Minnesota Goes to War : Minnesota Historical Society Press : 9780873516518 : 0873516516 : 01 Jun 2009 : Kenney chronicles a time when ordinary sacrifice and extraordinary courage happened as a part of daily life. Brainerd, 1941:The first people began arriving at the depot at about eleven-thirty p.m. The mercury in the thermometer read twenty below zero, and it was still dropping. . . . A few minutes before midnight, the men the crowd had come to see marched into view?eighty-two of them, all dressed in khakis, responding on cue to barked commands. . . . The conductor called "all aboard." The band struck up "The Star-Spangled Banner." The men fell in and marched into the passenger cars. As the crowd surged forward, the men inside the train raced to the windows. . . . Hands reached out and grabbed each other. Final kisses were stolen. The train pulled away, slowly gathering momentum, and disappeared into the night. For many in Company A, 194th Tank Battalion, the part-time National Guar