.455_Hunter
Member
Thirty years ago today in 1986, my Grandfather passed away at the age of 91. A member of the now extinct "Lost Generation", he was born in Illinois in 1895, and came of age as America was thrust upon the world stage. He was one-quarter Mongolian, giving him a unique appearance and who's darker skin and brown eye characteristics can still be seen in my own kids. As a child, he contracted rheumatic fever, and was so ill that the doctor told his Mom to "just go to bed" and prepare for the coming morning's unpleasant ritual. Fortunately, his father did not follow the guidance, and just held him tight all night until the fever subsided. In high school, he worked with his science teacher to string-up wires in the barn and connect them to something called a crystal and a speaker to hear voices coming from afar- let just say his Mom and Dad were not sure he should be hanging around that guy anymore.
He was a bit older and wiser when at 23 when he joined the Army to fight the Kaiser in the Great War. His four other brother joined the Marines. By the grace of God, they all survived, but two were seriously wounded- one by machine gun fire, and one by exposure to mustard gas. My Grandfather quickly rose to the rank of Corporal, and served in the AEF as a Vickers gunner, as Brownings were in short supply. He often told the story of how the British training NCO taught the crew to disassemble and reassemble the gun in pitch black darkness, and how to interlace fields of fire so "a little puppy dog could not get through". He participated in all of the major actions, but never once spoke of actual combat. After the Armistice, he served in the occupation forces, and even acquired recently surplused German MP18 9mm submachine guns to guard soldiers payroll shipments. I have his sword he used in funeral details as one of my most prized possessions.
In the interwar period, he married, but lost his wife in child birth and his son suffered brain damage. He later remarried, and my Mom and Aunt were born as identical twins in the heart of the Depression. He earned his Commission in the Army Reserves, rising to the rank of Infantry 1LT, and taught pistol marksmanship to ROTC cadets at the University of Illinois. If a cadet was demonstrating good skills, he would ditch the 1911 and use his M1917 Colt New Service to show what a real gun can do. He also worked with the county clerk supporting elections, and said they withheld reporting their results until AFTER Cook County reported to avoid any shenanigans- funny how things don't change.
As World War II started, he was a high school principal and science teacher. Since he was an Officer, held the equivalent of a security clearance, and had a science background, he was approached about being a night supervisor at a local facility contributing to the war effort. The facility was doing plating of tubing with specialty metals. Only later did he learn the tubing was being sent to Oak Ridge National Laboratory to be installed in uranium concentration equipment as part of the Manhattan Project. As the war continued, he joined the Red Cross and was shipped off to the Pacific Theater, deploying for the Okinawa Campaign at the age of 50. As fate would have it, he was on the first Red Cross team sent into Nagasaki, being one of very few people to have worked on developing the atomic bomb and seeing its effects first hand. My Aunt still has the beautiful rice bowl that is flash burned on 50% of its surface. Like his combat experiences, he never spoke of the horrors he saw in the aftermath. The joke in the family is that any tumors he had at the time were "treated" by his radiation exposure, especially since he was cancer free until his death.
In the mid-1950's, he relocated with his family to Denver, and worked tirelessly as an administrator at a school for the blind and enjoying his children, then grandchildren. As old age began to close in the 1980's, he sought treatment with the VA, who expressed extreme concern about his irregular heartbeat. My Grandfather just laughed, telling them to look in his enlistment records from 1917, where the same condition, a result of the rheumatic fever, was noted. If it had not bothered him in 75+ years of life, he sure was not going to worry about it now.
Thank you for letting me tell you about a Great American!
Hunter
He was a bit older and wiser when at 23 when he joined the Army to fight the Kaiser in the Great War. His four other brother joined the Marines. By the grace of God, they all survived, but two were seriously wounded- one by machine gun fire, and one by exposure to mustard gas. My Grandfather quickly rose to the rank of Corporal, and served in the AEF as a Vickers gunner, as Brownings were in short supply. He often told the story of how the British training NCO taught the crew to disassemble and reassemble the gun in pitch black darkness, and how to interlace fields of fire so "a little puppy dog could not get through". He participated in all of the major actions, but never once spoke of actual combat. After the Armistice, he served in the occupation forces, and even acquired recently surplused German MP18 9mm submachine guns to guard soldiers payroll shipments. I have his sword he used in funeral details as one of my most prized possessions.
In the interwar period, he married, but lost his wife in child birth and his son suffered brain damage. He later remarried, and my Mom and Aunt were born as identical twins in the heart of the Depression. He earned his Commission in the Army Reserves, rising to the rank of Infantry 1LT, and taught pistol marksmanship to ROTC cadets at the University of Illinois. If a cadet was demonstrating good skills, he would ditch the 1911 and use his M1917 Colt New Service to show what a real gun can do. He also worked with the county clerk supporting elections, and said they withheld reporting their results until AFTER Cook County reported to avoid any shenanigans- funny how things don't change.
As World War II started, he was a high school principal and science teacher. Since he was an Officer, held the equivalent of a security clearance, and had a science background, he was approached about being a night supervisor at a local facility contributing to the war effort. The facility was doing plating of tubing with specialty metals. Only later did he learn the tubing was being sent to Oak Ridge National Laboratory to be installed in uranium concentration equipment as part of the Manhattan Project. As the war continued, he joined the Red Cross and was shipped off to the Pacific Theater, deploying for the Okinawa Campaign at the age of 50. As fate would have it, he was on the first Red Cross team sent into Nagasaki, being one of very few people to have worked on developing the atomic bomb and seeing its effects first hand. My Aunt still has the beautiful rice bowl that is flash burned on 50% of its surface. Like his combat experiences, he never spoke of the horrors he saw in the aftermath. The joke in the family is that any tumors he had at the time were "treated" by his radiation exposure, especially since he was cancer free until his death.
In the mid-1950's, he relocated with his family to Denver, and worked tirelessly as an administrator at a school for the blind and enjoying his children, then grandchildren. As old age began to close in the 1980's, he sought treatment with the VA, who expressed extreme concern about his irregular heartbeat. My Grandfather just laughed, telling them to look in his enlistment records from 1917, where the same condition, a result of the rheumatic fever, was noted. If it had not bothered him in 75+ years of life, he sure was not going to worry about it now.
Thank you for letting me tell you about a Great American!
Hunter
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