Real History Must Be Taught Lest We Lose Our Nation Forever

It is widely known that our school systems today are not teaching true and accurate history. Be it, how we were formed as a nation, or who discovered our continent from Europe, or “why a war was actually fought,” our children are force-fed a left-wing agenda.

The even sadder truth is that our children are not being taught the incredible heroism that so many have paid in order that our kids have a good life and opportunities that many older Americans never had. 

Many in our nation (in fact, most) have never seen war. They have never seen the ultimate human sacrifices that hero’s make on the battlefield. We are “oh-so-quick” to walk by a Veteran and either ignore them or give them a quick “thanks for your service” in an almost patronizing manner. But when you do this, do you really know or understand the actual pain these men and women have felt so you can sit in your lazy boy and criticize this nation’s leaders and heritage? When all of you who are endorsing Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, or Mayor Pete Buttigieg for President, do you even realize the prices paid for you to give away our nation to socialism?

Close your eyes for a moment, take a deep breath, and put yourself (in your mind) in a tight bunk on a ship. It is Sunday morning, and you don’t have any duty today. You and several of your buddies have liberty and had planned on going into town, catching a movie later, and then hitting the beach. It is 7:30 AM, and you’re still asleep after a night on the town last night. All is well in your young 19-year-old life. Then!!

Being from Topeka, Kansas, as you are, you’re amazed at the beauty of this tropical paradise. You had only just arrived at your new duty station (that being the U.S.S. Arizona) a couple of weeks ago. You’ve only been in the Navy for 6-months and have just graduated from navigation training where you learned how to navigate this giant battleship across the waters of planet earth. You survived boot-camp, did well in your school, and now you’ve arrived at your duty station where you’re enjoying a long rest before hitting the town with your new friends. Then!!

Through the fog of sleep, you suddenly hear deafening horns sounding, and the Quartermaster is screaming “All hands to your battle-stations, this is not a drill, this is not a drill.” The chaos ensues, with sailors grabbing their shoes as they are running top-side to man the guns on deck, fire hoses, and all of the rest of the gear needed to fight a war. You now look skyward, and you can see hundreds of airplanes approaching this once quiet and peaceful harbor, then the bombs begin exploding across the bay. The confusion is almost overwhelming. You don’t know whether to be scared out of your mind or if you could actually be dreaming. You’re somewhat protected as the first Japanese Zero strafes your ship with machine guns, and you watch in horror as your buddy who you had planned on going to town with is cut down right in front of you by bullets from a nation that you had no idea we even had a problem with. 

As your friend is screaming in pain and lay dying in front of your eyes, someone yells at you to start firing your Gatlin guns at the enemy planes and you pivot almost in the same breath, cock your guns and start firing. All the while you’re firing, you are also screaming for a medic to come to help your buddy, but nobody arrives, and he smiles at you and that is the last thing he does before he gasps his last breath.

Fifteen of the longest minutes in your young life have just passed, then you’re literally blown off your feet as the giant ship lunges upward and is split in half from the armory below decks. A stray Japanese bomb just pierced the read deck of the ship, plunged below deck, exploded, which ignited most of your ship’s ammunition and fuel. The Arizona is sinking, and now you’re truly fighting for your own life. 

As you cast your eyes across the bay, you see the water is literally on fire from fuel burning. You’re left with no other choice than to dive overboard now or face certain death by staying on board. 

This is but one example of what so many of our nation’s bravest of the brave have faced. Imagine sitting in a shallow foxhole while bullets rain down just in front of you or just behind you. Imagine doing the same while being so thirsty that your lips are cracked, and your tongue is swollen from dehydration. You have not eaten in over 24-hours, you’re thirsty, and you have not slept in a day and a half. These are but some of the tales you would hear from the men who fought at Iwo Jima. 

As you crouch lower in your hole, you talk to your fellow Marine next to you about your girl back home and how you used to enjoy going to the drive-in theater on Saturday night. The conversation goes on as you very carefully peer over the edge of the foxhole looking up at Mount Suribachi. After a minute or two, you notice that he was not answering you when you asked him a question about his hometown. You glance over and see that he has taken a bullet straight through his forehead, and he had died right beside you. Now a combination of fear, anxiety, stress, and the sheer grotesque nature of the scene causes you to vomit.

As we remember December 7, 1941, remember the genuine fear these men and women faced. Remember the heroism of that day and every day that our brave face to preserve freedom for this great nation. 

If we were teaching our children the actual truth of the prices paid for our freedom, I seriously doubt that Elizabeth Warren, Bernie, or any of the rest would even be registering in the polls. These men and women did not go to Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, or the beaches of Normandy for socialism. They went because they loved their country, and they loved their freedom and liberty to either succeed or fail in this “Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.” 

Remember this and teach your children the truth!

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By Ken Crow