Today is December 7th. For 84 years it has been the anniversary of a “Day of Infamy” in the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. White House Press Secretary Steven Early informed the nation in a brief bulletin, “The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor from the air and all naval and military activities on the island of Oahu, principal American base in the Hawaiian Islands.”
My father, A.B. Hartley, and some of his buddies were attending a showing of the World War I movie: “Seargent York” at Camp Blanding, Florida. They were soldiers of the Alabama National Guard’s 31st Infantry Division. The men were there because Roosevelt had declared a state of national emergency to begin preparing for American involvement in what was increasingly becoming a global war – World War II. The entire National Guard, over 300,000 Soldiers, had been ordered into federal service.
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Dad told me about halfway through the movie, the film was stopped, the lights came up, and the manager walked out on the stage and told all military personnel to report back to their duty post that the Japanese had just attacked Pearl Harbor. As the men exited the theatre, they turned to each other asking if anyone knew where Pearl Harbor was? None of them did, but from that moment on and for the rest of their lives, each would always “Remember Pearl Harbor”:
The surprise attack on the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet Base in Honolulu would indeed bring the U.S. into World War II. Tragically, 2,403 Americans were killed, and 1,178 others were wounded that fateful day. More than 30 of those who died were from Alabama, including two sets of brothers aboard the battleship U.S.S. Arizona…