My Dad

My friend 'M' writes in her blog about Veteran's Day and those that fought and in particular those people that lived during the time of World War II. It made me think of my father.
Dad served on a ship in the Pacific towards the end of the war. He entered the Navy the day after he graduated from High School. He was lucky in that respect. Not everyone was allowed to stick it out long enough to graduate.
He seldom talked about his experiences. Only as he got older, and having been in touch with some ship buddies, did we learn more. We knew he was a radar guy. We were told by a shipmate, Mr Letourneau, who found Dad in Manchester after they had lived in the same town for nearly 30 years, that Dad was given the job because he was smart. He was known as Frenchie because of his very heavy accent. The language thing might have put him in that somewhat isolated position as well.
We don't know how much action he saw but we do have photos of him taken in China. We know he met up with his brother, who was serving as a Photographer on an Air Craft carrier, while on some island out in the middle of nowhere.
He started going to some of his ship's reunions only a few years before he died, much like our friend's dad, Pete did. He loved those reunions. My mom loved them, too. I think it brought them all back to a time when they were so young, vigorous and had nothing but hopes for a better future. Tom Brokaw wrote a book, "The Greatest Generation" about these people.
Dad won a few Medals. My sister did the research and sent to the federal government to get the actual medals. My dad never kept the ones he received at the time.
After coming home and spending some time in prep school, he went to College on the GI bill.
This changed his and the lives of everyone in our family. He didn't go back to the furniture factory his parents worked in, which was meant to be his future. Roland got a degree in accounting with a minor in Philosophy. He was adamant that all his children would go to college. We did and all the children of his children are doing the same.
12 BAs, 5 MAs, 1 CPA, 2 PHDs in progress, 2 undergrads and 2 to go...a legacy from the greatest generation.