240613 Service Rendered

This picture is my dad when he was first drafted into WW-2.

This is the second of four posts in this series. This one's about my Father and my uncle Kenny’s service in WW-2. The next two are about my Father in law’s service in the war.

My Father and my uncle Kenny both served in WW-2. My dad was drafted into the army. He went to artillery training in Colorado. He and mom were married at the time. Mom made a visit there to see dad before his training there was over. She had lost her and dad’s first born son at birth and her goal was to conceive another baby to be with her while dad was off to war in Germany. That son was me. Dad was shipped out to England on the Queen Mary, a fast British luxury liner that normally hauled rich Americans to visit England and wealthy British to America until WW-2 broke out. The Queen Mary became a fast troop carrier at that point and dad’s regiment left the U.S. on the Queen Mary. Dad went from there to join General Patton’s 3rd. army.

This picture is my dad in Germany.

My dad never told me about his service in Germany. He never spoke a word about the war, despite my asking him what he did. What I wrote above was related to me by my grandfather. Many WW-2 vets wouldn’t talk about their service until they became old men and wanted their children and grandchildren to know what they experienced. The vets wanted to preserve what happened overseas in the war for those they thought should know.

My uncle Kenny enlisted in the Marine Corps right after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He was graduating Marine Corps training when he heard about the Marine raider battalion. He immediately went to sign up for that. He was selected to join Carlson’s Raiders. The raider battalion was assigned to sneak into Japanese held islands, gain any intelligence available and before they left, leave a calling card. The calling card was sneaking up on Japanese soldiers and slitting their throats. They did that, not to all, but just enough to put some fear into those left behind.

That is factual and can easily be checked. There was a hollywood movie made about the raiders with Randolf Scott. I watched it and as I said, it was a movie and totally different from the real events.

This is my dad on the right and uncle Kenny on the left. It's the only picture of Kenny that I know of and I'm not sure when the picture was taken. My guess is around 1974.

My dad and my uncle never spoke about the war. Uncle Kenny was an alcoholic, but I loved him. He worked 2 days a week to cover the cost of his drinking and the rest of the week he drank and he often showed up at our home in the afternoon. He spent a lot of time with me in those days. He would sit on the floor singing drinking songs or just talk to me. He had 2 daughters, but no sons. I was a surrogate son to him. If he wasn’t singing or talking, he would do a handstand and move about the room in perfect form. He had been an outstanding gymnast in high school. Sometimes he would gather up all the kids in the neighborhood; pile us in his car and take us all for ice cream. One time and only once he was very drunk and didn’t have much control; he looked at me and asked if I ever slit another man’s throat? I was maybe 6 years old at the time. The fact that he did that to Japanese soldiers many times haunted him forever.