Pearl Harbor Changes Everything

Our father's decision to enter the military was made that Sunday evening when his family listened to reports of Pearl Harbor. Again, his decision is best described in his own words.

Right after Pearl Harbor, almost immediately, the Air Force reduced its requirement of two years of college to only a high school diploma. I had a year and a half of college. I went and immediately enlisted in the Cadet Program, passed the exam and was accepted just that fast. The Cadet Program was designed to train pilots, navigators and bombardiers. It was quite a program because first of all, it paid $75 a month, which was absolutely staggering compared to a Private's pay in the Army, which was only $21, and the food was better and the accommodations were better, so it was a pretty good deal in training.

Then, once one graduated from Cadet Program, as either of the three, pilot, bombardier or navigator, you were commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Army. That paid $150 a month and that was absolutely sensational. That was a big hunk of dough in that time. Also, if you were a flying officer, you got paid half of that again in flight pay. It was $150 salary and then $75 flight pay. So it was a total of those two. So that's what we signed up to do.

Within a matter of weeks, I was notified to report to the Chicago Post Office to be transported to Santa Ana, California. I went on the appointed day in January of 1942 and there were approximately 350 of we boys from the total Chicago area; all of us just as brimming with enthusiasm and fun as you could imagine. We were looking forward to a great adventure. Needless to say, some of them didn't come back alive, but nevertheless, at that time we all felt it was a great adventure.

We were told to bring a small bag with a change of underwear and that's all-no big suitcases. We were taken from there down to the railroad station and we got onto Pullman sleeper cars. I think they were probably the same cars that were used in World War I to transport troops around; real old Pullman cars. We were assigned two guys to the lower bunk and one to the upper bunk. Again, as we went across the country on our way to California (it probably took us 3 days to do it); it was just a lot of fun and great enthusiasm.

The train was an old, old sleeper train and there was no provisions for any food of any kind. Many years before, when the railroads were built, all the way to the West Coast there were Fred Harvey Restaurants built in towns right beside the railroad track and these were designed for trains because they didn't have the kind of diners that we know of in some trains. Every time that a meal was to be had, the train stopped, everybody got off the train and went into the Fred Harvey House.

They were reputed to be a very innovative kind of thing, I don't know when, in the 1800's sometime, and they featured the Harvey Girls. These were young girls who came from all over the country to work in these restaurants. I was reminded of this a little bit because Howard Johnson in the East started sort of the same kind of arrangement when motor touring was relatively new, I suppose in the 1920's or thereabouts. They built them along the highways with the same concept. At any rate, that's where we would stop, have a meal and get back on the train and get going.

Eventually we got to Southern California and the weather was beginning to warm up all the way along the route. We came on the train from the South of Los Angeles into the city. To describe this, it's difficult for you to imagine it. Today you have a city sprawl for hundreds of miles up and down the West Coast. Well, what we came into with the train going north, sort of near the coast, was countryside. It was just open country and then we come to a little town and then the open country again. And along the way in that particular area there were almost all solid orange groves and the oranges were full size at that time, the sun was out, the train was going very slowly and going from one little town, through the town, then the next town, and eventually into LA.

A Look Back

Jim Hoel's encounter with a German Corporal who had, at one time, been a neighbor in Evanston, Illinois, must have caused him to reflect on the many unbelievable ironies of war; but also, the early circumstances that led him to this point, a prisoner of war in Germany. Here is Jim's description, in his own words of his perceptions of the state of our nation before the United States entered World War II and his thoughts about serving his country.

As a start, I think it's important to do a little background on where we were when World War II started, as long this undoubtedly is going to be directed to people who are younger. We had been in a Depression for 10 years up until the start of World War II. The United States, following World War I, became an isolationist country. All of the people in the United States, or at least the majority, and the government itself said we don't want any part of any wars any place, any time, and therefore we don't have any military. The war, at the time we got involved in it, had been raging in Europe from 1939 on until 1941 when Pearl Harbor happened.

It's hard to believe, but we as a country just absolutely paid very little attention to that war going on in Europe. Germany almost conquered all of Europe. It's amazing that they didn't invade England because England itself had been an isolationist country; had a weak military in comparison to Germany's. So, there we were, not willing to become involved and happy with the whole thing.

Personally, I had gone to college for a year and a half and just became a little discouraged with it, I don't know why, so I quit and I was negotiating to go to Canada and join the Royal Canadian Air Force for flight training. In fact, I was all set to go in early December 1941. My father had been in World War I, and in discussing it with him, he said he understood my feelings completely. He had tried to get from the Ambulance Corp which he was in in World War I, into the Air Force then, but he couldn't pass the physical test to do it. So, as I say, he understood what I wanted to do.

He did suggest that I wait and get into our service, which I couldn't do because I didn't have 2 years of college credit to do it. So he prevailed upon me to stay through Christmastime with the family because he was convinced that it was going to be a long war and then eventually we were going to get drawn into it. Again, bear in mind, here we come up to early December and the American people wanted no part of any war and Congress wouldn't pass an appropriation for a nickel's improvement in our military situation.

On Sunday, December 7, 1941, we were sitting in the living room (my whole family--my sister, my brother and myself and our parents) when the announcement came on, "Pearl Harbor has been bombed." This was a complete shock to everybody in the United States that you couldn't believe.

The following morning President Roosevelt declared war on Japan and that automatically became a declaration of war against Germany because the two of them were allies. And of course, the American public at that point, incensed at this attack said, "Let's go get 'em," and the mood of the country switched overnight. We've got to get involved and really do it and we'll get it over in a hurry. What they didn't know, or didn't think through, was we didn't have any Army, we didn't have any Navy, we didn't have any Marine Corp, we just really didn't have a military machine.


That we have to know going into this story I'm about to tell.