Many members of my family have served, US Navy, Army Air Corp/ Air Force, Marines, and even a former brother-in-law was a recipient of the CMH (another who survived Bataan.*) I didn't and often wonder. . ., but friends who spent those 12 to 13 months in the jungles of South East Asia said I did not miss a damn thing. I'll take their word for it. All came home on both feet and physically in one piece. Other issues plague(d) a few.
But this is really about my Dad. He lied about his age to enter the US Navy in WWI. He became a gunners mate on what was then classified as an armored cruiser, the USS West Virginia (ACR-5). That name was eventually assigned to BB-48 and the battleship USS West Virginia; despite becoming heavily damaged at Pearl Harbor, BB-48 went onto a distinguished career in the Pacific. ACR-5 was renamed the USS Huntington and served as convoy escort through WWI.
By us navy - www.navsource.org/archives
Dad talked some about his experience and often commented on the catapult, a failed experiment, for launching airplanes presumably to hunt U-boats. Balloons were also launched with unlucky results. One story went something like this; retrieving a balloon in a gale the basket, carrying the observer, and the rig collapsed into the Atlantic. A crewman went over the side to rescue the observer and the crewman was later awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Also fabric and wood bi-planes just could not take the stress the steam catapult created. Dad liked to say the US Navy did have aircraft carriers before the USS Langley!
After the war Dad came home and married my mother. Together they raised my elder brother and sister and built roads with his brother-in-law in Eastern Oregon. I remember him complaining November 11th should remain as Armistice Day, apparently disagreeing with President Eisenhower decreeing the name change to Veteran's Day. Of course all his fellow veteran's are gone now and perhaps there were some who might agree with him. We often change things as time goes by. Memorial Day used to be Decoration Day, when the end of the Civil War was recognized and those who gave the "last full measure of devotion (to the Union)" were honored. We find it more convenient now to celebrate "President's Day" rather than the individual birthdays of Washington and Lincoln. In the future people may not even know the beginning and end, or the why, of American's shed blood at home or on foreign fields, and that will be unfortunate. Not to perpetuate the animosity or hostility to old foes, but to recognize the courage it takes to make a stand.
Lest we forget.
*For a good read about the team's sent to rescue survivors read Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides. That brother-in-law's name is listed in the role of survivors.
