POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

Happy 235th U.S. Navy!

Dad is on the far right

My dad enlisted early in the Navy in 1945 at the age of 17.  He chose to volunteer for the Navy to avoid the Army because he didn't want to sleep in the dirt.  The War officially ended September 2.  Dad turned 18 September 8.  He served as a tin can sailor on the U.S.S. Norris and U.S.S. Vammen until 1948 and rose to radarman 2nd class.  I've heard that's pretty good.

He didn't have a ton of stories like the vets in the movies always have, and the stories he did have were more like a list of funfacts and don't-tell-your-mothers, but I'll share them anyway. 

 The ingrown toenail: Whenever I'd have a scraped knee or some other boo-boo he'd tell me about how he got an ingrown toenail on his big toe right after he shipped out and every night he'd have a bloody sock. (That's it, Dan.  That's the whole ingrown toenail story)

 He woke up at the top of a ferris wheel once.  I think there's more to that story, but what happens in San Diego stays in San Diego because you can't remember it.

He woke up with an earring once.  See ferris wheel story. (Argh, I'm a pirate!)

My grandma really wanted to see him before the left basic training.  They were in Illinois and he was in Wisconsin or Michigan I think.  My grandpa, grandma and dad's little brother drove up blowing out several sets of tires because they were still using old rubber or something.  Something to do with the rationing (the whole country fought that war).  They were poor, that was probably the most expensive trip my grandpa ever made.

That's all I can remember now.  If he was still alive I would call him and get the details and the stories would be better.  That's why what Ken Burns did was so important. 

 His battle with prostate cancer ended 2 years ago.  My brother-in-law provided a lot of his personal care.  He told me that dad still took a "navy shower"until he couldn't shower anymore, even after he was sitting on a chair in there.  I think that's funny.  He was a major proponent of the navy shower, even if you were a girl.  Especially if you were a girl and he was paying your water bill.

I would be remiss if I wrote a post on the U.S. Navy without mentioning Normandy.  A few years before he died I must have been home on the anniversary, and we were watching the footage and memorials on tv.  I don't remember exactly what he said about it, but I do remember that it wasn't much and he was dead serious.  Behind his stoic eyes I clearly saw his grief for those boys, his friends, probably guys that were just a little older than him, probably guys he looked up to.  Normandy stopped being a history lesson to me that day.  It changed the way I view all American history now, and I'll always be grateful for that. 

American Thinker has a nice tribute here.

Kill Truck

KillTruck is a wife, mother, blogger and native midwesterner now living in Eastern Washington state. She writes about politics, pop culture, parenting, wifing and a few other subjects she has no authority to write about. She has macabre fascinations with prostitution and/or cannibalism. In her free time she enjoys eating and/or drinking her feelings, liveblogging Lifetime movies, thinking about Scott Brown and mocking things she doesn’t understand.

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