Paul Eastburg: “Well, it was stunning—it was a surprise to everyone. Immediately, some of my friends enlisted, the day after Pearl Harbor. One by one, out of a high school class of 81, of which there were 32 men, 26 of us served. When my turn came, my fear was that I wasn’t going to make the physical examination. I kind of shaded my hay fever so that they would not think of that as being a deterrent, and I wanted the Navy. I was like so many that came off the farms and out of the shops and the factories. I didn’t have any real perception of what the military was going to be.”