Connie's Corner

Must be good karma...

I finished my current transcription today and what a life this guy has had, After being in D-Day, Leyte Gulf in the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, he went to Japan as part of the occupation troops in Iwakura and Nagoya, very devastated areas. Then he went to two different places in China, Tianjin on the Haihe River and Jinghai, to give assistance (yes, they were on our side ) with a side stop in Korea. Finally, he came back to the States to Mare Island off San Francisco, then flew with twelve others in a DC-3 to Lido Beach, all the time thinking he would get bumped off by someone with a higher priority. Luckily he made it and was discharged in the spring of 1946. He joined the Navy in the spring of 1943. He was seventeen then. His eighteenth birthday was celebrated in the Navy the following December.

Soon after his discharge, he married, became one of those air-conditioning guys we all hate to call, and raised three children, but here is where it gets interesting again. After almost thirty years of marriage, he and his wife divorced, and for the next twenty-five years, he sailed around in his boat. Yes, twenty-five years, can you believe it? He picked up odd jobs when he ran out of money, did a little chartering and boat repair, and got into a terrible storm in the Bermuda Triangle bringing back a boat from Nassau for repair. But this is one lucky guy! All the places he went in the service and through all the action he saw, he was never injured...and then, he made it through the Bermuda Triangle in a storm. Wow! And now, he is eighty-seven and finally telling his story. I feel very privileged to have transcribed it.

until next time...c