12/8/2021 | Barb Oehlschlaeger-Garvey, Director

Eighty years ago today, Franklin D. Roosevelt stood before a joint meeting of Congress asking for them to declare war on Japan. By the time of his "Day of Infamy" speech, Japan had already attacked Malaya, Hong Kong, Guam, the Philippines, Wake Island and Midway Island, in addition to Pearl Harbor. It took Congress one hour for the full vote to agree to the declaration.

Tony Bilek of Rantoul was at Clark Field in Luzon, on the Philippines. He remembered the bombing on the 8th, "We were just waiting until the bombing was over, then come the dive bombers and then they were followed up by the Zeros and they strafed back and forth, back and forth. The whole wave took, I guess, about 45 minutes. Everything was burning, aircraft were burning, fuel tanks, fuel trucks, hangars.” Bilek would be captured by the Japanese and was a survivor of the Bataan Death march along with Merle Lype from Thomasboro. Both men have passed away after careers in the service, and long, full lives. We are grateful for their service. The Museum of the Grand Prairie preserves their story.