Post by floydragsdale on Dec 7, 2009 13:11:50 GMT -5
A day that turned this nation inside out!
I remember where I was, what I was doing & more. It was a mild, sunny day in Northern, Indiana, where our family lived.
As I entered our home, early in the afternoon (Sunday) my Father said, "The Japanese have just bombed Pearl Harbor". The majority of folks didn't know where that was, including me. We certainly learned many geography lessons about Islands in the Pacific Ocean that day and eveining.
Our ears were tuned to the radio until the wee hours of the morning listening to the news. Every succeeding news report seemed worse than the last one. Indeed, those were somber moments to us.
The next day (Monday) in our High School study hall, we (students) listened the the President of the United States, speak to a joint session of Congress and ask that a state of war be declared against Japan.
America had been in a state of depression for ten years; now there were two wars on our hands on opposite ends of the earth; nevertheless, American citizens became united, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean; with one purpose in mind. Winning the war!
Little did I realize that three years from that date, December 7th 1941, I would be in an Infantry Division bound for Belgium to participate in one of the most decisive Battles of the war.
Todays' date and December 1944 are indelibly etched in my memories.
The majority of WWII Veterans have left the stage of life; however, a few of us remain here to relate eyewitness accounts of those years to those who want to hear them.
Floyd
424th Regiment
I remember where I was, what I was doing & more. It was a mild, sunny day in Northern, Indiana, where our family lived.
As I entered our home, early in the afternoon (Sunday) my Father said, "The Japanese have just bombed Pearl Harbor". The majority of folks didn't know where that was, including me. We certainly learned many geography lessons about Islands in the Pacific Ocean that day and eveining.
Our ears were tuned to the radio until the wee hours of the morning listening to the news. Every succeeding news report seemed worse than the last one. Indeed, those were somber moments to us.
The next day (Monday) in our High School study hall, we (students) listened the the President of the United States, speak to a joint session of Congress and ask that a state of war be declared against Japan.
America had been in a state of depression for ten years; now there were two wars on our hands on opposite ends of the earth; nevertheless, American citizens became united, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean; with one purpose in mind. Winning the war!
Little did I realize that three years from that date, December 7th 1941, I would be in an Infantry Division bound for Belgium to participate in one of the most decisive Battles of the war.
Todays' date and December 1944 are indelibly etched in my memories.
The majority of WWII Veterans have left the stage of life; however, a few of us remain here to relate eyewitness accounts of those years to those who want to hear them.
Floyd
424th Regiment
