Vee, as always THANK YOU so much for sharing this!
I decided I would share a little something I uncovered a couple of years ago - because it begins with "Pearl Harbor Day." My father - in - law, that I never met, died in 1955. He left behind a wife, and 2 sons - one 11 and one 5. His death was from a heart attack that was connected to his time in the US Army where he had his first heart attack.
When the house he had lived in was sold in in 1970, I latched onto one of those black and white bound notebooks that had his name on it and some other things. Only in the last couple of years did I take a look at what I had saved all of these years.
Jack's penmanship is beautiful. It starts with:
"December 7th, 1941 is a day I shall long remember. To you it stands for Pearl Harbor Day, a time when our Government shed its peaceful cloak and girded for war – for our country had been attacked, and its possessions violated by a cowardly stab in the back. To me, it meant the turning point in my life.
As so many people often do on a day of rest, I went visiting some friends with my fiancée. After having endulged in a vigorous game of touch – tackle football we were all seated around the fireplace talking, when someone turned the radio on – and then we heard the electrifying news.
The silence was such that one could hear his heart pound in his breast, and feel the blood surge through his veins.
War can come so suddenly and unexpectedly that it fairly chokes the breath in one’s throat. From that moment things would happen with a rush, and the unexpected would be the commonplace. Today I sit amid peaceful surroundings – tomorrow, what?
Jack writes that he received his draft notice and was scheduled to appear at his draft board on Feb. 27th, 1942. (He was 33 years old.) He goes on with his compelling War story and while it is quite long (many many pages) – it is not long enough - he never finished it!
Jean