January 14, 1942

The San Francisco Examiner wrote today:
US Troops beat off big attack in Luzon; heavy losses for RAF Raids Malaya mission bases.
Russians recaptured Kirov in the Smolensk territory and Gorokhovo.
Dutch blow up wells in Krakow in their retreat.
In Washington President Roosevelt appointed Donald Nelson sort of generalissimo of supply.

Weather cold with bitter north wind.

The last war, although less than a quarter of a century behind us, is very misty in my memory. No one who was near and dear to me was in the war and the thing most outstanding in my memory is the fact that we were inconvenienced in material ways – had difficulty in obtaining materials – food stuffs, particularly sugar.
But this is different – vastly different. With my darling boy a lieutenant in the Army and my only baby girl in Honolulu with her navy husband – my other dear boy – this is brought much nearer home to me. Dad [ed. com.: William J. ´Pops´Ryan, her second husband and father of her daughter Virginia] and I sit with our ears plastered to the radio night after night and we wait breathlessly for mail from both Honolulu and Spartenburg, South Carolina. Now that our darling Susie [ed. com: the yet unborn child that her son by a previous marriage, George Kreigh Moody, and daughter-in-law, Anne Hund Moody, awaited] is about to make her debut into society, the mail from Spartenburg is of particular interest.
Pops went down to the fire house this evening to sign up for civilian defense, but they wouldn't accept him on account of the age limit. Well, there are many things he can do in case of an emergency, but he is too old to do things like hopping fences and carrying pails of sand.
One thing I hope this journal does for me is to act as a safety valve. When the war talk waxes hot it's rather difficult not to show one's annoyance when these defeatists begin to shout and when others decry that the government is doing everything wrong. I'm with Uncle Sam all the way – errors and all, for he'll make many – but "my country right or wrong, my country." Maybe if those very same people hadn't shouted quite so loudly and vociferously in the past we'd have an adequate army and navy and air force now and wouldn't have to be racing so against time to gather one together now.