Soon, though, it seems like it was the next day, (But of course it was'nt,) there were men in uniform and also some in civvies, marching down Ashland Avenue and attending classes at the school across the street. I remember the banners hung in the windows showing that their sons were serving in the armed forces, and how sad it was when a gold star was displayed.

I was born on December 7, 1944 (no, my name isn't Pearl) while my dad was on a ship someplace. He received a telegram announcing my birth. He came home for Christmas two weeks later when I was two 1/2 weeks old. My dad came home safely from the war. My great uncle was a career navy man and his fleet of ships pulled out of Pearl Harbor on December 6, 1941. He made it home, too. My other uncle was a radioman on a navy ship in Japan. He was later sent to Korea as well and returned home safely.

And another great uncle was killed by the Nazis in Italy in WW11. He knew it was imminent and took the time to write a hasty letter, which was found on his body after he was killed, and sent to my aunt. The letter was to his 4-year old son.

It read, in part: "Well, this is it. The 'Gerries' are on the next hill. When you are grown, son, take good care of your mother and sister for me. I love you all. Dad." He was buried in Paintsville, KY - his hometown. My aunt raised her children alone. She never re-married. A life-size portrait of my uncle in his army uniform hung in her livingroom and she wore her wedding ring until she died last year. My cousin, her son Larry, still has that letter from his dad, and he did indeed take especially good care of his ailing mother for many years.

In an era where socialists dominate the media and academia, we are fast losing accurate contact with our past and our traditions. What students are getting nowadays is being filtered through a marxist lens and revised in such a way that those who lived it could hardly recognize the subject at hand. I intend to print all these letters, and other matter on your site so that I may read it with my kids when they get old enough to appreciate it. If they can grasp the difference between the America of the 1940s and the America they are growing up in we, with your help, will have gone a long way toward innoculating them against the influence of the Clintonites and people like them who would rob them of everything decent and inspirational in their world.

By the way, I am interested in an operation called "Operation Keelhaul" which occurred at the end of the war and, as I understand it, was commanded by Gen. Eisenhower. All I know of it is that the purpose was to send people who had escaped countries under Stalin's power back to Russia and the East Bloc (in other words to execution and the gulag). I have found two sources which mention it, but none with much detail. Please let me know if you know, or can find out, anything about it.

I read about the Private Art site this morning on ABCNews.com and had to visit. Thanks for a wonderful experience. You've done a great job of preserving and sharing a little bit of personal history. Thanks, Art, for all you endured so that I can live in a free country. My father was unable to serve in the military because he was an only son and, as a farmer, considered to be an essential war worker. Dad lost a particularly good friend at Iwo Jima. My oldest brother was a Marine mortarman in Vietnam.

In reading your letters, it reminds me of how important this day is to each and every American. It has occurred to me how many of us seen to take this day for granted, and have really put its true meaning in the back burner. Today should be remembered in every classroom as a remarkable day in our history.