Monday, November 10, 2008

Semper Fi

Because Dad was a Marine, this is my obligatory and joyous link from Hot Air on the Corp's 233rd birthday. OORAH!

(I hate doing that last part since not having served is still my greatest regret.)
Posted by at
Labels: ,

9 comments:

Stephanie said...

Where and what years did he serve?

November 11, 2008 at 9:47:00 AM CST
Scooter said...

1943-1947. Occupied Japan and the Phillipines.

November 11, 2008 at 12:19:00 PM CST
Stephanie said...

My dad was in the Pacific, too, though with the army.

November 11, 2008 at 12:29:00 PM CST
Scooter said...

Dad was too young (turning 18 in '43) to see real action and the Army Air Corps was his real wish but he was color blind and at 6'6" he was too tall.

How long was your dad there?

November 11, 2008 at 12:53:00 PM CST
Stephanie said...

I'm woefully clueless about his service experience. I don't even know the years. I have a box of letters he sent to his mom during his service that I haven't read (have had possession of them for years). In part, it feels like a violation of his privacy. But also, it feels like I need to create an appropriate atmosphere to read them -- uninterrupted alone time for starters and I'd like to be in Bismarck and do it on Veterans' Day -- and I haven't made that happen. Just tried to use a government website to get a report, but it didn't work. Can't tell if the problem was that I didn't have his SSN or something else. Here's the site: http://www.archives.gov/veterans/evetrecs/

November 11, 2008 at 1:09:00 PM CST
Stephanie said...

And my dad wanted to fly also, but his eyesight was horrible.

November 11, 2008 at 1:17:00 PM CST
Scooter said...

Violation? I have to beieve any letter one sent to his mom wouldn't be a problem with his child.

I do appeciate the desire for the perfect setting. That is exactly what I'd want.

November 11, 2008 at 7:05:00 PM CST
Stephanie said...

I peeked at the letters. Dad served Sept. 1944 through Aug. 29, 1946. Like Scooter's dad, he spent some time in the Philippines and some in Japan.

I read just a handful. LOTS of complaining about the army. One complaint about the Army Air Corp!

There are some other fascinating things mixed in with the letters that deal with my grandmother. She was a big deal in the Republican party in ND. There's a letter from some party operative to the ND Gov asking that the Gov give his blessing for her to leave a job the Gov had gotten for her so that she could run as state auditor. (She had, apparetnly, refused their invitation to run out of obligation to the Gov.) I don't know what happened with that.

Another piece of treasure is a letter from 1931 that she wrote to her folks (who were living on their farm). In 1931, both her folks were still alive as was her husband and her only child (my dad) was five. Within a decade, she'd lose all of them except my dad, so I'm sure sending him off to war in 1944 was tough for her.

November 11, 2008 at 10:12:00 PM CST
Scooter said...

I'm glad you're reading. I can't imagine anything sent to his mom wouldn't be appropriate for you. Would that I had such letters.

Being a Marine, Dad had lots of complaints about the "swabbies" or sailors, but very few about the Corps except for some of the "Mickey Mouse" regulations.

November 12, 2008 at 5:37:00 PM CST

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)