This is the Man Who Raised me

(Badwater Bill)
shared these priceless pearls of wisdom:

Bill, my condolences.

Your father passed on what would have been my dad's 94th birthday. My dad left
us in '98. He was too old to be drafted into WWII, but in those days, the
Marines would take anybody that was breathing. He was "privileged" to have
volunteered and fought at Guadalcanal and Okinawa as a 35 year old "old fart".
My mother was LIVID that he would have signed up after getting the oldfart's
deferment, but in her later years would confess that being a latent warbride was
very pleasing in that she had a hero coming back home.

Old fart had three kids during the war, me being serial #1. How he managed to
get back home during "that part of the month" for Mom and my two brothers was a
stroke (you should pardon the expression) of luck at being reassigned after
battle to teaching island combat techniques to the new recruits. That happened.
The military hospitals were FULL of us brats born to ... heroes.

That's the word. Heroes. In his later days, dad had a stroke. It may have had
something to do with his earlier career as a professional boxer (google on Kid
Gavilan out of St. Louis) or it may have had to do with his war wounds. It
matters not. I put him to bed many a night when he was crying (this is a former
Marine, mind you) about those "poor boys" being killed on the beaches.

As a young kid he taught me how to box. As an adolescent, he taught me the
truths of life. In my later years, he is still teaching me the values that he
revered.

Bill, we had the same kind of daddy. God bless you and yours. We honor our
heros. Your daddy is in my memorial wall.

Bless and keep you.

Jim

Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup)
VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor
http://www.rst-engr.com