We did a great local history project with my mom and her elementary students back in 2000, called Guardians of Freedom. The timing and subject were great, I learned a lot about the war from this perspective, and the local vets were all from different forces, specialties, so it was the full range of theatres, experiences and roles represented. Many of the veterans have since died so it was an opportunity that wont be repeated, though the stories should and will be.
Many, many stories from this–I did 5-6 of the interviews but I edited the entire collection of 30-40 stories for readability.
Good one was from a guy that was already in the army in 1941, he was stationed at Fort Benning, GA if memory serves. He was standing guard over a road bridge on or near the base, in the middle of the night. This is a lonely duty and not much excitement in the country at night but at about midnight he sees another solider coming his way, hurrying along and, hours before the pre-dawn relief.
“Hey, are you here to relieve me?”
“Did you hear the news? The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor!”
“Oh gosh, that’s horrible! What are we supposed to do?”
“Sarge told me to tell you, and stay here.”
So, the response of the higher-ups to a full scale imperial surprise assault on a major naval base was to double the guard over a bridge in rural Georgia forty five hundred miles away, in the middle of the night.