Queens College - Silhouette Yearbook (Queens, NY)

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

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 138 text:

The A Cappella choir on lhe U.S.S. Prairie State. Lislening 11051. Mobilization of the 'ihuman resourcesy' of Queens College began at a furious pace two days after the Jap back-stabbing. By the scores men and Women flocked to the recruiting stations set up in Thomas Jefferson Hall. And at the end of a Week nearly l,000 students had volunteered to help in one way or another. Motorcyclists to keep in touch with police-artists to draw morale posters- ham radio operators to intercept short-wave warnings-pub licity men to stir up sentiment-all these took their places with student air raid wardens and firemen. Seasoned radio listeners to intercept air raid alarms were assigned to radios in the registrar's oflice . . . but after that Tuesday, they only heard Bach, beauteous babes and lots of blarney. Specific evidence of QC work: Thirty Mitchell Field soldiers were invited to attend a sorority hop . . . on February 22, the A Cappella Choir sang for ensigns aboard the Navy training ship, the U.S.S. Pmirie State.