Friday, December 7, 2007

If Not for Pearl Harbor, I Wouldn't Be Here

Strange to imagine the scene on December 8th.

My 20-year-old father, Al Stone, sits in a classroom at Cleveland College (now part of Case Western Reserve) as the professor turns up the radio to broadcast FDR's famous "Day of Infamy" speech. He and most of his classmates head for enlistment as soon as possible. The Army Air Corps rejects him for his eyesight. His father says the only real men are in the Marines anyway.

South to Parris Island, then to Camp Lejune, the USO, and a first-year high school teacher with red hair and the last name of Abernethy. Voila.

How many more thousands of World War II stories are like this?

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