ON JAN. 26, 1941, Company E of the 182nd Infantry Regiment of the Massachusetts National Guard waited at the North Avenue train station. The men had marched from the State Armory on Main Street (now the Americal Civic Center) to the railroad station where they took a train to North Station. From there they made their way to South Station, where they boarded a train to Camp Edwards on Cape Cod for a year of active military training. On the previous Tuesday, members of Company E were inducted into the federal service at the Wakefield Armory. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 and the subsequent declaration of war, Massachusetts National Guard units were called into federal service. The 182nd Regiment was the successor of the old Fifth Massachusetts Regiment, recognized as the oldest military organization in the nation. In 1923, the Richardson Light Guard, formed in Wakefield in 1851, became Company E of the 182nd Regiment. The 182nd Regiment became part of the newly formed Americal Division in 1942 and played an active role in the Pacific Theater during World War II.
