A Glimpse at World War II
The Papers of MAJ Earl and Florence Hallgren
The papers of MAJ Earl and Florence Hallgren offer a look
at how World War II affected two people from Omaha, Nebraska. The
collection is small, but offers an unusual look at the war.
The material available on the web is divided into four
parts:
About The Papers:
Earl Hallgren was an attorney practicing in Omaha,
Nebraska. He was also a member of the Army Reserves. In 1935
he married Florence. In 1940, Earl was serving on active reserve
duty as an Infantry First Lieutenant at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In
January 1941, Earl received orders sending him to Fort McKinley in the
Philippine Islands. At the time Earl left, it was anticipated that his
wife Florence would join him, so he shipped their household items to the
Philippines.
In February, Earl and Florence learned that wives and
children could no longer accompany their spouses to the Philippines due to the
rising military activity in the Pacific. Earl began training a unit of
Philippine Regulars, the 91st Infantry in March and Florence began
waiting.
When the war broke out in December 1941, Earl was listed
as "missing in action". Florence spent the next three and half
years attempting to find out her husband's fate. In late 1945, Florence
learned that Earl had been killed in the initial Japanese invasion of the
Philippines. Florence immediately began trying to locate people who had
served with Earl to find out how he died. She also spent the next 10
years, trying to recover their household goods and money from Earl's Philippine
bank account.
Florence did not remarry. She died in 1995 and as
they had no children, her collection of materials relating to Earl went her
niece, Rita Faulders, who donated the papers to the Combined Arms Research
Library in 1996.
It is our hope that by making some of this material available, people can
give a small picture of life before, during and after World War II.
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