It's the beginning of a new decade. Hope abounds as the country climbs out of an abysmal depression thanks to a new President, who, albeit stricken with polio, has given enough of his energy and resolve to fix the broken systems and tanking economy. Somewhere far away, the metallic pangs of war and frenzied shouts of an autocrat resonate but not close enough for you to hear them. Life is good as the calendar turns to the first year. You have a house, a car, and a family. Then, it happens. The singular event that will forever change your life.
You will forever know where you were when you heard the news. Whether it was driving to work, eating breakfast, or even hearing it over your child's clock radio. Two planes. 3,000 dead. But, but, it's inconcievable! This is America, not the Middle East! Bombers just don't come and fly planes into our towers. It wasn't any place either. It was New York, New York. The city of Sinatra and the Yankees. Where everyone can make it big. Simply put, the center of America. The heart. And we couldn't do a damn thing about it. Those crazy...
...bastards! An American naval base. Pearl Harbor? But, but, that's paradise! Palm trees and pineapples. As far away from that crazy SOB Hitler as you can get! What? The Japanese? Yamamoto? Hirohito? Who are they, villians from a bad ninja movie? A surprise attack. 2,500 dead. Our Pacific Fleet, crippled by some paper airplanes from a country of rice and fish. Why didn't we hear about China and the Philippines, Malay and Australaisa? This is an outrage! The New York Times, in all caps: JAPAN DECLARES WAR ON US. War? Does that mean?
We're going? Operation Enduring Freedom. Can three words take revenge for 3,000 souls? That Osama bin Laden fellow better know what kind of hole he dug himself into. We have the world's best military and the support of every free nation behind us. Whoever did this just pissed off a lot of firepower. I wonder what the President's going to say. I mean, he was reading to some grade schoolers when this happened. Talk about your bad news days. Wait, he's coming on...
"Yesterday, December 7, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy..." My head is still spinning. Today they were talking about a draft. Selective Service they called it. Already got me and my son, he was a freshman up the road at LSU. Hope this war ends before it drags in my other boy and, God forbid, my daughter. We're being shipped off to Georgia in a few days for flight school. I don't want to go. I ain't never fired a daggone gun in my life! Now they want me to kill Krauts? I don't think I can do it. But if Uncle Sam wants me, I guess I have to go. Time for two blue stars to hang up in the window...
"...America has stood down enemies before, and we will do so this time. None of us will ever forget this day. Yet, we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world." The President seems together. That's a good sign but man, what a day. I wonder how it was when my paw paw heard of Pearl Harbor. He most likely didn't have a television. Naw, only radios; I remember hearing him tell me about FDR's "Fireside Chats." No Internet either. Good thing though, because I can't stand to see those videos anymore anyways. He said my dad was nineteen, a freshman at LSU, when they called him up. Wonder if they'll call my son up too? He doesn't seem like a person who wants to be in a foxhole anyway. He also told me about the sacrifices they had to make: the Victory Gardens, rationing, recycling. "Make it do or do without" the posters said. He didn't even tell me my mamaw and aunt had to work in a factory making Higgins boats. Heck, my wife would go berserk if I told her we had to trade in the Ford lest send her to work on a production line.
It's funny how things have changed but then again, they haven't: Americans will always fight for their country, go to church on Sundays to pray for the troops, and support them in every way they can. It just seems like it hasn't been a priority. Sure, 9/11 might change this but you know those anti-war wackos will revert back to picketing and harassing our troops. I remember paw paw saw one of those protesters outside of his VFW and asked him to thank a soldier for the defending the right to run his mouth. Funny man, but that Bronze Star he got in Saipan says otherwise. Still, I wonder sometimes if he looked into the clear night sky all those years ago, in Lafayette or Leyte , and said...
...Japs got my friend today but MacArthur says we're making progress. Even got the island on lockdown. Gotta thank the boys in the skies for that one. Not just the ones flying the Wildcats, the ones with more...heavenly...accouterments. Dugout Doug said he'd be back and here we are in the Philippines. It's been a tough road but thank God I have my Bible. Sure, it got some blood on it back at Guadal and a bullet hole at Rabaul but that one verse is intact. That one verse that'll get me back home.
"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me."
That was his favorite verse. Said he dog-eared the hell out of it when he was in the Pacific. I guess that's what we need now. A little hope and a lot of faith. If they did it, we can too. Just gotta learn a little from the past to help us out in the present. Well, the prayer service is about to start and they have a blood drive after. Guess I got to pick up the plants for our Victory Garden tomorrow...
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