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

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.