We can still celebrate our Independence! A few years ago I traveled to Hawaii with friends and took a tour on the USS Missouri, a ship known as the “Mighty Mo”, anchored in Pearl Harbor. As I walked through the ship, memories drifted through my mind of some months I had served on an aircraft carrier in peace time. I was greatly impressed that this 887 foot long ship, weighing 58,000 tons, could travel up to 33 knots (38 mph).
To fight our enemies on the sea, it was twelve 5 inch 38 caliber guns, and forty-nine 20mm anti-aircraft guns. What I thought was truly awesome was that it could fire one of the nine 68 ft long, 16 inch guns, with a 2700 lb load, and hit a target 23 miles away in 90 seconds. But I also felt an atmosphere of reverence as I stood in the area where Japanese minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and General Yoshijiro Umezu signed a surrender to allied commander General Douglas McArthur, finalizing the end of WW II. This ship would later serve to win battles during the Korean conflict.
After all I have viewed about the greatness of that ship and its service to the survival of this United States, one item that sticks in my mind was a statement printed landscape on a regular sheet of typing paper, taped to the bulkhead where you exit which read: “IF THERE IS TO BE A WAR AND MEN MUST DIE, AM I WORTH DYING FOR.” One nation under God, indivisible with liberty, and justice for all, IS worth dying for. We as Americans must elect officials of integrity who will “establish justice and insure domestic transquility”.
