Don't know. I know the first U.S. Soldier to be killed in Vietnam, but not WWII. Sorry

Well it would all depend on when you thought the war actually started? :hmmm:

I agree. You have morons reciting lines in the Bible on a msg board.......completely uncalled for.

I'm guessing he was Polish.

The most common Polish surname is Nowak.

The most popular male names are Piotr (Peter), Krzysztof (Christopher), and Andrzej (Andrew).

So I'm going to guess his name was Piotr Nowak, Krzysztof Nowak, or Andrzej Nowak.

But then your fellow team mate catches the opponents thrown ball, then you're right back in the game!

On December 12, 1937, the U.S.S. Panay was bombed and sunk by Japanese aircraft while anchored in the vicinity of Hoshien on the Yangtze River. The officers and men of the Panay while under heavy attack, and afterwards, discharged their duties with a coolness and deliberation that was in accord with the highest traditions of the Naval service.

The Fourth Regiment of Marines at Shanghai were engaged during the Shanghai siege in protecting the lives and interests of Americans in the International Settlement. Their defense sector at Shanghai was effectively held under most trying conditions.

Source: Annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy for the Fiscal Year 1938. (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1938): 9, 17.

After a quick search found that. Will see if I can find online sources of the Books I have here at home.

Not trying to be eurocentric, but I would tend to define it as the invasion of Poland. If not for that, we would've had a big regional war in East Asia, but it would've been a one-continent, one-ocean war for the most part.

The interesting thing is that there was not one, but three precipitating events to blow it up. The initial Japanese attacks in China, Pearl Harbor, and Poland. One could define it many ways, but if you start adding up the Gross National Product involved, Poland was probably the one that kicked it up to an unprecedented level.

It might've eventually happened anyway if Japan was going after British and French colonies, but would've happened in a very different manner.

A formal protest was immediately lodged by the American ambassador. The Japanese government accepted responsibility, but insisted the attack was unintentional. They claimed that the pilots could not distinguish between Chinese and American flags from the distance of 300 or more yards that the pilots attacked. A large indemnity was paid (approximately $2,000,000) on 22 April 1938 and the incident officially settled. However, further deterioration of relations between Japan and the United States continued.

You specifically mentioned the Marco Polo Incident, not the Panay. The Japanese government accepted responsibility for it and stated that it was not an intentional act.

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/...5-sinking.html

. For two miles this little flotilla was fired upon repeatedly by a shore battery commanded by Colonel Hashimoto, one of the ringleaders in the assassinations and a prominent Kodo man. His object was to provoke the United States into a declaration of war,...............She fought back with her .30-cal. machine guns. By 1406 all power and propulsion were lost, the main deck was awash and, as Captain Hughes saw that his ship was going down, he ordered her to be abandoned. Japanese planes strafed the boats on their way to shore, and even combed the reeds along the riverbank for survivors. Two of the three oil barges were also bombed and destroyed. The Panay survivors, kindly treated by the Chinese, managed to get word through to Admiral Yarnell and were taken on board U.S.S. Oahu and H.M.S. Ladybird two days later. Two bluejackets and one civilian passenger died of their wounds; eleven officers and men were seriously wounded.

A United States naval Court of Inquiry at Shanghai brought out unmistakable evidence that the sinking was deliberate. But the United States government was so anxious to avoid war that it accepted the "mistake" theory, together with an indemnity. When it did so, a sigh of relief passed over the length and breadth of America.[15]

I grew up for a few years in Germany in the mid-late 70's. I remember that even though WWII was 30+ years old at the time, it still seemed like not too long ago by many people there, Germans and Americans alike. I also noticed that the German people seemed to like Americans more the closer to Berlin you got...

...when I was 8 my dad took us to Dachau. I remember thinking it was a barracks or something, some kind of military thing. My dad explained to us as best you can, but it didn't sink in. I remember my brother and I running around playing and my dad telling us to knock it off. Somehow, he seemed very serious. We walked all over the camp, toured the barracks and the showers. I can honestly remember the SMELL of the place. It smelled like bleach, like somebody had been trying to clean up something that just could not be fully cleaned up. Lastly, I remember the sculpture in the yard, a metal sculpture of twisted bodies.

http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Dachau...7/DSC_6541.jpg



It became more eerie for me as I got older and learned about where we had been. But I can tell you, growing up there, seeing that...it made me an ardent patriot.

.

Indeed a prayer is a private thing between you and God. However, a prayer in public also serves a purpose to remind people about faith and love of your neighbor.

Btw, I got misty when I read that prayer.

LMAO

Yeah it's called church