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The time was December 7, 1941. The wife and young son of the Arizona’s chaplain, Capt. Thomas LeRoy Kirkpatrick were listening to the radio that Sunday afternoon when suddenly they heard:
“We interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin. The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii by air, President Roosevelt has just announced. The attack also was made on all Naval and Military activities on the principal island, Oahu.”
The chaplain’s son continues telling this intensely personal story:
“The urgent voice stunned Mother and me. We had been sitting in the small living room of our apartment in Webster Groves, Missouri listening to the regular broadcast from Columbia Broadcasting System when the announcer had broken in.”
The following day Congress answered the president’s call to arms by voting an immediate Declaration of War. That same day, a telegram arrived. It said:
“DEAR MRS KIRKPATRICK STOP I REGRET TO INFORM YOU THAT YOUR HUSBAND CAPTAIN THOMAS LEROY KIRKPATRICK IS MISSING IN ACTION AND PRESUMED DEAD STOP SIGNED SECRETARY OF THE NAVY FRANK KNOX”
This heartbreaking event begins and ends a two-decade-long story about love, a love that endured numerous lengthy separations while the chaplain was deployed either at sea or at a remote duty station. How this couple endured these stresses — so similar to those facing today’s military families — yet kept their marriage alive and vibrant, forms the core of this heartwarming and inspiring story, embedded in the sweep of world changing historical events.
The author is the son of Thomas LeRoy Kirkpatrick. Now residing in Half Moon Bay, California, he used his parents’ original writings, photographs, and letters to create this book. It not only recounts a personal history and love story but also an eye witness record of events during a tumultuous time in our nation’s history.
Soft cover. 209 pages. Included photographs. Book measures approximately 6 inches by 9 inches.
