American Valor Quarterly Issue 11 - Fall 2014 | Page 34

Gene Pell: Thank you Jim and
thank you gentlemen for joining us
this Veterans Day, 2000. Having just
come from a very moving ceremony
on the Mall here in Washington,
D.C. where everyone witnessed the
President of the United States, among
others, for the groundbreaking
ceremony for the World War II
Memorial, which after all these many
years is going to be built. We are here
to talk baseball as well as World War
II and as Jim mentioned, Bill Gilbert
is the author of a number of books on
the subject.
Bill, let’s start with you to give us a
little context on the war and the game.
Bill Gilbert: Yes I would be happy
to, Gene. Both baseball and baseball
players made significant contributions
to our success in World War II. The
sport itself continued at the urging of
President Roosevelt, who considered
it a morale booster for the home front
as well as the men and women in
uniform and so he gave what is called
the green light for baseball to continue
during the war. But beyond that,
there were men who had made unique
contributions of their own.

probably influenced by a hit song from
1941 called “Goodbye Dear, I’ll Be
Back in a Year.”
Well, Hugh Mulcahy was not back
in a year and neither was anybody else.
He missed almost five full seasons.
He was 27 when he left and he was 32
when he came back in 1945.
Bob Feller didn’t even have to go to
war and he lost four seasons because
of World War II. He was deferred
because he was the sole support of
his family. With his father dying of
cancer, he was supporting his father,
his mother, and his kid sister Margaret.
But he went anyhow, two days after
the attack on Pearl Harbor, giving up
a brilliant pitching career even though
he was still only 23-years-old. He had
just turned 23 the month before Pearl

Harbor, but he went anyhow, because
that was the American attitude in
those years and that was Bob Feller’s
attitude. He also didn’t have to go to
gunnery school. He could have taught
physical fitness his whole Navy service
but he applied for gunnery school,
served as the chief of a 24-man gun
crew, on the battleship Alabama. In the
North Atlantic and then the Pacific,
he participated in eight invasions,
including Iwo Jima, some of the
bloodiest battles in the Pacific. Bob
was the proud recipient وZY