U.S. Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Texas

摘要

My dad was in World War Ⅰ and I grew up in a house that was bought with the World War Ⅰ bonus. He died in a veteran's hospital among his buddies. I don't think our generation is the greatest generation. I think the one just before it is. They fought two wars and, also, went through the worst days economically that the country had ever been through. I don't ever remember going to bed hungry, but a lot of people did during that time. I had one guy who said he ate so many rabbits he was afraid of his own dog. I remember the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. I was standing on the banks of the Tombigbee River [in Alabama]. I was 17 years old and hitchhiked there to get a job with a pipe plant. My dad was a pipeliner all my life. I grew up in the Oklahoma Contracting Co., rode trucks all over the United States where we followed the pipeline. A guy ran out and said, "We're at war with Japan. Japan is bombing Pearl Harbor right now."