Honor and Appreciate

American freedom, security and sovereignty were significantly threatened during World War II. By early 1942 Imperial Japan had attacked and crippled the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, conquered the U.S. territories of the Philippines, Guam, Wake and islands in the Aleutian chain of Alaska. Its submarines had attacked military and commercial installations along the coast of California and Oregon. At the same time, Nazi Germany declared war against the United States having conquered major parts of Western and Central Europe. Germany viewed attack of the U.S. mainland as both inevitable and necessary for attaining its ambition of German “master race” control of its expanding empire. The Nazi’s were well on their way to developing the first atom bomb and had developed the world’s first long range guided missiles for war.

One can only imagine what life in America and the world would be like today had the WWII generation of Americans not risen in mass, transformed their superior peacetime industrial might and ingenuity to the war and deployed millions of American soldiers to keep WWII from our shores and defeat the imperialist ambitions of both Japan and Germany. Over 290,000 American soldiers gave their lives in that effort.

Through the transformation, the United States emerged WWII the world’s military and economic superpower. It used that power to help reconstruct the war-torn countries of the world and transform Japan and (West) Germany into beacons of freedom and democracy and allies for peace. Since the war, America’s superpower deterrence has kept the U.S. free from direct military attack and served as the strength for peace in the free world.