President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on Aug. 24, 1939, sent a personal appeal to Adolph Hitler urging him toward diplomatic channels regarding the Polish issue.

Then each day after Aug. 24, pivotal events took place in many parts of the world each one moving the world into its longest running battle we refer to as “the big one,” “the longest war” and “WW II.”

The enormity of it staggers the mind. The world began to shrink, what we previously regarded as peoples and countries far, far, away became places many Americans visited in war-time either on the battlefield or traveling to and from their military assignments.

Today, 68 years later in Muskogee, the men and women who fought those battles on foreign soils come to the library looking for books about specific military units, events, leaders, battlefield locations, and many other subjects that impacted their lives in some way.

I am always impressed with these heroes who contributed so much to the world; it is an honor to be able to locate information for them when they visit the library. And I’m always amazed at the width and breadth of the library’s far ranging titles in this particular section where the history of specific locations is shelved.

Looking at the library’s catalog, you will see 459 titles when you put in the search term World War II. On the shelves are subjects ranging from a-to-z about World War II.

One book deals with the unlikely story of the Army-Navy football game. The game was played on Nov. 29, 1941, only eight days before Pearl Harbor was bombed. Author Lars Anderson follows those football players from the football field to the battlefield in his book titled: “The All Americans.”

That’s the kind of extraordinary true story you didn’t expect to find, but it happened; and author Anderson tells the tale, weaving his facts together culled from his extensive interviews with dozens of veterans who either played or attended the game or were at Pearl Harbor or both.

A small sample of excellent books from our World War II collection include: “The Greatest Generation” by Tom Brokaw, “Fatal Decision: Anzio and the Battle for Rome” by Carlo D’Este, “Patton's Panthers: The African-American 761st Tank Battalion in World War II” by Charles W. Sasser, “American Indians and World War II” by Alison R. Bernstein, “What They Didn’t Teach You About World War II” by Mike Wright, “Churchill’s Generals” edited by John Keegan, and “An Eyewitness History of World War II” by Carl J. Schneider and Dorothy Schneider.

There are 35 DVD and video titles in the collection, some depicting individual courage such as “The Purple Plain” featuring Gregory Peck and Robert Parrish, originally released in 1954 and now available on DVD. Other videos and DVDs include “Macarthur,” “Stalag 17,” “The Winds of War, (Seven Parts),” “Proud,” “Iwo Jima: 38 Days of Hell,” “Crusade in the Pacific, Volume I,” and many others.

If you’re planning for the Labor Day holiday you may want to visit the library and check out something from the library’s excellent collection of books, books-on-tape, DVDs, and videos.

Library cards are free or just stop by and browse.