Parson, I think they just referred to those jobs a Vital To The War Effort. That's all my mum remembers them as being -- farmers being of primary importance, of course -- since the days of Caesar.

McGrath, it isn't a matter of "forgetting the Russians." Most of us know their history during the war, and the terrible price they paid to fight Nazism. It's just that this is December 7th, Pearl Harbor Day in the U.S., and it has a special trauma for this country as a whole, and our attention tends to focus on its consequences to our own fathers and grandfathers -- and to us. It was a genuine watershed event in this country's history, and everyone who was alive then remembers where he or she was when they heard about the attack. They tell their children and their grandchildren and their great-granchildren, and they speak in hushed tones for the men of the U.S.S. Arizona and the others who died that day. It's a somber 24 hours for many people in this country, the day that brought our nation fully into World War II. A lot of conflicting emotions.

Sarah