Pearl Harbor Sunday
William Friday recalls his reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Friday also discusses how NC State contributed to the war effort and his general thoughts about the war stating, "War changes everything."
Interview on 2011-09-13 00:00:00 -0400
Transcript
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I was driving back from an all star football game that three of our NC State players had been in,
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and we got right to the edge of Raleigh and I just turned on the car radio and heard that
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and it was just such a shock. Nobody was ready for anything like that.
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I was then courting Mrs. Friday
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and I of course called her the minute I could and said I'll come sit and talk with you.
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But it changed everything because
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you didn't want to admit but it was true that that attack literally destroyed the Pacific fleet
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and we knew it was a straight uphill fight.
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But it did dramatize NC State's importance,
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you see, it turned it around, and boy it got right into the war effort up to its neck.
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But war changes everything. It changes your life, the institution,
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and when we came back after, those of us fortunate enough to survive, we came back to a different world, a different NC State.
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It's been my privilege to have been associated with that institution all those years.
This video is an excerpt from a longer interview. Contact the Special Collections Research Center to request the transcript of the full interview.
