the reasons I love you.”
The afternoon seemed to fly by. After lunch – chicken salad sandwiches Sally extracted from her capacious handbag – they walked back up towards Ala Wai.
They paused in front of the apartment building on the canal. “I’d better go change,” Sally said. “I’m on shift in an hour. The hospital’s full, they need everyone.”
Tom wrapped his arms around her. “I’ll miss you,” he said, and kissed her.
“Dammit,” Sally said. “You’re making me puddle up.” She pulled a handkerchief from her bag and dabbed at her eyes. “You be careful out there, wherever the place is you’re headed for that I can’t know about. You made me a promise, remember.” She held up her left hand. “I’m going to hold you to it.”
“I keep my word,” Tom said seriously. He kissed her again.
“It’s going to be lonely, without you around.”
“It’s going to be lonely on that ship without you.”
They shared another kiss. Then Tom turned away and strode down the street, headed for Pearl Harbor.
***
Dragon clouds so high above
I’ve only known careless love
It’s always hit me from below
This time around it’s more correct
Right on target so direct
You’re gonna make me lonesome when you go.
Another episode of memories, Animal. Thanks
I’ll be waiting for the next one.
Excellent chapter.
Thanks, Animal.
Good stuff.
Good stuff. He is on the USS Honolulu or St. Louis by your description.
Both made it through the war. Maybe my sense of foreboding is unwarranted.
Just because the ships survived, doesn’t mean every sailor did.
The next chapter names two ships, but both are fictional. One real ship will be named towards the end of the story.
He was an infant when the shots were fired, but Dad thought the bullet holes at Hickam Field were more than symbolic when bivouacked there on his way to the Marshall Islands in 1957.
Mom lost an uncle in the Bulge, 24 December 1944. Her father barely tolerated my working for German and Japanese firms.
Not sure about Hickam, but the control tower on Ford Island still has the bullet holes. For whatever reason, I never checked out that museum or the full Mighty Mo tour when I was stationed there for 18 months. Something about familiarity breeding contempt (and schedule issues based on available free time, etc).
There is a large building on Hickam that was a barracks complex on Dec 7, 1941 with lots of bullet scars from the attack. Ford Island still bears scars on some of the buildings and former PBY ramps as well.
Always enjoy your stories, Animal. Thanks!
OT question for the IT folks in the crowd. I bought a reconditioned laptop that I’m trying to get running. Dell recommended a BIOS upgrade so I downloaded it and started it. It ran through one segment to 100%. Unfortunately it seems to be stuck on “Management Engine FW update”. It’s been at 0% for about 20 minutes now.
Am I:
a) SOL?
b) doomed?
c) dealing with a brick?
or is there something that I can do?
Oh boy. Bad BIOS install could be an issue. If it keeps going after an hour, you may have to turn it off and try again. I do not beleive it is a brick but it may well need outside intervention. See link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WboWVjnR8-c
What was the flashing software used? Was there an option for backing up the existing BIOS before trying to flash it?
After an hour I unplugged it and pulled the battery. Looks like it recovered; however I think I still have issues with this box. During startup I get a message “ME is in recovery mode”. I thought for a moment I had Windows ME installed but Win 7 comes up. After the BIOS message I’m assuming ME is Management Engine.
I bought a new laptop with Win 11 on it but have never been able to connect to my domain. Having similar problems with this Win7 laptop.
Thanks, BTW, for the responses.
Not a problem. I haven’t worked with Windows 11 yet, but I know that some of the more recent security updates have made things much more complicated for home network users. Things like shared printers and the like require either rolling back security patches (open up vulnerabilities), or making registery changes.
Your great work continues. I love all the stories you publish. Thank you!
Admiral Halsey, who had been at sea with the Pacific Fleet’s carriers during the attack, had been on the radio, angrily announcing that “…when this war is over, the Japanese language will only be spoken in Hell.” Sally was skeptical about that
And she was right.
“I wish we could get married before I ship out, but the captain says our repairs will be completed late today. Well, they’ll be completed well enough for us to put to sea. So, I’ll be gone for a while – maybe when I get some time back here, I’ll be able to take enough time to get a license, to arrange with one of the chaplains to do it up proper.”
