"Remember Pearl Harbor"

On Sunday, December 7th, 1941, I was 9 years old and with my family at a neighbors house when the following happened as is noted in my book, "Gibbon's Secrets" by RG Bud Phelps 




The radio was on, with a low pleasant sound of music in the background, when the music was interrupted with a news flash.  
"It was just reported that Japan has delivered simultaneous bombing attacks on Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, Wake Island, and Guam.  Japanese forces have invaded Malaya and Thailand, seizing Shanghai, and declaring war on the United State and Great Britain."

On December 8th - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced to the nation by radio that the United States had declared war on Japan.  Several days following our declaration of war against Japan - Germany declared war on the United States.

These events were blows felt by the entire country, and it could quickly be seen that this small town of Gibbon was showing its own effects of these blows.  Its young men were quickly heading to the recruitment centers in Kearney and Grand Island.  The Five Friends Forever banded together to pledge a patriotic bond supporting the United States until World War II ends in victory.




If you were 21 December 7th 1941 you would be 90 today in 2010, and I can just image what was going through your mind that fateful day.  Many of the 90 year olds of today were our hero's during World War II.


My hero, Dale Pitke, was home on leave - serving on the USS Arizona which was in port in Pearl Harbor and sunk on December 7th 1941.  Dale lost many of the friends as well as all his personal belongings he had left in November 1941 when he came home on leave.


This experience touched me as a young boy of 9 and influenced my desire to join the Navy in March 1951, just 10 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor.  


I relate this December 7th 1941 experience in my book - "Gibbon's Secrets" by RG Bud Phelps, which is as my subtitle indicates - is 'A Boy's Memories of the 40's'.  This book would make a special gift to all your remaining hero's of World War II or to all the boys and girls that were around 9 to 16 on December 7th 1941.