George McGovern's path from Pearl Harbor news to enlistment

McGovern was listening to a required radio concert when the Pearl Harbor announcement interrupted the programme, and he initially did not even know where the base was. His father's reaction and maps supplied by college instructors made the scale of the event clear. He and ten other students then drove to Omaha while debating whether to enter Army or naval aviation. A promised cafeteria meal finally tipped the group toward the Army Air Corps, showing how national mobilisation could pass through incomplete information and very ordinary personal choices.