Ch14 Specials Ep1 Austin Post Pearl Harbor

Our Westlake

Dec. 7 -- 90 years after Pearl Harbor, we remember. Our World was rocked by by unspeakable act of national terrorism -- by Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 - And So Was Austin !
Emmett Shelton Sr. recalls the day Pearl Harbor rocked his family - and events in Austin afterwards.
Emmett had been working with LBJ on his senatorial race. He had a law practice with a hilltop mansion underway. He had a wife, 2 sons, and another on the way in Austin. He recounts city preparations and his efforts to join the Marines at age 37.
Austin dealt with it by rationing. Several of the Austin High boys entered the armed services -- Paul Pederson and Emmett's brother helped build the nation's Selective Services. Emmett tells of his service in the So. Pacific in the Marines. They learned to fight like hell and not be afraid of anything.
Emmett wraps up by saying: "Before Pearl Harbor, I thought I was too important a man to risk my life, even for my Country - but the Marines taught me that my life, like each Marine's life, didn't mean a thing and yet, that each Man, each Marine, was the Best God ever made."
#austintexas
#austinhistory
#pearlharbor
#Marines
#Americanlegion
Music: TAPS blown by Emmett Shelton Sr.

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Stories told by Emmett Shelton / compiled and submitted by Cynthia Shelton.