Sunday, 7 December--it was the 6th in Washington--was a normal day, "nothing ominous in the atmosphere, no forebodings or shadows cast by coming events." Men went about their work as usual. The only excitement arose from the fact that the Clipper, with its anxiously awaited mail sacks, was due. The last letters from home had reached the Islands ten days before.

That night the 27th Bombardment Group gave a party, recalled as a gala affair with "the best entertainment this side of Minsky's," at the Manila Hotel in birthday honor of General Brereton's birthday. Brereton records conversations with Rear Adm. William R. Purnell and Brig. Gen. Richard K. Sutherland, Hart's and MacArthur's chiefs of staff, during the course of the evening. Purnell told him that "It was only a question of days or perhaps hours until the shooting started" and that he was standing by for a call from Admiral Hart.

General MacArthur attended the  party, but left dor his rooms upstairs early, as it was his habit to avoid carousing,   and leave it to those who were best at it - the younger officers. The pilots, now free from the presence of MacArthur,  partied on  late into the night and through to the early hours of the morning. The party only started to break up at 2:00 A.M.