Page 1 - Gold Star Sons of Georgetown Prep

GOLD STAR SONS OF GEORGETOWN PREP
“AT THE PREP, YOU ARE NEVER FORGOTTEN”
By Dr. Stephen J. Ochs, Lawler Chair of History
September 2, 2020,
marked the 75th
anniversary of the
conclusion of WWII,
the most destructive war in
human history. On December
9, 1941, two days after the
Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor, President Franklin
D. Roosevelt addressed the
American people in one of
his radio “fireside chats.” In it,
he called upon “Every single
man, woman and child” to
partner “in the most tremendous undertaking of our American history,” in order to defeat forces that had attacked not only the United States, but also civilization itself.
The Georgetown Prep community responded wholeheartedly to the President’s call. On Wednesday, December 17, the beginning of Prep’s Christmas break and nine days after Roosevelt’s speech, the Jesuit house diarist noted that “Since Dec. 7th the boys have been very restless. Nothing but war is the talk.” Indeed, the war would significantly impact school life for the duration and would draw over 400 Prep alumni into the armed forces.
One of them, Captain Michael J. Daly ’45, received the Medal of Honor for
his heroism during the battle for Nuremberg, Germany, in April 1945. Daly later recalled that when President Harry S. Truman draped the medal around his neck at the White House on August 23, 1945, he felt a mixture of pride and
humility, as well as grief for those he considered the real heroes – “the guys who didn’t come home.”
Twelve of those guys were fellow alumni of Georgetown Prep, who were drawn from classes that spanned the 15 years from 1928 through 1943. They were among the 407,316 Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of the “tremendous undertaking” to which Roosevelt had called them. The two youngest Prep alumni fatalities were only 19 years old; the oldest was 32.
During World War II, families with a member or members serving in the armed forces often displayed Blue Star service banners that featured a white field with a red border and a blue
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