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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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I said, “I think it's some kind of specialized training.” That was a pure guess. I didn't know what to tell her. If he wasn't telling her, I knew enough about what went on in the Army to know that it was up to me to satisfy her curiosity in a way that would make her feel satisfied that they weren't doing anything terrible to her son, and yet wouldn't reveal anything. Since I didn't know anything to reveal I said that they had a great many special training projects. They were training people for different kinds of work. There were new weapons being used all the time and they were training them in the use of those, and in the new types of warfare. All the parents knew was that their son had bought a railroad ticket to some big Tennessee city - Knoxville, or Memphis, or Chattanooga. Very soon they knew enough to know that they mustn't know. They stopped being curious.

But I knew that there was something going on. I assumed that it was merely a new weapon, as indeed it was. But I didn't think of it in the terms of the kind of weapon it turned out to be. I thought it was a new bazooka, or something.

Of course, all during this period, and indeed as soon as Hitler invaded Russia, there had been talk of giving help to the Russians. I think it was agreed upon by the British and by ourselves right after the Germans attacked them. There then had begun to be a school of thought that was doubtful as to whether the Russians would really fight the Germans.





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