Sunday, June 10, 2012 Stewart Butten, Family Friend
Christmas 1941...A Homesick Sailor on Liberty
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- Bishop Holliman
- The War would see much of General Eisenhower. Next, more on that Christmas of 1941 for an Alabama family.... Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Christmas 1941...A Homesick Sailor on Liberty.... In another fit of madness and arrogance and honoring the agreement of the Japanese alliance, Adolf Hitler declared on December 11, 1941 that Germany was at war with the United States. Italy followed suit, and the U.S. Congress quickly replied in kind. The United States now faced global war on numerous fronts after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Bishop Holliman, b. 1919, of Irondale, Alabama spent his first Christmas away from his large and close-knit family by taking a day's leave from his Navy training station in Norfolk, Virginia to visit the nation's capitol on December 25, 1941. Winston Churchill, then in Washington, D.C. spent Christmas with the Roosevelt's at the White House where planning for a response to the Axis powers - Germany, Italy and Japan - continued for over a month. Their planning would yield rich results in time, but that holiday season, the Allied cause was reeling under the massed forces of Japan, Italy and Germany. 
"I had been in boot camp since November 13, 1941. Ordinarily, basic training went on for 6 to 8 weeks but because of the war and, hence, the need to get men to ships and service stations as soon as possible, training was reduced to 4 or 6 weeks. Our platoon (305) disbanded before Christmas and we were assigned to K.P. duty on the base. My first liberty came on Christmas Eve, and I rode to Washington, D.C. I have forgotten how I got there back, but, believe me, for a little more than 24 hours, I forsook the Navy and turned my thoughts to things! I was due back to the base Christmas night. I knew the family would be gathering on Christmas Day just as they always had, but I would not be there. They would be expecting a telephone call from me, and I fully expected to call home as soon as I could upon reaching D.C. Washington was indeed a crowded city that first Christmas of the war. Winston Churchill was at the White House. Thousands of service men had crowded into the city as had civilians who were working there, passing through, or visiting. There was hardly a room available to a poor, homesick sailor on his first liberty on the town. finally, I found a room in a boarding house. I don't recall any of the amenities, the cost nor anything about it. My main objective upon depositing my gear was to telephone home to let them know where I was and what I was doing. 
Immediately after the attack on Hawaii, Japanese forces launched a Pacific-wide offensive of land, sea and air. Hong Kong, Singapore, Guam and Wake Island were quickly conquered and subdued. Only in the Philippines, then a colony of the United States, did the combined forces of the U.S. and the Philippine Army hold off for four months the invasion of Japanese divisions. General Douglas MacArthur, commanding joint colonial and regular U.S. Army troops, stalled the Japanese on the peninsula. of Bataan, north west of the capitol of Manila. 
Above, the General of the Army, George C. Marshall, the right man at the right place during the War, reached out and called to Washington, D.C. a former administrative aide to MacArthur, one newly minted one-star General Dwight David Eisenhower. Eisenhower's job that December was to devise a way to get supplies to the Philippines to keep MacArthur's forces fighting. With the Japanese Navy and Air Forces in charge of the South Pacific and with much of the U.S. battle fleet at the bottom in Pearl Harbor, the task was impossible. Below, one star General Dwight D. Eisenhower, pictured as World War II began. 
But Eisenhower's work ethic, management skills, organizational talents and cooperative, but firm attitude, caught Marshall's eye. The War would see much of General Eisenhower. Next, more on that Christmas of 1941 for an Alabama family.... Wednesday, October 2, 2013 How a World War Changed an Alabama Family, Part 9 by Glenn N. Holliman Directory: files files -> Answer True False 2 points Question 2 files -> Integer programming and game theory files -> 4 Integer Programming files -> Bpa vehicle Window Repair Scenario #1 task: Procure vehicle window relacement. Objective files -> Pop Warner History files -> North Carolina Inclusion Initiative Mapping Where Children with ieps are Being Served Purpose files -> Fall 2013 Spring 2014 Program Data: Standard 1 Exhibit 4d files -> Hanban – asia society confucius classrooms network 2010 request for proposal files -> Northern England’s set-jetting locations Download 4.52 Mb. Share with your friends:
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