Today is the day “that will live in infamy.” The sleepy December Sunday that gave us horrific pictures of the USS Arizona with roiling clouds of thick black smoke belching from amidships, and towering flames shooting skywards, sideways, everywhere. Frantic sailors, desperately trying to save her, their shipmates and themselves. Unbelievable acts of devotion, duty and heroism wherever one looked in the carnage enveloping Pearl Harbor as the Japanese surprise attack continued and casualties mounted, and ship after ship after ship was mercilessly bombarded.

Even in the silence of this film, you just want to scream at the launches and skiffs idling by in the water, “Run! RUN!” because you know what’s coming and it’s so God awful horrible. The first Zeros arrive overhead and the cameraman doesn’t realize what they mean. He gives them a cursory shot…until a bomb explodes in the wake of a launch that’s just passed by.

And then everything goes to hell.

The cost is almost unfathomable…

#OnThisDay December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan launched an early morning attack on Pearl Harbor killing and injuring over 3,000 Marines, sailors, soldiers and civilians. #USMC #WWII #SemperFidelis #Marines #PearlHarbor81 pic.twitter.com/NhQ0yUd9CF

— Buck Miller (1921-2018) (@usmc1940) December 7, 2022

…and the nation is rocked to its core when it finally learns of the attack.

Not only all those precious American lives but our Pacific Fleet – the object of the daring raid – had been decimated.

…Pearl Harbor was a great gamble for Japan, and especially for the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was also a piece of skilled military planning, the work of Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto. Japan dispatched all six of his precious “fleet carriers” across 3,000 miles of open ocean in total secrecy, with the fleet arriving a few hundred miles north of the Hawaiian islands. The carriers launched their aircraft early on a Sunday morning. US forces were completely unprepared, and in less than ninety minutes, Japanese planes destroyed or damaged 19 US warships and 300 aircraft, and killed over 2,400 US servicemen. Almost half of the dead were crewmen from the battleship USS Arizona, which sank within minutes after a bomb struck its forward magazine, igniting more than a million pounds of ammunition. The ship’s remains still lie in the waters of Pearl Harbor, a constant memorial to that terrible morning.

Then it was war.

What many people don’t realize is there was another hostile, surprise attack by Japanese forces that same Sunday in December. In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, they attacked United States Marines stationed on the island of Midway. There was a young Marine Corps Lieutenant on nearby Sand Island, who’d arrived on the USS Wharton out of Pearl Harbor in September.

…As its name suggests, Midway lies nearly halfway between Hawaii and Tokyo, thereby making it a vital base in any transoceanic conflict between the United States and Japan. As US military forces tried to improve their defensive positions on the atoll, Cannon was named platoon leader for artillery Battery H on the island. In addition, he served as a member of the Battalion Coding Board, attempting to translate any intercepted Japanese radio messages.

…On December 7, 1941, 1st LT George H. Cannon, age 26, was assigned platoon leader of Battery H, 6th Defense Battalion on a critical power station on Sand Island near Midway.

The Japanese knew the strategic value of Midway and had already designated assets to neutralize the tiny Marine Corps base on it in their plans. On that Sunday, in a coordinated strike with the Pearl Harbor carrier group, the Japanese commenced their assault…

The Japanese shelled Midway Island on December 7, 1941, with two destroyers Sazanami and Ushio…

…and Lt. Cannon did what Marines do.

…His command post at the power plant was hit by heavy fire from a Japanese cruiser and destroyer, firing at very close range on a moonlit night with excellent visibility. At about 9:35 p.m., the mortar came screaming in through the air vent and exploded inside the station. Lieutenant Cannon was struck by shell fragments, crushing his pelvis, severing his femoral artery, and braking both the tibia and fibula in his left leg.

Cannon was among the first to be wounded in the attack, but refused to be evacuated, instead overseeing the evacuation of his wounded men, re-establishing command of his post in the face of his imminent death, and ensuring that communications were restored at the station, while the attack on the power station continued.

Finally, he was forcibly removed and given medical attention.

But because of the length of time he remained at his post with such severe arterial bleeding, he bled to death at about 10:15 p.m., about 40 minutes after the attack.

The Japanese destroyers pulled off after the bombardment, which had inflicted heavy damage on the little base.

Marine Cpl Harold Hazelwood would win the Navy Cross for his magnificent efforts in reestablishing communications.

Corporal Harold Hazelwood was signaled out for heroism at Midway Island, when he set-up his damaged switchboard and re-established communications despite a fractured leg and severe shock on December 7, 1941.

Marine Corps Lt George Cannon, for his refusal to evacuate until his men were safe, would be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

For distinguished conduct in the line of his profession, extraordinary courage, and disregard of his own condition during the bombardment of Sand Island, Midway Islands, by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. Lieutenant Cannon, Battery Commander of Battery “H,” Sixth Defense Battalion, Fleet Marine Force, U. S. Marine Corps, was at his Command Post when he was mortally wounded by enemy shell fire. He refused to be evacuated from his post until after his men, who had been wounded by the same shell were evacuated, and directed the reorganization of his Command Post until forcibly removed, and as a result of his utter disregard of his own condition he died from loss of blood.

/s/ Franklin D. Roosevelt

#OnThisDay December 7, 1941 1stLt George Cannon was the first Marine of WWII to receive the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on Midway Island. Mortally wounded he refused to leave his post until his injured men had been evacuated. #USMC #SemperFidelis #DevilDogs #Marines pic.twitter.com/UPRaATzVAl

— Buck Miller (1921-2018) (@usmc1940) December 7, 2022

And on a terribly sad note, not only on a mother’s horrific loss – and there were legions of those yet to come – but on communication during that war and the fog of any war…

“How did she know” her boy was gone when even HQ Marine Corps didn’t know yet.
Tears your heart out.

God bless them, every one.

Always remember.

Semper Fidelis