I have a sense of foreboding.
And count me as another one who likes this story.
Thanks, Animal. An appropriate chapter for Memorial Day.
Thank you Animal.
Pressure canning done without blowing up the house. Jars are cooling and we’ll see if I still know what I’m doing and they seal.
I’m hip. We spent a good part of the morning storing away rice, beans and flour in food-grade sealed buckets and stashing them down in the cellar.
You can live for a long time on rice and beans, but you’ll have to find your happiness someplace else. Fortunately we have a wide range of fish and game on offer as well.
Wish I had a cellar. Not sold on using my crawlspace – after having to pump it out already this year. Garage is not staying very cool though. Prob not good to leave my stuff in there too long – or rotate it out within the year.
If your crawlspace has a water problem, your cellar would have a water problem without some serious precautions.
That was the issue a couple months back where I had to replace the sump pump and there were a few inches of water across the floor. Addressed now…but would prefer not to deal with that in the future. Left a couple dehumidifier buckets in there – again for sealed plastic bins/buckets with silica gel packets inside – that get checked a few times a year…probably doable – same sort of space as Animal is actually describing – and the AC air handler is in there which also keeps it cooler than the rest of the house most of the year…but this is VA, not AK.
I’m not sure cellar is the right word in our case. I just don’t know what else to call it. It’s too tall to be a crawlspace, but too short to be a basement, and there’s no cement floor, just heavy vapor-barrier plastic. It’s dry, though, I can walk around stooped, and it’s nice for storage. The water softener and hot water heater are down there, so it has to be accessible.
I am about to try out the new meat grinder. Sausage shall be made!
Article with photos?
I thought those who like sausage are never supposed to see it made?
Damn. I should have thought of that. I did a skillet fry up of some of the mix and it is a winner. (a Serrano pepper infused bratwurst) The rest is wrapped in corn husks and smoking away alongside a rack of ribs. I have no casings so corn husks have to do. #5moreassistedpull-ups
I regret never doing the whole Pearl Harbor tour on my many layovers there back in the day. I am not feeling very patriotic this Memorial day which is perhaps lame of me, but ya, that is where I am at.
If Deadhead rolls by after whatever insanity he said he was doing today……… I got 5 Pull-ups in today (two band assist, a purple and a green)
Ok, almost stepped on a black snake (it was black, no idea of species) going out the back door. I screamed and jumped back inside and called the neighbor.
No more yard work today. Nope. Nope. Nope.
If you were in Oz, you’d be afraid, very afraid: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-bellied_black_snake
Black snake species in North America are non-venomous. Be glad you have a quiet outside pet that likes to eat mice,
I still don’t want to see it (or step on it). *shudders*
Well, except for the cottonmouth.
NOT HELPING!
Helping? Are you new here?
I’m already afraid even though it’s likely a rat snake. *shudders*
Might not help to say my daughter encountered a rat snake in the henhouse while camping. It was eating eggs.
Might not help to say my daughter encountered a rat snake in the henhouse while camping. It was eating eggs.
There were squirrels in there, too.
You went camping somewhere with a henhouse?
And a rat snake!!!!
Look at this beauty I cam across the other day!
Bull snek. Big but harmless.
Westernsloper- I agree with you. Below-the-knee “shorts are an abomination. I wouldn’t be caught dead in them.
Maybe you just don’t have the style to pull it off.
I just thought Brooks preferred his Daisy Dukes.
Popular when I was a kid: https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/waikato-times/20080315/282853661656231
I’d wear those.
Not cool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094Y922LC/?th=1&psc=1
A.k.a., shants
My house smells like roast pork.
Yum.
We had a pretty good rain storm last night, still a little windy. Anyway, I hopped on the Husqvarna to check out the garden. All looked good, crab apple blossoming and a couple smaller apple trees have blossoms. Radishes and beets popping up. All is well. Then I wondered if the bees were flying so I took a sidetrip over that way. Before I got there I saw the top cover was off both hives. WTF is up with that!
Fucking bear. I went over, inspected the fence, OK, went to turn the power off, power was still on.Then I saw the vent covers in the middle of the dandelion field of dreams. I thought, “Didn’t we put the rocks back on?” I realized it hadn’t been a bear, the hive boxes were still intact.
