My father was in the Navy. He was on one of the small landing craft that ferried marines to Iwo Jima.

[3Hotdogs]

He never talked about it.

Before he was in the Navy, he was in the U.S.Army, stationed in Pearl Harbor until 1937. He would talk about that. Those were kind of good times --- on the beach, listening to the Hawaiian slack, steel guitars while sitting on the sand. Much of his life was shit until he met my mother. - orphaned at the age of 14. He got in the army because he was in trouble and the judge gave him the choice of county or army. He chose army.

He talked about Hawaii and the army. How he and his buds would get drunk and start fights with the sailers. That's how he landed in the brig for 30 days. But that was good, too, He watched out the window of the jail, seeing the soldiers outside in the Sun, mowing the lawn. He was inside, in the shade.

The Hawaiian "girls" were charging $5.00 for a "date." He would talk about that. He would talk about Hawaii. He couldn't wait to save up the monty to take my mom to see Hawaii. When he got there, it wasn't how he remembered it. It wasn't good.

But Iwo Jima. December 7th, he knew he would be called back and he hated the army so he joined the navy, There's a picture of him with a "Mohawk" kind of hair cut that the sailers got when they crossed the equator. But he didn't even talk about that.

About 10 years ago, I saw Clint Eastwood's "Letters From Iwo Jima." There was about 20 seconds of Japanese footage that showed about 50 boats heading to shore on Iwo and there were splashes on the water - all over the water, as the island defenders were trying to sink those boats as they headed to shore.

Then came the Iwo Jima memorial in D.C. Veterans were invited to the unveiling. My mother said it was the only time she saw him cry.

I miss him.

[Deuxcents]

1. A beautiful memory of your father. Our fathers were members of the Greatest Generation

My father was a Marine in the Pacific Theater, as I remember it called. I don’t know where in the Pacific but when he joined, he lied about his age to get in and was injured in his foot but stayed where he was at the time. He didn’t talk much about his experience to me but I think he did to his sons. He had problems from his injury his whole life but still walked tall and never complained . He was a career military man and after retiring from the Marines, he joined the Air Force and that took him all over the world. They don’t make them like our fathers who answered the call to allow us to have what we got to benefit from. Thank you for sharing your beautiful tribute to your father..got me thinking about my father even more tonight 💐

[sheshe2]

2. I am so sorry for your loss, 3Hotdogs.

[LoisB]

3. Much honor to your Dad.

[KitFox]

4. Appreciate you sharing the poignant memories of your dad. My dad was a battlefield medic in the Battle of the Bulge

and his unit helped liberate Buchenwald Concentration Camp. He didn’t talk about much of it either. He told us about the resistance Belgian villagers that helped them, about what the ship voyage was like to and from, that his outfit got passes to go to Salzburg after VE Day, but nothing of the horrors he had to have experienced. He and several men from his unit stayed in touch every year for the rest of their lives. Peace and all good to you 3Hotdogs. Be well.

[Straw Man]

5. That's a beautiful tribute.

My dad was in the Army. He was a farm-boy, so they made him an infantry scout, crawling around in the woods of France and Belgium after D-Day. He never talked about that much either except to say that it "wasn't like the movies."

He came home with a Purple Heart and a so-called "100% disability," which in his case meant a missing finger and shrapnel in his back that they said couldn't be removed because it was too close to his spine. None of that slowed him down at all. He got married, raised a family, used the GI Bill to get a PhD from an Ivy League university, and became a marathon runner.

The cliché is that "they don't make 'em like that anymore." I know that can't be true. I know they're out there, but there just don't seem to be as many of them.

[Grumpy Old Guy]

6. My 6th grade teacher hit the beach at Iwo Jima.

He was in the fourth wave to hit the beach. He might have been on your father's landing craft.

[calimary]

7. My dad flew photo-reconnaissance in WW2.

He never did talk about it, except for one observation that left my jaw on the floor. He said what he was proudest of was that, as he put it, “I’ve never raised a gun against my fellow man.”

I was NOT prepared to hear him say those words OR express such a thought. Shit - he’s long gone by now, and I STILL remember that moment. I saw him in a whole new light, as of that moment. Never expected him to be that deep.