Remembering My Father On Veteran's Day

Remembering my father on Veterans Day. I know nothing of his service except it was Army and near the end of WW2 in the Pacific; he never spoke of it.

Rest peacefully.

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When I first posted this on Facebook, I wrote that Dad's service was in the interwar period and in Korea; we never discussed it but I always thought that's where he served because he had a "This Is Korea" booklet which impressed me as a kid. Also I'd seen his scrapbook from WW2 and assumed from that he was too young to serve. But in retrospect, he was born in 1927 so he would have turned 18 in 1945, and might have joined early because he never got a high school diploma. Different times.

In reply, my family wrote

Ellen: Dad was a radioman in the Army Air Corp. He was very proud of the fact (and insistent) that it was Army Air Corp, not Army. He had a few stories that he told, the boys would probably remember them better than I.

David: Dad arrived in Luzon, Philippines in early 1945. I was looking at some photo's with him one time and he had a grim look on his face in one photo. He told me the picture was taken about a half hour after he saw his first dead Japanese soldier. He was transferred first to Okinawa (Some interesting photo's of B-29's in his collection) and later to Iwo Jima. His job on Iwo consisted of manually rotating an RDF (radio direction finder) listening for transmissions from U.S. aircraft. When they picked up the signal, they would stop rotating the antennae and press a button sending a signal to the aircraft as a navigation beacon. He told me once he was on duty August 6th 1945, but wouldn't talk anything more about that day. Miss you, Dad.

Kat: I knew it, I always remember mom saying dad was in ww2 not Korean War, that didn't start until 1950. I remember pictures of him in the Philippines and one with him holding a monkey. He was super young

David: One real regret I have in my life is I didn't get a chance to talk to him more about Uncle George, who died in 1945 when his destroyer was hit by a kamakazee off of Iwo Jima. Shortly before Dad passed, I was in Hawaii and went to find George's grave to pay my respects. Alas, he lies in the American Cemetary in Manilla. I had been in the P.I. in 1981, had I known, I would have paid my respects for the family.