This turn of events did leave Joe free to go back to Abilene, Texas, and propose to his high school sweetheart. had decided it needed all the men it had in uniform. So in October of 1941, on leave back in Long Beach, the first thing Joe and he did was head for the Canadian consulate, only to hear, “We’re sorry, but you’re a few months too late.” Navy.Īt this point, London had survived the blitz, France had fallen and Dunkirk was history. The two buddies had hatched a plan to transfer to the Royal Canadian Air Force to fight the Germans alongside the British, something permitted by the U.S. Even the guys allowed he looked just like the Hollywood heartthrob Tyrone Power. Charismatic and a bit wild, all the girls swooned over Joe. He wrote home of his best friend and fellow radioman, a teenaged Texan named Joe Ross. “All any enemy would have to do is sink a ship in the outlet and the fleet would be done for.” Making friends and falling in loveĬome March of 1941, the young sailor was still swept up in the moment. “The whole fleet is bottled up in that small harbor.” “Pearl Harbor is guarded like a mint,” he wrote in the spring of 1940. Love, Bud.”īut, after months at sea, Art’s letters turned more serious. But as I didn’t have a pencil or anything, I didn’t get her autograph. Hula dances on the ship, swimming in Waikiki. “Dear Mom, having quite a time in Honolulu. He assured his mother people did not live in grass houses and Honolulu was more modern than Sioux City.īud in Honolulu in 1940, and his letter to his mom in April, 1940. His early letters home revealed a wide-eyed boy on the adventure of a lifetime. What’s more, having graduated at the top of his class, the young sailor was assigned to the USS California, the flagship of the Battle Force, handling the Admiral’s communications. “I’ve been accepted into the radio gang,” Art wrote. Soon, his mother received a gleeful letter. Even with a small scholarship, this high school track star couldn’t afford to go to college. His family was still struggling out of the Depression. To his parents and six younger brothers and sisters, he wrote: “I’ve joined the Navy. There, 18-year-old Art “Bud” Montagne left a note behind in an empty house. (Washington) - My dad’s story starts two years before Pearl Harbor, on a summer day in Sioux City, Iowa.

But his letters never let on One letter, postmarked 'Pearl Harbor December 11', is stamped: 'Passed by naval censor.'

Now, it’s time to find better ways to interact with you and ensure we meet your high standards of what a credible media organization should be.ĭecem| 10:22 AM My dad witnessed the horror of Pearl Harbor firsthand. The days of journalism’s one-way street of simply producing stories for the public have long been over.

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