U.S. pilot who dismissed Pearl Harbor reports dies

One who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys.

Proverbs 18:9

more than 180 Japanese fighters, torpedo bombers, dive bombers and >horizontal bombers

OK I give up. What's a "horizontal bomber"?

I remember that scene in the movie. You could feel the theatre audience's collective reaction. ("Oh, s**t!) It was the army's task to protect the navy in Hawaii, which didn't work out very satisfactorily. But at least the Americans got lucky in one aspect: if the carriers had been in port that morning, the war might have lasted another several years.

It is wrong to point the finger at him. even if he gave warning what of been done with it?

It’s sad that one man should have had so much put on him over the years and to be portrayed as he was in Tora tora tora was uncalled for. A surprise attack is by its nature meant to be a surprise, isn’t that what all military commanders try to achieve?

more than 180 Japanese fighters, torpedo bombers, dive bombers and >horizontal bombers

OK, there were fighters (zeros), Torpedo Bombers (Kates) and Diver Bombers (Vals). No such thing as horizontal bombers.

No such thing as horizontal bombers.

No such thing as god. The bombs were dropped from horizontal bombers, which then took a radical, 158 degree diving turn away from their flight path.

This was taken from: http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Bomber_aircraft

I'm sure his dismissal of the blip was the single most serious regret of his life, and regardless of the fact that not a whole lot might have changed if he did NOT dismiss it, it must have plagued him. Mistakes are made, stupid or not. At least the guy lived to a ripe old age.

Ossan: "OK I give up. What's a "horizontal bomber"?"

Well, if you take the other types of planes into question they are likely modified small planes that fly in at high speeds and drop their light payloads before veering away (the payload does not fall immediately downward but maybe also horizontally due to inertia?). Just guessing, though. Not sure if it's an actual class of plane, though.

the payload does not fall immediately downward but maybe also horizontally due to inertia

Yup, that's physics for you. All bombs fly horizontally before descending. And most bombers took an immediate turn as soon as their bombs were far enough away. Some bombers drop their payload up to 50 miles away from the targets, hoping for inertia.

But I don't know what a horizontal bomber is either.

Horizontal bomber is as opposed to a dive bomber.

Horizontal bombers fly in a straight line and drop bombs. Dive bombers (as the name would suggest) dive in, drop, and pull up, basically in a U-shape.

Not to mention in effect, vertical bombings where kamikaze planes would dive in a vertical line from the sky to the ship.

“But I don’t feel guilty. I did all I could that morning.”

He said in 2007. He certainly had enough time to make himself believe that.

Chotto - "vertical bombings where kamikaze planes would dive in a vertical line from the sky to the ship."

I believe diving > straight < down is physically impossible unless the plane - either through being damaged or some other reason - is actually falling out of the sky, in which case it would likely spin.

I'm not sure what is so difficult to understand about a "Horizontal bomber."

It's a bomber that flies at a horizontal trajectory to the Earth's surface.

Surely that much is obvious? :-)

I believe diving > straight < down is physically impossible unless the plane

Check out some videos on youtube to see otherwise.

chotto - OK, I'll take your word for it. :-)

Never mind "horizontal" bombers, how about learning about "search" engines?

The term is very relevant to the period, but nobody has used dive bombers in over 60 years so no need to distiguish today.

And my experience with many different flight simulators tells me that a pretty much straight vertical dive is possible, its just rather undesirable. You won't see it much because who would want to?

Its hard to blame the guy when he was told that the B-17s were coming in but nobody gave him an exact time. It was also practically his first day on a temporary job and with a new fangled un-real world tested piece of equipment. Also, it does not look like the 2 privates made of a fuss when told to forget about it.

HeyLars - "And my experience with many different flight simulators tells me that a pretty much straight vertical dive is possible, its just rather undesirable. You won't see it much because who would want to?"

Someone who loves the Earth and wants to be a part of it, perhaps? :-)

sounds like he lived a good life after that day. fair well

"Farewell" indeed.

You could also argue that the US needed this attack to take place in order to have a clear reason for declaring war. My old college professor in the US was one of the team that decoded the Japanese order to attack the day/night before it actually took place. Perhaps though they were not expecting it to be such a hard hit.