Kudos to your father and his bravery in serving. My dad arrived at Guam a couple of days after Japan surrendered. Theirs is the greatest generation.
"Kudos to your father and his bravery in serving. My dad arrived at Guam a couple of days after Japan surrendered"
I don't know exactly how brave my dad was during the war. Unlike Mr. Kerry my dad would never talk about any combat stuff.
He was full of stories about funny things and the guys he soldiered with.
I have never been entirely clear about the whole thing but I think Dad was a seabee.
Dad was 26, married with 3 kids when he was drafted. Had he not been a dad he probably would have enlisted when his 2 brothers did.
Dad was a master plumber and skilled labor in this field didn't get deferments.
On Guam he had his own shop. He was in responsible for retrofit when equipment got shot up, either planes or ships. If it was too bad, he usually patched enough for it to be seaworthy enough to tow back to Pearl.
He was among the men to know if you were a GI. He paid cash for scrap Jap planes and when he wasn't officially working, he made steel bracelets from planes and sold them to GI's as souvineers to send home. I have one.
He also being keeper of many 50 gallon drums was the official hooch maker on the island. He had apparantly done some really big favors for the cooks on Guam so all the canned fruits got drained allong with some bartered granulated sugar and Dad brewed the Jungle Juice.
Every Month ,Dad sent Mom more money than he drew as payment. Mom told about that. He also ran the local craps concession.
He told of being ordered to repair a Jeep for some navy really big whig. The Jeep was beyond repair. He swiped an airforce Jeep and repainted it , His repairs were very well received, it was almost like new.
I know Dad was injured in both knees, but I don't know how it happened.
He was drinking one night with a war movie on and they showed clearing out some of the Japanese that had hidden in the caves. Dad had to leave the room, he was muttering about the flamethrowers.
He talked about the things that he remembered fondly but never about any of the horrors of war. I know he contracted a fungus called Jungle Rot, he had a lot of scarring.
Our Dad's would have been on Guam at the same time at least for a little while.
Dad came home and raised 7 more kids.