Volume 7 , Issue 49

64 Years Ago, December 7, 1941...

It was "A day in infamy" -- 64 years ago, December 8, 1941 that President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed a joint session of Congress stating, "Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the US of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." -- President Roosevelt's Address to Congress, Dec. 8, 1941

It was a time when America officially took that first step and entered into World War II. Have we forgotten!

It was Dec 19, 1941 when our Uncle Bob McGill sent his mother (Constance) an air-mail letter. Bob was on the train from Leesville, Louisiana headed west towards San Francisco and passing through New Mexico at the time. He was giving his mother instructions about his car, keys, insurance and other items that he left in Leesville with Lt. Robert Kalbfell at 753 tk bn. As to New Mexico, when Uncle Bob traveled through in his officers pullman car, he wondered where the living are... it was really the wide and open spaces. He expected to be in California by morning. He wrote in letter, ".....doubted very seriously if we will have any time off before sailing time but if we do, I expect to go to San Francisco and spend a couple of days. Getting tired of riding in pullman car and needing to get up and walk around." Sometime in December 1941, Bob's father (Wm. J. McGill) got a cable from Hawaii telling him that Bob arrived okay. It was Christmas time in Hawaii that found Uncle Bob sending a V-Mail Christmas card dated 25 Dec 1941 to his mother, Constance McGill, in Alva, Oklahoma. Uncle Bob's address back then was listed as -- Lt. Robert L. McGill, 0389481, 193 Tank Bn APO 957. He signed it, "Mele Kalikimaka" Merry Christmas.

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