Anyway the covers had blown off, with the rocks on. They fell down, hit the charger wires and pulled the charger out of the bucket. The vent covers, being lighter and not tacked down yet then blew away. I pulled a frame from the north hive super and looked in, lotsa of bees milling around. I couldn’t get a frame out of the south hive, they were already tacked down and I didn’t have a tool. Anyway, it didn’t seem there was a lot of rain, I re-assembled the hives and hoped for the best. I hope the charger is still working but since I can’t hear it, I dunno.
Tough year.
in the Red River valley two weeks ago I had occasion to walk through a patch of red clover
that had zero bees in it
that can’t be good for anybody
Mono cropping is devastating to bee populations. Industrial ag needs to be revisited.
Also, the neonicotinoid pesticides.
And synthetic fertilizers.
We’ve lost the plot (so to speak).
I hope all is well with your buzzers! ??
I hope the charger is still working but since I can’t hear it, I dunno.
Sorry about the bees. My bull started getting out of the woven wire, so I spent the weekend running a mile of electric polywire. I got a charger rated for buffalo. The box was clicking but the voltmeter was reading zero. The guy helping me accidently hit the wire about an hour ago while fixing something near the gate. Turns out the voltmeter was broken. And the guy swears it will stop a buffalo.
Question for language-learners: what’s the go-to these days? I need to up my Spanish game and high school was a long time ago!
I’m enjoying Duolingo greatly. Can’t beat the price.
I’m working on Duolingo.
Lol. Free works.
Thanks, both of you!
Let me know when you make it to the Diamond League, kid.
*buffs fingernails*
Oooooh, a celebrity!
What language, slum?
French. Because, uh, I dunno. I like the food? Peter Mayle?
Though we are going to Saint Martin in a few weeks.
Hire on as a day laborer.
There were two things wrong with the meatballs I made today.
First, when I was seasoning them, I forgot the salt, so there wasn’t much flavor. That left the texture, and the breadcrumbs utterly ruined the texture. I don’t think they belong in the recipe.
At the risk of getting cat-butted by Web Dominatrix:
#Worldle #129 1/6 (100%)
??????
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr
I got it in 4; started with Malaysia.
Admiral Halsey, who had been at sea with the Pacific Fleet’s carriers during the attack
I thought he didn’t have a berth.
Someone has to.
Bastard.
You are welcome
Love that song despite its complete retardation.
“Butter pie”
Live a little!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BchXkabxn4A
Things have taken a weird turn.
WordPress does not like the title of this tune . WTF?
When I was eight, I won a rock/paper/scissors playoff and got to carry the flag for my cub scout troop in my town’s Memorial Day parade. I wasn’t all that big when I was eight, but I marched with that flag because it was the most important thing in the world. It was fucking heavy, and it was windy. It was painful. And I was proud to do it.
(repost)
Do towns do that anymore?
Podunkville is so small they’ve combined Memorial Day with the Fourth of July. The car show is when Hank and his brothers bring all 3 of the used cars to the parade.
NH list.
I found some softball games branded with it nearby. Sad.
Someone forgot they were on holiday links duty.
So where are your links then?
As if you’ve never been late with the Lily pics and horoscopes.
Got some pics ones for next week!
Gott pre-cast a few for the three weeks I’ll be on the road.
I haven’t even been drinking.
Might be your problem?
Agreed. As your surrogate doctor, I suggest you drink heavily.
*Remembers warning about Webdom. Tip-toes slowly away from NA*
It looks as if the PM Lynx are still marked as a Draft.
It also looks as if two posts are scheduled for the evening slot tonight.
I shouldn’t have done it, but I did. I cracked open a beer. KBS. A vintage a couple of years old.
At the gym this morning, I was thinking about my question the other day regarding white cats in Japanese movies and teevee shows i have seen. What if it’s just the same white cat in all of them. The star of Samurai Cat was white, and he was quite talented. Maybe he’s the box office king of Oriental cat actors? The
Paul NewmanToshiro Mifune of feline thespians.Star of stage and screen, Samurai Cat
Nothing screams try me like a pair of brilliant green eyes. Do so at your own peril.