Veterans Day

[scarlettina]

It's Veterans Day. I haven't ever substantially acknowledged the day before but now, with friends who are veterans--friends younger than myself--and one or two people I know still serving, I feel compelled to do so. To them, and to all who serve and have served, thank you for your service.

My father served in the Navy during World War II. According to the records I received when I was doing genealogical research, he entered the service on April 4, 1944. Apparently he never left the country, "eligible only for duty ashore in the United States or at advanced bases, due to low visual acuity." (I am indeed his daughter.) He was trained as an Electrician Mate, if I'm reading this right, in Detroit, then served first in New Orleans at the Naval Landing Force Equipment Depot, then in San Diego, CA, and lastly at Tongue Point, Astoria, Oregon (Portland Sub-Group 19th Fleet) for only three months prior to his honorable discharge on June 25, 1946. Hence we had no battlefield stories from him. The few pictures I have of him from his time in the Navy make it look as though he worked hard and, frankly, had a very good time. I still have one of his uniforms in a box at the top of a closet.


That's my dad on the left. On the back of the picture, he wrote "Just out of 'boots'--June 1944".



All three of my uncles served in the war as well. Only one was an officer, my uncle, Lawrence J. Levine, in the Navy. (That's him on the left in the photo with my dad, pre-service. Uncle Larry looks far more imperious than he ever was in real life.) He was a lieutenant, if I'm recalling correctly. I don't know much about his service, but I know some notable details. I know that while he was in the service, he kept a diary (which he technically wasn't allowed to do). He'd duct-taped slabs of lead into the front and back covers so that if his ship was hit or he was captured, he could throw the book overboard, confident that no one would read it save the fishes. Well, both he and the diary made it out of the war intact. In the book on the day Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, he notes that there were rumors of some significant action going on in the Pacific, but no one knew anything more than that. It was chilling, reading those notes; that's history in action. I never got to read the whole diary; my cousin E donated it to the National Museum of American Jewish Military History before I got a chance to read it in its entirety. She also, however, donated photographs and all sorts of other memorabilia. You can see a picture of my uncle in uniform on a camel at the pyramids on the Web site. My cousin's been through all of his records and has recorded some of his stories. According to her, he seems to have had a wonderful time during his service, never any mention of trauma or bad experience. His medals hung, framed, in the TV room, surrounded by family pictures.

It's interesting to me, having grown up in the shadow of the Greatest Generation, how those years just permeated all that followed for my extended family. My brother's ongoing enthusiasm for military ships and aviation can be traced directly to this history. For me, World War II was as distant as the Gulf War is for kids today, and yet it was--and is--constantly present as a matter of pride and honor. Though we didn't understand it in quite that way at the time, we grew up with a sense that our parents had fundamentally changed the world. Now, years later, I do.

ETA: After seeing neutronjockey's post this morning about America's current engagement, I have a new appreciation for how fortunate my family was during its wartime experience. Everyone needs to go see his post and watch the videos there. Everyone.

Comments

[steve98052.livejournal.com]

That's a wonderful memorial statement. I wonder whether I can find pictures and thoughts suitable for a similar memorial of my own.

As for the code-fu, try this:
<br clear="all">

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the note on the entry. Just seemed like it was a thing to do this year.

Thanks also for the tip on the code. Where would it go? At the end of the paragraph?

[steve98052.livejournal.com]

I hate to clutter up your memorial comments with all this code talk, but here goes:

The <br clear="all"> forces a new-line that runs to the end of any pictures that might be on the right or left. For example (repeating readable code after the corresponding actual tags):

<p> <img align="right" src="[URL]">

<p> <img align="right" src="[URL]">
<br clear="all"> <img align="right" src="[URL]">
<br clear="all"> Maybe you'll just want to delete it after you've learned what you could from it, so it doesn't distract from the memorial.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

That did the trick. Thanks!

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

I'm also the daughter, daughter-in-law, niece, etc, of WWII vets - it had a huge and unquantifiable effect on my understanding of the world (not to mention that my mother was a teenager during the occupation of Denmark; I had two uncles in the Resistance).

[dreamline.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing!

[crooked-hill.livejournal.com]

Your father was discharged on my mother's 2nd birthday

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

I just realized that that means she turned 20 the year I was born.