Pearl Harbor Day

This coming Saturday, Dec. 7, we will pass the day trying to find the perfect gift at a bargain price and probably not remember the significance of that day in history.

On most calendars that date is noted as Pearl Harbor Day for it was the day that the United States was forced into a war that no one wanted when over 2,000 of our soldiers were killed in and around Pearl Harbor.

About noon, 78 years ago, some 5,246 miles from Pearl Harbor, my father was cooking lunch at a military base in the Panama Canal Zone. He had joined the military in August of 1940 at the age of 21 in Jonesboro, Ark. In 1940, the United States had not declared war and was worried what would happen if the enemies got control of the Panama Canal Zone.

The military needed to guard this strategic area, but their hands were tied legally. The only way we could legally send military there was through a backdoor operation. United States territories could send military. My father was inducted into the Puerto Rican Army and shipped to Panama Canal Zone.

The pictures we have of him from that time, he is wearing an apron, holding a roasted turkey with large banana trees in the background. We will never know how he ended up being a cook in the military, but for over five years he cooked, in Panama and then at the end of the war he was shipped to Europe, still cooking.

Fifty years ago, 20 year old Don Jernigan spent his Christmas in Long Binh, Vietnam, an hour North of Saigon. He served in the Army Red Ball Express that was responsible for getting supplies to the troops including food.

Food is vital to the military. One commissary officer once commented that if the enemy wanted to know where the next battle would happen, they need only follow the food supply lines.

Good wishes to all and especially to our Jasper County men and women serving in the military.