So, there I was, doing a little food shopping at the local market. I happen to see a copy of SEA CLASSICS magazine on one of the racks there, and it had a picture of the burning ARIZONA on the cover. Thus I was compelled to pick it up. Later that evening I went through the ARIZONA article and finding numerous inaccuracies, decided to email my issues to the editor. Yeah, I'm like that when it comes to ARIZONA. So, I went into Microsoft Word and typed up a response to the article, intending on inserting it into the aforementioned email. I spent like an hour and a half getting everything noted then went to the magazine to reference the date / issue for the corrections. October 2011. WHAT? So, now irritated at my lack of checking in the first place . . . I blew it off, but still wondered why they had a brand new copy in the store. Yeah, felt kinda dumb on that one!! Feel free to share similar moments and help me feel better. Aww come on, please . . .
Not as bad as the time I sent a letter of corrections to the editor of a magazine that shall remain nameless 2 hours before picking up the next month's issue and seeing that an errata had been published which addressed the errors raised in my letter.
Thanks so much, I do feel better now. Honestly, I find it surprising when I see major mis-quotes and "just plain wrong" things in articles from what might be considered first line sources. In this case, even several of the pictures were captioned wrong. All I could think was WOW. Again, Thanks
I was given a signed book about Pearl Harbor by one of my employees who took a vacation in Honolulu a few years back. It had a photo of the Bunker Hill burning after the Kamikaze attack in 1945 which was captioned as being a photo of one of the burning ships during Pearl Harbor attack. I was tempted to contact the author but decided against it.
Rich, Yes, something along those lines. Someone came up with (among other interesting claims) the "fact" that the bomb that sunk ARIZONA hit the black powder mag, and its explosion detonated everything else. This is not the case. And Alan, I'm sure we've all seen the video clips of Douglas Dauntless dive bombers said to be Japanese dive bombers attacking Pearl. It's amazing what is used to sell a "product".
Virgilio and Wright are the go to authors on the loss as far as I know, but its been a while since I looked...the stupid "what if" Pearl Harbor threads mostly have gone away thank god.
If you are referring to John DeVirgilio and Tracy White, yes, they are the go-to's, and good friends of mine. Unfortunately we have lost a few of the other go- to's in the past year, and the history community is at a loss for them. I remember when the movie Pearl Harbor first came out; we were inundated by questions from mostly kids who had no idea that the attack ever happened. Apparently history is not an important subject in schools these days.
It was "Pearl Harbor" that caused the creation of Pearl Harbor Attacked - Expert information and serious discussion on the attack of Pearl Harbor..
No, I meant Christopher Wright who wrote the Warships article on the loss of Arizona. Meanwhile, yes, I remember being dragged to that movie by my significant other who thought the cast was just wonderful and had to see it...I cringed during the entire thing.
Yeah, I loved the part where the bomb went down into the "magazine" where all the 14" projectiles were stacked up! Hey, sometimes you just have to laugh at Hollywood's "poetic / literary license". It's one of those "if you don't know, just make stuff up as you go". They're getting pretty good at that sort of modifying history to suit the script.