The opinion article from the Times Leader in the Times News on Friday, Nov. 23, brought a lot of memories back home to me. I am 84 years old, and if my memory serves me right, I was in second grade in Stockertown Public School. The news on the radio (that old gadget that kept us in touch with the world) was shocking to all of the adults at the time. However, we children asked, “Where is Pearl Harbor?” Our parents, teachers and just about everyone was talking about the terrible bombardment that took place that Sunday morning, Dec. 7, 1941. Yes, it was far from Stockertown, but before long, I had five uncles who enlisted in the different branches of the military.

Many men were instantly drafted into the Army and my father was sent to work at the Bethlehem Steel Company because he had four children and was not drafted. It also started with civil defense air raids when wardens would go through town during random air raid drills at night, knocking on doors and yelling, “lights out!” We had a special air raid light bulb that was black with an orange spot on the bottom that left just enough light in the room that we could move about. Move we didn’t, rather we huddled around mom’s skirt, listening to airplanes overhead and asking “theirs or ours?”

We also learned to make darts out of large match sticks with paper wings and throw them at targets with Adolf Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito’s pictures on them. The war also struck home when our grandparents received the news that their son, a flight engineer and turret gunner, was killed when his flying fortress went down. His brother, a pilot, lost his co-pilot in a mission, and the youngest brother also lost some mates as he too flew the giant bombers.

The youngest brother also continued to serve in Korea and Vietnam in the Air Force. I shall never forget the day the news came that the war was over! Everyone grabbed pots, pans or any noisemaker you could find and ran up and down Main Street while church bells and sirens rang constantly throughout the area.

In closing, if it were within my capability even at my old age, I would volunteer to man an anti-aircraft gun somewhere in the woods near Pocono Raceway that terrible weekend next year and … well, I’d better close before I get myself in trouble.

God Bless America,

Richard M. Gross,

Lehighton