Always look for the Silver Lining

A great example of positive thinking... and a worthwhile read. 
We too need to choose the right person for the right job.... A tall task, but who knows. 

Tour boats ferry people out to the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii every thirty minutes. 
We just missed a ferry and had to wait thirty minutes. I went into a small gift shop to kill 
time. In the gift shop, I purchased a small book entitled, "Reflections onPearl Harbor " by 
Admiral Chester Nimitz. 

Sunday, December 7th, 1941--Admiral Chester Nimitz was attending a concert in 
Washington D.C. He was paged and told there was a phone call for him. When he 
answered the phone, it was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the phone. He told 
Admiral Nimitz that he (Nimitz) would now be the Commander of the Pacific Fleet. 

Admiral Nimitz flew to Hawaii to assume command of the Pacific Fleet. He landed at Pearl 
Harbor on Christmas Eve, 1941. There was such a spirit of despair, dejection and defeat-- 
you would have thought the Japanese had already won the war. On Christmas Day, 
1941, Adm. Nimitz was given a boat tour of the destruction wrought on Pearl Harbor by 
the Japanese. Big sunken battleships and navy vessels cluttered the waters every where 
you looked. As the tour boat returned to dock, the young helmsman of the boat asked, 
"Well Admiral, what do you think after seeing all this destruction?" 

Admiral Nimitz's reply shocked everyone within the sound of his voice. Admiral Nimitz said, 
"The Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could ever make or 
God was taking care of America . Which do you think it was?" Shocked and surprised, the 
young helmsman asked, "What do mean by saying the Japanese made the three biggest 
mistakes an attack force ever made?" 

Nimitz explained. Mistake number one: the Japanese attacked on Sunday morning. Nine 
out of every ten crewmen of those ships were ashore on leave. If those same ships had 
been lured to sea and been sunk--we would have lost 38,000 men instead of 3,800. 

Mistake number two: when the Japanese saw all those battleships lined in a row, they 
got so carried away sinking those battleships, they never once bombed our dry docks 
opposite those ships. If they had destroyed our dry docks, we would have had to tow 
everyone of those ships to America to be repaired. As it is now, the ships are in shallow 
water and can be raised. One tug can pull them over to the dry docks, and we can have 
them repaired and at sea by the time we could have towed them to America . And I 
already have crews ashore anxious to man those ships. 

Mistake number three: every drop of fuel in the Pacific theater of war is in top of the 
ground storage tanks five miles away over that hill. One attack plane could have strafed 
those tanks and destroyed our fuel supply. That's why I say the Japanese made three of 
the biggest mistakes an attack force could make or God was taking care of America . 

I've never forgotten what I read in that little book. It is still an inspiration as I reflect upon 
it. In jest, I might suggest that because Admiral Nimitz was a Texan, born and raised in 
Fredricksburg , Texas --he was a born optimist. But anyway you look at it--Admiral Nimitz 
was able to see a silver lining in a situation and circumstance where everyone else saw 
only despair and defeatism. President Roosevelt had chosen the right man for the right 
job. We desperately needed a leader that could see silver linings in the midst of the 
clouds of dejection, despair and defeat. 
THANKS TO VISHWANATH WHO SENT THIS TO ME