The Love That Endures

By Thomas I. Kirkpatrick. 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 HUSB