A few years ago my father wrote a memoir of his Navy service in WWII. He had never talked about the war, so I was surprised to see all of his adventures. D-Day, running Yugoslav commandos along the Adriatic coast, supplying Algerian resistance fighters. At one point they were supposed to drop a small group of British commandos behind German lines near Venice, but the Germans were in frantic retreat, and the enemy lines kept receding, so in the end my father's little ship sailed right up to St. Mark’s and dropped a gangplank, and the Brits took over the city. I studied in Italy when I was in college, and I’ve been to Venice a couple of times since then, so it was strange to think of the times I stood right there at St. Marks without knowing about this.

Since reading the memoir, I’m paying closer attention. I was in Paris for a conference a couple of years ago, so I took a train up to the little village on the Normandy coast where my father was stranded just after D-Day. It was very moving, both for me and for the locals that I swapped stories with. I feel very fortunate that my father took the time to record his experiences.

None of my immediate relatives fought in any wars that I know of. My mom (as a girl) collected milkweed pods that they used to make parachutes.

My maternal grandfather was 4F and spent WWII building ships in Oakland. which evenutally killed him, but it took another 40 years or so.

My dad's fsmily was in China under Japanese occupation. They didn't talk abot it much, but what little I have heard sounded pretty hard, especialy when my grandmother was pregnant with my uncle.

Coincidentally, my grandfather worked on the ship that would one day bring my dad and his family to San Francisco. That's my parents claim to destiny.

t random

Anyone heard the song or seen the video for Brad Paisley's new single "Online"? Funny. as. hell. [link]

My brother was sent to the Kosovo thing, stationed in Macedonia. It was pretty much as un-warish an experience you can get when bombs and armies are involved. He pretty much spent all his time either in an air conditioned trailer, flying drones or sitting alone for hours at an ammo depot in the middle of nowhere, trying desperately to stay awake. Or getting himself into ridiculously stupid sticky situations.

An uncle was in the Navy during Vietnam, but I don't know if he ever left the states.

My one Grandfather was a pastor who protested the internment camp from the pulpit and in the papers. He was never called up (or he was and they didn't need chaplains, not sure exactly how that went).

His brother lost hearing in one ear in the Battle of the Bulge, returned home, and became a pastor himself.

My other Grandfather was a pilot and still training in Mississippi when the war ended. He caused a ruckus by giving up his seat to a black woman on a bus.

Buncha damn hippies I tell ya.

I missed the first night of The War. I read that they didn't say a lot about Midway, because people didn't know it was such a pivotal battle at the time. What did they say about Guadalcanal? Guadalcanal was a big deal at the time, as it was the first US counteroffensive against Japan and the whole campaign was so vicious and hung it the balance for so long.

Also, it was probably a bad idea for the US to launch the campaign so early in the war, but for Roosevelt wanted an offensive against Japan before the '42 midterm elections....

My paternal grandfather was a research physician at Harvard (also married, with children) during WWII, and my maternal grandfather spent the war in the Naval Academy (class of '46, which actually graduated in '45, due to the hurry-up-there's-a-war-on plan.) I think he spent some post-war time in the pacific. He was career navy, but mostly in research & engineering (nuclear submarines; the Navy sent him to MIT for graduate work.)

My father joined the navy in 1967 to avoid being drafted into the army, and they taught him Thai in Monterey and sent him to the Philippines to eavesdrop on military communications. He decided this was unethical and waited around working as a base radio dj while they decided what to do about it. Eventually they honorably discharged him, after only about 2 years in. He is very proud of his ability to avoid serving The Man. (Yes, he has authority issues.)

My grandfather on my mother's side couldn't join the army because of flat feet - seriously. But he was a chemical engineer so he spent the war working on developing new types of rubber that could withstand higher heat and friction for military airplane tires.

My grandfather on my father's side I know was in the army at some point in his life, but it occurs to me I have no idea when or where.

My maternal grandfather and his three brothers all served overseas in WWII. I can't imagine how my poor great-grandmother dealt with that mentally. They all came back from the war although the youngest, who was an army paratrooper, was injured so badly that he never was able to work again.

My paternal grandfather wanted to be a pilot but he was colorblind so they didn't let him in. One of his brother's was in the army and met his lovely wife in France. War bride!

One of my uncles was in the navy in Vietnam and my father was drafted into the army although he was stationed the whole time in El Paso. In the hospital there, though, so he certainly saw the effects of the war.