Honoring those who were there on Pearl Harbor Day

Don Estep is Publisher Emeritus of The News Journal.

On this date 75 years ago, just before 8 a.m., hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The barrage lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: More than 2,000 American soldiers and sailors died in the attack. The attack signaled the entry of the United States into World War II.

For years my friend, the late Tom Elliott, would always remind me that we should publish a story about the attack on this date. And for several years in this newspaper we featured a survivor of the attack, the late Ed Moses.

As President Roosevelt proclaimed it is a “Date Which Will Live in Infamy.” The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise. The Japanese destroyed 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and more than 300 airplanes.

So, in keeping with the memory of that event and those who died in service of their country and of Tom and Ed, we salute them.

•Newspapers have always been part of my life. I never recall a Sunday that our family was without the Sunday edition at our house. We could get the newspaper of our choice at a newsstand located on the sidewalk at the corner of Main and 2nd Streets, in front of Bissell’s Office Supply. Stacks of newspapers from Louisville, Lexington and Knoxville were left on the sidewalk each Sunday and sold by a vendor.

I was told by one of my sisters that my mother let me sell the Clinton Courier in front of our living quarters, across from the magnet Mills in Clinton, Tennessee, when I was four years old. I don’t remember that, but I do remember delivering both the Courier Journal and the Corbin Daily Tribune when I was a young boy.

Sunday, as I sat in my living room in deep depression from the Kentucky loss to UCLA, it occurred to me that for the first time in my life I did not have a Sunday newspaper to read and they no longer were delivered to the area where we live.

Prior to moving back to Corbin a few months ago from Henderson, Ky. we got delivery of the Henderson Gleaner on Sundays. But now in this area there are none available.

Years ago Curtis Jenkins delivered the Courier Journal to our house every morning. Then when it was not available we received the Lexington Herald-Leader. As time moved on it became a shell of what it was before the Internet.

I don’t like reading the newspaper on the Internet, but I do. Also, I don’t like getting my news from opionated newscasters on television, but I do. But there is good news. I don’t recall local news being covered as well as it has been through the years by Trent Knuckles, Mark White and Dean Manning here at the News Journal. Sure I’m biased, but it is true.

As for Sunday reading, I’ll have to read books instead of the newspaper. Right now I’m reading the latest book by the author of the “Boys From Corbin”, Gary West called, “Hillbilly Jim”. It is a book about a pro wrestler from Bowling Green. I’ll give you a book report on it soon.