My father served on an LST for the Pacific campaign from 1944-46. He was in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and his ship was sailing toward Japan when the bombs were dropped and the Japanese surrendered. He has thousands of stories.
He and his buddy Oscar spent most of their non-combat time entertaining the troops with fiddle and guitar, going from ship to ship to perform. I have his letters to home where he constantly asked for guitar and fiddle strings, as the salt air was not kind to the strings. On 8/12/05, William Bowen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > My Grandfather (Bill, Sr) on my mother's side went onshore on DDay +8 > in France, he was with the 747th Armor Tank Regiment and was with that > unit until VE day. > > When VJ Day occured he was on a troop ship heading towards the South > Pacific and staging areas for Operation Olympic. > > My Grandfather (Alfred) on my father's side, and all of his brothers > served in WW2 as well. > > He enlisted in the Army Air Corps and was selected for the OSS > (precursor to the CIA), he served as a counter-intelligence officer > stateside until very late in the war (he told us that his job was to > shoot spies; as in, he and his partner would get a name and an address > and take their .38 service revolvers with them with double sided tape > on the handles (no chance the pistol would slip). They'd unload the > revolvers into their target, drop the pistols on the floor and leave), > he took to his grave the secrets of his service assignments in Germany > late in the war, and in fact never confirmed to us that he was ever > there (he did admit to it in a book on the history of the OSS, > though). > > His brother William (for whom I am partially named) served in the Navy > in San Francisco he was the driver and personal secretary for an > Admiral (though I can't remember off-hand which one it was). > > Another brother, Hendrix, was a B-25 Mitchell pilot that served in > North Africa and was shot down over the Pacific in 1944 and killed > (neither the plane nor his body was recovered). > > His other brother Oliver was a ground-pounder in Europe. > > All of the above mentioned are now deceased, only one of them (Bill, > Sr.) ever gave a full accounting of his experiences in combat during > the war, and that was only shortly before he died. It is a videotape I > will treasure forever. > > > -- > will > > > "If my life weren't funny, it would just be true; > and that would just be unacceptable." > - Carrie Fisher > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Discover CFTicket - The leading ColdFusion Help Desk and Trouble Ticket application http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=48 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:169215 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
