Phyllis Sutherland's Memories

When World War II began in 1941, I was a very impressionable nine year old girl. I remember listening to the radio on a Sunday evening and hearing President Roosevelt saying that we had been attacked. I didn't know where Pearl Harbor was but I was sure the Japanese would be storming into our town at any moment. After pouring over a map, my Dad convinced me that we would not be attacked and I could go to bed.

The two most vivid memories of "the war years" concern my dad and a yung man whom I never met.

In 1942 my dad felt compelled to enlist in what was then called the Army Air Force. Our town was a major railroad center and troop trains rolled through on a daily basis. We frequently went to the railroad station and took candy, cigarettes, matches and other little gifts to the soldiers who would hang out of the windows and talk to us. They were young, scared and patriotic and rarely knew where they were headed. On the day that my dad got on one of those trains and left us, I thought surely that I might die right there. I remember the fear that I might never see him again. He was subsequently sent to Guam to work on a ground crew on a B-29 Bomber. He worked on bomb sights. I prayed daily for his safe return and finally, after the war was over he did come home safe and sound. I was so thankful and happy to have him home and didn't let him out of my sight for a long time.

The other "memory" concerns a young man named Delbert Anderson. He was one of the soldiers who went through our town on a troop train. He received a book of matches that we gave out and I had written my name and address in the back of it. He wrote me a "HOT' letter that fortunately my mother intercepted and read before I did. She wrote him and explained that I was just ten years old and wanted to have a pen-pal. He then wrote an age appropriate letter to me and we exchanged letters for more than a year. The final letter that I wrote was returned to me and stamped on the envelope were the words "Killed in Action". It was such an abrupt ending to a letter friendship and brought home the reality that death was a real part of the war.

In all the years that have passed, I still remember many things that occurred during those years -- the food rationing, the collections of tin and aluminum, buying war bonds, flags in windows with blue, silver and gold stars on them. But overall, the knowledge that God did (and still does) bless America!

Phyllis Sutherland