By Justin Rodriguez
Times Herald-Record
December 13, 2006
Monticello - Bells tolled last week for Dec. 7, 1941 — the date that lives in infamy. This story starts the day after.
Young patriots rushed to the nation's defense. Don Karkos tagged along after school as his older brother, Eddie, went to enlist at the Navy recruiting station in Lewiston, Maine. The boy hunched in the back of the room as Eddie answered questions and filled out paperwork. A recruiter barked out at Don, "Hey, kid, whatsa matter, you don't like the Navy?"
"Sir, I'm not old enough," Don told him. "I don't turn 17 until Friday."
"Good enough," snapped the recruiter.
Seaman Don Karkos shipped out of Boston and sailed into the North Atlantic. His was the USS Rapaden, a tanker whose mission was to skirt the German U-boats off the English coast and refuel Allied battleships. On a warm morning in the summer of '42, Karkos was on the Rapaden deck when there was a loud explosion. Twisted metal flew everywhere. Something heavy hit the boy above his right eye, cutting his forehead open.
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