Mayre and I go to a Bible Study early on Wednesday mornings. This morning as I put a date to my notes for the day, December 7 jumped out at me. Someone mentioned Pearl Harbor and, looking around the room, I realized that there were probably only 2 of us in the study that might even remember the actual day, where we were and what we did on hearing the news of the Japanese attack on our naval base in Hawaii.
Since the attack took place on on Sunday morning on Oahu, with all the times zones involved, it was late in the afternoon when my mom called us to come in from play and listen to the news on the radio. We gathered around the bulky radio console as the announcer gave the sketchy details concerning the strike. Since I was only 5 at the time, the full impact of the event did not phase me too much, but I somehow knew it was very important.
In our family, my dad had two brothers who served in the Army, my mom had a nephew in the Marines, and Mayre's brother served in the Army also, but no one paid the ultimate sacrifice.
What do I still remember about the time from Pearl Harbor to VJ Day in August 1945? Ration cards, gasoline ration priority stickers on the windshield, no new cars to buy, no butter only oleo, soldiers coming to church and being invited home to Sunday lunch, looking for German plans over our area (didn't ever see any, but we looked), paper and scrap metal drives at school, war bonds, and gold stars in some house windows.
As kids, we looked at the war as a big adventure, using it to guide our "soldier play", but not realizing the tragic extent of it at all. Looking on the Internet today, I find the most common estimates for military death totals for this country estimated at around 400,000 men and women.
Looking at History from afar, the 400,000 total just rolls off my tongue, but when I think about the homes with those gold stars hanging in them, I begin to realize what the cost of freedom looks like. It was very personal to a lot of people, and that figure does not even count all the wounded. We who are privileged to live in this great land owe a great debt to those who served in that great conflict, and in the other wars we have fought.
A special thanks to, and a prayer for, those with the gold star.
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