"[A] date which will live in infamy," said President (and stamp collector) Franklin Delano Roosevelt about December 7, 1941, during a speech to a joint session of Congress, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Postal historian and APS life member, the late Frank M. Hoak III wrote: "U.S Naval Ship Cancels of December 7, 1941" for the December 2011 issue of The American Philatelist.

It won the USSS/Barbara R Mueller award for the best article published in The American Philatelist that year.

Hoak, a retired Navy Captain, had a personal connection to the attack, as he lived with his family in Hawaii on that tragic day.

His father, Frank Jr., served on the USS Pennsylvania at Pearl Harbor.

As Captain Hoak began his article:

"The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 is one of the infamous dates in American history. Because the attack occurred early on a Sunday morning, stamp collectors have long debated whether or not there was a genuine naval cancel struck aboard any of the ninety-five ships with post offices in Pearl Harbor that morning."

Below is the article by Captain Frank M. Hoak, III as produced for the December 2011 issue of The American Philatelist.