Pearl Harbor Dec. 7 1941, Drafted Feb. 1942

[Shrapnel]

My dad grew up on a homestead on the Musselshell in Eastern Montana, never getting past the 8th grade. He worked hard his whole life, never asking for anything he didn't deserve. He was born in 1910, survived the depression through his twenties, his prime of life. The depression abates, Hitler has invaded most of Europe, then Japan bombs Pearl Harbor.

At 31 years of age he is drafted into the Army and is sent to the Philippines to fight a people he had never heard of. I asked him years ago, if he had ever heard of the Philippines, let alone know where it t was, he told me no.

He went, asked no questions, served and was honorably discharged in November, 1945. Returning to Montana, he found the ranch he had worked for had been sold, his job didn't exist anymore. Instead of looking for government assistance, he found a job and continued on with life without complaining. He married my mother in June 1949 when he was 38 years old, starting a new life many did at almost 20 years younger.

I have always admired my father and thousands like him that went, served, returned and still went about life, never blaming anyone for the lost 3 1/2 years of his life. This is a picture of him in the Yellow Mules, near Big Sky, Montana in 1940...

You can see why we won the war...

[BenT]

Thanks you for sharing that story. I could say the same for my father , only it was Korea.

[Griff]

Thanks you for sharing that story. I could say the same for my father , only it was Korea.

Ditto, it was WWII, and he was only 17 when he joined. But as he would say, life in the Navy was far better than farming. Tho', he never gave up having a garden. He served as part of the gun crew aboard the "Liberty" ships taking supplies to England.

[pokey]

double ditto.
wwII 22 years old. army air corps belly gunner on a b17.

whs.JPG

[Ysabel Kid]

Hard to believe it has been 70 years.

My uncle served in the 29th ID, 116th, and landed with them on Omaha Beach during D-Day. He was there through the end of the War in Europe, and had the points that he wouldn't have had to serve in the Pacific. Thank God the war ended without the need to invade Japan - for our sake and their's...

[gamekeeper]

Thanks for sharing that story and thanks to your Dad and all others who served.

Great photo.

[Ji in Hawaii]

Great story, thank you!
My dad was in ROTC in college on Dec. 7th his senior year, and as soon as he graduated in the summer of '42 he joined the US Army Amphibious Engineers (the Army's navy). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineer_S ... _States%29
He served in the SW Pacific theater in New Guinea, the Philippines, and many islands in between as well as occupied Japan after the war. He didn't talk much about the war years but I did get a large box of his V-mails he wrote home to his parents, and his sister that they had saved all these years. These are treasures that let me see into the mind of a young man at war. Great reading.

My dad front row very right.

[C. Cash]

The Greatest Generation for sure. Great picture and story...thanks for sharing.

[Leverdude]

Great story, your Dad was a great man, we need more like that. Humility is in short supply in America these days. We lost my uncle Jack a few years ago. He was a Marine & served in the south Pacific. But you wouldn't know if nobody told you. In his mind he just served his country, wasn't something to brag about or expect special treatment. His country needed him, he gave what he could & went on with his life after he came home. It was hard to even get him to talk about it.

[Catshooter]

Very cool story.

My dad was 16 when Pearl happened. He tried for months to join up, even got a forged birth certificate. The recruiters were wise to that one though.

Finally when he was 17 he found that the Merchant Marines would take him so off he went. He neglected to let his family know he was shipping out, opps. Was gone for more than a year.

His first trip took him to North Africa. On the way home, in the middle of the Pacific they got into a fight with what was probably the last two of the German commerce raiders. Everybody lost and it took four and a half months in life boats for him and the other six survivors get to land. He had his 18th birthday in a life boat, still a month from landfall. Came home in August of '46.

I can hardly imagine what it was like for him.


Cat

[Garneteye]

Dad was stationed aboard the USS Regil in Pearl Harbor. That morning he took the station wagon assigned to the ship to the commesary(sp) to pick up supplies and was headed back when the first attack began. He took cover under a tarp used to cover supplies on the dock, used to laugh about that. After the first wave, he dumped the supplies and used the wagon as an ambulance to carry the wounded to hospital point. I have a picture of him on the 8th, on patrol in downtown Honolulu, written on the back "Worried but not scared -Griff". Spent the rest of the war on the Regil, never in action as she was a repair ship, always behind the front lines.

[Charles]

My Father was from Montana, Fromberg to be specific. When the war broke out he joined the Cavalry and went to Ft. Riley Kansas. When they dismounted the Cavalry and put them in trucks, he went to OCS and spent the rest of the war in the Pacific. When Korea broke out, he went back in.

[Blaine]

Uncle won a medal in the Bulge...He was my "dad" since I never had one that was around.
I had a shirttail cousin of some sort on the Arizona.

[jeepnik]

Again, my dad served during WWII, along with both grandfathers and and all of my uncles. Not really surprising as I'm from a "Navy" family. Both grandfathers served in both WWI and WWII. Dad and my uncles in WWII, and for several, Korea, as well.

Dad sorta broke the string. In 1938 just after graduating high school, he wanted to join the Navy. But, there weren't a lot of "vacancies". So, he joined the Army. Served thru 1947 in North Africa, Sicily, and thru France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany.

Dad was the only one in the European/Mediteranian theather, everyone else was in the "Pacific".

The one tie we had to Pearl Harbor was that my mom's dad's last ship was the Vestal (she was a repair ship tied up near the Arizona). Granddad had retired, medicaly, in the middle of 1941. Interestingly, he was "recalled" in January of 1942. However, he never did get to go back to sea. His heart (the reason for the medical retirement) finally gave out in October of 1944. My uncles say he regretted never being able to "avenge" his shipmates.