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Everyone talked about the warMrs. Oliver (Helen) Gorham, Rt. 1, Muscatine, heard the news of the bombing of Pearl Harbor during the afternoon hours. Dec. 7. 1941. She said, “It was a terrible shock. I realized that day our oldest son, Eldon, who was nearly 17, would probably have to go to war. That evening we went to an evangelistic service at the Pine Bluff Methodist church and before the service everybody was talking about the war we had been plunged into.”Things continued in much the normal way at the Gorham farm until Dec. 15, 1943, when Eldon, who was then 18, left for service with the Marines. He told his mother why he enlisted: “The more fellows my age who go will mean that fewer young fathers will have to go.” He was sent to Midway Island in April, 1944, where he served in an air defense batallion.The Gorham’s daughter, Evelyn, was married to Francis Van Dolah, who was killed while serving with Patton’s Third Army in Germany in Feb., 1945.Eldon died Aug. 16,1945, at Midway of injuries suffered some days before that. Ray Dunker of the Western Union Company had the unhappy duty of delivering the' telegram. It was doubly sad because the conflict in the Pacific had ended two days earlier, Aug. 14, when the Americans dropped the first atomic bomb. Thef Gorham's youngest son, Gene, was 7-years-old, when his brother left home to join the Marines, but he remembers him.A few years ago the Gorham farm home was quickly destroyed by a flash fire. The most precious thing saved was a picturepf Eldon.MRS. OLIVER GORHAM
Newspaper Details
Muscatine Daily Journal
Muscatine, Iowa, US
Fri, Dec 07, 1973
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
Anne C.
NA, 07 Dec 2023
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Muscatine Journal and News Tribune
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Muscatine Daily Journal
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