It was an ordinary afternoon on December 7, 1941 for Chesley Roland Hall of Baltimore. He and friends played pinochle and drank beer at the Dutch Mill. Then, as he recalled in his diary, "...over the radio came screaming words that could not be, our laughter died away as we placed our half filled glasses of beer upon the bar, there was no more kidding of each other, we just looked at each other with an expression of question..." Pearl Harbor had been attacked. After that day, Hall's life, and the lives of millions of others would change forever. Hall enlisted in the United States Navy in November 1942 and served as an electrician's first mate in World War II. The first three pages of his diary, shared here, explain his decision to join - "Each news flash told us of our losses, of the desperate situation our country was in, my mind and heart were always filled with the safty [sic] of my wife, children and of my country and it's future." You can read more from Hall's diary in our Digit...