December 7, 1941, “The Bombing of Pearl Harbor” made the biggest impact on my life. At the time I was 21 and working as a secretary in Charles City, Iowa. I was living with my parents at the time and was engaged to be married to to Galen Neal who lived on a farm near Shell Rock, Iowa.
I remember December 7, 1941, was on a Sunday. My parents and I were invited out to some friends for a Sunday dinner and had such a good time visiting. When we came home in the afternoon I turned on the radio and heard the terrible news that Pearl Harbor had been bombed by the Japanese!That evening I went to a youth meeting at the church. This was the a Methodist Church near Charles City where my Father was the Minister. All we could talk about at the meeting was that the terrible news about Pearl Harbor. All the young men at the meeting were worried that they would have to go to war. The girls my age were thinking about their brothers and boy friends who would probably have to go to war.
The next day everyone turned on their radio to hear President Roosevelt declare war. The last lines of his address to the public were these words: “with confidence in our armed forces, with the abounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph so help me God”
Since we didn’t have television yet all our news about the war came from the radio and newspapers. I could not imagine what a terrible day that was in Pearl Harbor. I had never been to Hawaii so I did not even know where it was. Later on I saw the first movie of Pearl Harbor and saw all the ships being destroyed and the horror of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Many years later Galen and I went to Hawaii on our 25th wedding anniversary and we had a tour of Pearl Harbor and stood on the Memorial built above one of the big ships that went down with
all the sailors on it and to this day there is still oil bubbling from the ship under the water. It is awesome! Losing all those ships & men at Pearl Harbor was a big loss for the U.S. The first movie of Pearl Harbor was very good. Everyone should see it!
The reason all this made such an impact on my life was that it was just at the time when I was engaged to be married and Galen was not sure if he would be drafted or not. He had to appear before the draft board and because he had so many allergies and occasionally this caused breathing problems he was exempt for the draft. Galen’s Father wanted to retire and so Galen and I got married and moved to the farm. They needed young men to stay home and farm too. Galen lived on the same farm all his life and had learned farming from his Dad who was honored at one time as a Master Farmer. I was fortunate to become a successful farm wife and Mother of three children. I think you can understand why Pearl Harbor made quite an impact on my life.
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