Six battleships, including the old target ship U.S.S. Utah, were sunk. It also left the United States with only one choice. We were driven head first into World War II, and so began our involvement in the Pacific.

As in every area, Sevier County was doing its part to support the war effort. Even from the beginning, at Pearl Harbor Sevier County residents were serving their country.

One such man was Frank Biagi. He volunteered for service in the U.S. Air Force and became an aerial photographer. He arrived in Honolulu Harbor on Christmas Eve, 1940, one year before the attack on Pearl Harbor, and was stationed at Hickham Field, which is located adjacent to Pearl Harbor. He recalls the morning it was bombed.

Within the next month alone Japan over took three islands in the Pacific, nations where American outposts where located: Guam, Wake Island, and Manila. The U.S. proceeded to pursue an offensive militaristic strategy called island hopping against the Japanese forces.

They first came in and bombarded the island with artillery from the air and sea until they were successful in gaining a foothold on the island and were able to secure an airstrip. They then left troops behind to maintain the island and moved on to the next to repeat the same process.

Near the end of 1944, the U.S. had succeeded in gaining a real advantage over the Japanese forces. The Japanese people and army were in a state of devastation, but they would not surrender. Because of a culture based on honor, to surrender would have been to disgrace a whole nation.

Understanding this and wishing to save the lives of thousands of Americans, President Harry S. Truman made the decision to drop the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and three days later a second on Nagasaki, thus bringing an end to the war on September 2, 1945, when the Japanese signed the Allied terms of surrender.

Throughout the whole of the war, American citizens from Sevier County served in the United States military forces to preserve freedom for today's Americans. They served in many different capacities and places bringing a part of Sevier County to practically every section of the war.

Alvin Oldroyd was in a maintenance crew on Guam. He humbly says this of his job during the war, "We just kept them [the United States aircraft] flying," making no issue of the fact that without people like him, the United States' success in World War II would have been virtually impossible.

Robert E. Middleton was a stevedore, part of an experimental battalion and a construction battalion. He came into Saipan right after the Battle of Saipan and helped secure the island. Though he was not involved in the actual battle, he did not miss all the gore of war. He recalls the first rain squall in Saipan.

The public sometimes forgets the people behind the action in war, those who make the great military machine work. Every man or woman makes a difference. Every job and duty is necessary to capture the final victory. All those men and women, who, through the war effort, either at home or abroad, made life free for the world deserve the younger generation's deepest respect. Sevier County remembers World War II because Sevier County people were an integral part of it.