Hi ya'll! I can't believe I missed checking in with you all day yesterday! My mom & step-wonderful-dad from TX came up Thursday afternoon and between spending time with them and trying to get some work done I've been too busy!
I love my stepdad Tom. He is quite a bit older than my mom and just a wonderful person. He grew up in Houston and worked for his dad delivering ice since he was old enough to walk. The day after he graduated high school he went down to the draft office and to war. He was a Navy signalman assigned to Armed Guard duty. The Navy Armed Guard in WWII were the military protection officers on the merchant marine ships - they manned the ship's guns. Tom was on tankers and ammunition ships in the South Pacific.
I wish everyone could hear his WWII stories. He said every morning at Okinawa a Japanese suicide plane would come out of the sun and fly low - at bridge height - between two US ships. The ships couldn't shoot at them for fear of hitting the ship across the way. Tom's station was up on the bridge with the signal lights and flags, and he said he could see the Japanese pilots as clear and close as if they were next to you in traffic - looking straight ahead with no expression on their face.
He told a bunch of other stories of life on the ship, and that when the war was over and they could finally run at night with the ship portholes open and lights on, how very very frightened he was - more scared than he'd been the whole war. He was afraid some enemy sub or plane would attack them, not having heard about the end of the war - or maybe just not caring that the war was over.
We were sitting in Braums, and across from us was a table full of men who looked to be in their 50s or so. I could tell they were listening and enjoying Tom's stories, too. When we were leaving they came over to Tom and thanked him for his service to our country. Made me tear up right there!
Anyway, listening to him really made me thankful again to all our veterans and active military. Thank you so much!!
Okay, I'm off to the Tulsa State Fair to see how our BYC Okies are doing in the Poultry Show - I'm hoping to say hello to Bill and Na-Na and Kendra and TJ!
