Monday, May 14, 2018

Training And Fighting

MY FATHER, who was born in 1918, graduated from law school in 1940, precociously, and had barely begun entering into practice with my grandfather when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Hoping to avoid military service, he sought employment with the FBI, but the Bureau saw through the scam, and directed him to the nearest navel recruiting station. He did basic training in Livermore, CA, and enlisted in the aviation corps. he swore that he learned to fly using a Stearman bi-plane, and that bombing practice consisted of dropping sacks of flour on African-American regiments drilling in teh desert below. While stationed at the U.S. navel base in panama, hew was flying over the Caribbean one day, training another sailor in flying. suddenly he felt a jolt, and looked out at the wing, which had a smoking hole in it. In the water below sat flat black U Boat. The trainee urged that they attack the sub and engage it in combat, but my father, a lieutenant junior grade, pointed out that the plane was equipped with an automatic .22 caliber gun on each wing, sufficient only to put very small dents in a submarine. As cockpit scuffle ensued, during which the trainee sustained a bloody nose. My father swore that the young man put i for a purple heart, and received it. to this day I believe every word of it. Hence the term "military intelligence."...My mother, at the time of pearl harbor, was a twenty one year one nursing graduate, and she was determined to enlist. My father, who was at the time engaged to her, forbade it, saying that nurses were needed on the home front to keep the country healthy enough to fight and die for. To this day I wonder which of my parents is the greater hero. Its a toss up.

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