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 "This is one terrible attack."
So reads the headline of this September 12, 2001 feature in the regional Swedish newspaper Ostgota Correspondenten. On the day of the Attack on America USS Saratoga Museum Foundation president Frank Lennon, (pictured in the article wearing his Saratoga lapel pin), was making a presentation to the International Association of Transportation Museums. The conference, held at the Swedish Air Force museum in Linkoping, about 50 miles south of Stockholm, offered local journalists the opportunity to get reactions from Lennon, Quonset Air Museum's Bill Sheridan and other American participants. The article reports the welter of conflicting emotions engulfing the group, whose stunned reaction to the tragedy was magnified by separation caused by distance and confusion as to what actually happened due to language difficulties. As the scale of the terrorist action became clear, Lennon reminded the reporter of the words of Japanese Admiral Yamomoto reflecting on his country's attack on Pearl Harbor. "We have awakened a sleeping giant," said Yamomoto. Bill Sheridan then reminded the group of the second half of Yamomoto's quote: "...And filled him with a terrible resolve." "We hope the same thing will happen this time," said Lennon. The group also reflected on Pearl Harbor in another way. "Now we know how our parents must have felt that Sunday in December 1941 when they heard news of the Japanese attack over the radio," Lennon observed. The concensus of the group formed the conclusion of the article: "The United States we left will not be the same country when we return." POSTSCRIPT: American attendees at the Swedish conference returned home to find the following e-mail message from retired French Air Force General Jean-Paul Siffre, head of the Air and Space Museum in Paris.
Dear american friends,
General de brigade aerienne (2S)
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