Queens College - Silhouette Yearbook (Queens, NY)

Page 136 text:

HlI0EdUEI1HfDhYSk :Id and lQHHHH.FE- sources ft? a quick qraiifyiiqa IE- TURY 77 These words-President Paul Klapper's promise of Queens Col- 1ege's cooperation with its community-were hardly spoken at the first Queens College Defense Rally that afternoon, and the program was continuing with the Dean's outline of QC's contribution, when Dr. Klapper suddenly and solemnly stood up and said: Please take your belongings and go home. May God speed you. For the first stunning moment, 600 people were hushed. Then, catching the terrible import of the words although still unaware of the true reason, they quietly left. Once in the open, the siren's wailings told them better than any words: Air Raid Alert! And still there was no faltering, no wild melee to get home, and get home whatever way was the quickest way. It seemed as if each man and each woman was trying to show the other that there was nothing to fear, even if they themselves were shaking in their boots. Within twenty minutes, the entire campus was clear. 2,200 stu- dents and faculty had trekked off the grounds in the shortest possible time, with the least confusion and the most efficiency. Two cases of very mild hysteria were reported g both soon subsided. By bus, by foot, by cars that were commandeered on Kissena Boule- vard, the 2,200 were dispersed. And not until they came home did they discover that the air raid alarm was a real alarm even though the planes winging to New York were America's own fighters. 132

Page 135 text:

But the devastating smack! that momentarily tossed a nation on its ears on Sunday, December 7, 1941, erased the idyllic quiet on the little hill in Flushing. In little bunches of four, six or twenty, the men and women of Queens met Monday, December 8, 1941, to talk about Pearl Harbor, and at 12 noon when President Roosevelt broadcast, 400, perhaps 500, jammed the auditorium to listen to America's recognition of war. Tuesday, men and women still gathered in little bunches to talk, but no longer of the emotional shock of Pearl Harbor. Now they talked of concrete plans for the prosecution of a successful war. Quick to respond to the situation, the members of the college committee for civilian defense called a mass rally that afternoon. The last echo of Mr. Roosevelt's declaration had hardly quit reverberating about the auditorium when President Klapper gripped the rostrum and said: l'War has come to us. A war that will stir the very roots of our De- mocracy. V The first bomb that fell on Amer- 1 ican soil unified a democratic people and sharpened its one hope and its one thought-to beat off the marauder and establish an enduring peace. In the face of the wanton attack upon us, it is difficult to remain calm and go about our day's work. And yet this is just what we at Queens College must do for the moment, do our accustomed tasks, but do them better and do more of them until those in authority give direction to our effort. lVe are a liberty-loving people, but we are also a disciplined people who know how to take orders and work with our fellow men. YV e, as a college, shall take our place - be at the sacrifice what it may-in a co- 1.71-!,5l'!l6Hl paul K1,,y,y,,i,- ordinated plan to achieve victory. 131

Page 137 text:

Un the left If Pearl Harbor wasn't enough, the air raid helped it along. Class- es as usual was as absurd as business and profits as usual should be, so Queens College buckled down to some serious honest-to-goodness work. A quick glance at any map will reveal the highly interesting infor- mation that: 1. Queens College lies between two airports of great strategic value, LaGuardia and Floyd Bennett, and 2. Queens College lies between two army forts, Totten in Bayside and Tilden in Rockaway. Problem No. l to the college that nurses 2,200 people, as a result, was precaution against enemy air attacks. It doesn't make any differ- ence if the raid is in earnest or just a token, suicide or not. A bomb by any other name still bruises. The original plan was to getthehell out of the buildings as soon as possible, but this was reversed when it became apparent that crowded ball fields are inviting targets, and that the shrapnel from our own ack ackiers might rain oler Flushing. 133