What was happening in China and the small, obscure islands of Japan was hardy even an afterthought for most civilians. Let Europe’s problems stay in Europe, the citizens clearly and loudly petitioned Roosevelt. Though the government was already shipping supplies to Britain to aid in its struggle, the vast majority of adults, with the carnage of the Great War (and the Great Depression) still fresh in their memories, both deplored and feared the thought that distant winds of war could once again sweep them into action. In America, notwithstanding a few muffled voices, isolationism was the mantra of the day. The Italian Army had pushed into East Africa, taking Ethiopia and invading Egypt and was now at war there with British troops. Several years had already passed since the Nanking massacre, when more than 300,000 people were slaughtered and countless women raped. Beyond Europe, in China, the invading Japanese were committing atrocities. Great Britain was under relentless and devastating aerial attacks from the Luftwaffe and teetering on the brink of collapse. Germany had already invaded and conquered Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, and France. For an ocean away, the world was already at war. But new storm clouds were already on the horizon.Īmerica was at peace, but she was an exception. Across the nation, though there was still much work to be done, the feeling was that things were finally getting better. Across the vast Great Plains, the skies had finally reopened, quenching the dying land’s thirst, as some of the Dust Bowl refugees, as they had come to be called, started returning to their farms and homes. Roosevelt’s New Deal appeared to be working. Though the unemployment rate was still over fourteen percent, it was a far cry from its peak in 1933, when it reached the unprecedented rate of nearly twenty-five percent. America had managed to survive both the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. And like America itself, he will try to make sense of it all and find redemption. As the world around him starts to unravel, Frank will travel on his own dark journey of confliction, grief and regret.
The Keller household will be no exception. It pitted sons against fathers, brothers against sisters, the government against its citizens.
While Vietnam was fought with guns and bombs in the battlefields of Southeast Asia, its ideology was fought in the streets, campuses, and homes across the United States. But in time, he and his family will be plunged into the chaos and division of the Sixties and early Seventies. He was part of the Great Generation, living through, and benefiting from, America’s vast expansion and prosperity. Frank was one of the fortunate ones who made it back home from the frontline. But those plans would have to wait, as like millions of other young men across the country, Frank first had to help save the world. Once eighteen, he dreamt about asking his girlfriend’s hand in marriage so they could start a family of their own.
FRANK PANZARELLA FULL
After graduation, he had planned on working full time at his father’s hardware store, perhaps one day even taking over the business. Frank Keller was only seventeen when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
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