For those who served

Sixty years ago today, George Cotton was literally at ground zero when the bombs started to fly on Pearl Harbor.\n"I was on the USS Detroit; we got lucky," Cotton said. "They shot torpedoes at us and strafed us, but we came out in one piece." \nThe other ships around Cotton's were not as lucky. The USS Utah and USS West Virginia sank right next to the USS Detroit Dec. 7, 1941. The most famous ship in the attacks, the battleship USS Arizona, was just across the bay when it was hit. The area of the ocean where the USS Arizona lies is now the Pearl Harbor National Memorial site.\nCotton and other survivors of Pearl Harbor, and all of World War II, will gather and commemorate the event in many different ways. George Keller, a naval veteran who served in the Pacific Theater during WW II, tries to not speak about his combat experience.\n"I've spent the last 60 years trying to forget," he said. "Young people, I hope, will never ever experience it again." \nThe impact of the war, in pure numerical terms, is staggering.\n"Sixteen million served in the war," Keller said. "Equate that to the town or the state you live in. It defies the imagination if you weren't there."\nComparisons between Pearl Harbor and Sept. 11 are inescapable, yet the two events evoked completely different responses. IU Associate Professor of History Nick Cullather is a specialist in U.S. foreign policy. He sees the two landmark events as very different. \n"The analogy is apt but limited," Cullather said. "Like any historical event, it's important to people in different times for different reasons." \nIn the aftermath of Sept. 11, President George W. Bush urged people to keep commerce going and to not be afraid. In contrast, Pearl Harbor spurred a mass enlistment movement among young men in the U.S. \nCullather described the depth of Pearl Harbor's effects in another fashion. At the monument to the remains of the USS Arizona, oil is still leaking from the battleships, making people who see it aware of the men still entombed inside. \nPearl Harbor also created a different kind of mass hysteria and suspicion among the people than Sept. 11 did. After Pearl Harbor, people knew who the enemy was. After Sept. 11, people thought they had suspects, but are now uncertain.\n"It's unclear whether or not we're fighting a war against a person, a country or a sociological condition," Cullather said.\nAgainst any enemy, Keller said he believes the U.S. must win.\n"Second is not a good position to be in," he said.\nIn response to the attacks on the Taliban, Keller said the U.S. doesn't "have any other option. If they're not cut off at the pass, it's hard to imagine how evil the world will become."\nBoth Keller and Cotton will gather with friends and colleagues to remember Pearl Harbor this weekend. Keller, Cotton and Cullather said they believe that everyone else should do the same.\n"I think it would be useful to know about the sacrifices that other people made," Cullather said.\nCotton said he thinks the youth should never be allowed to forget their history.\n"They don't teach enough of it in school anymore," he said.