My Father's WW11 service

[M7bayonet]

I bring this up now because my son came home from school yesterday and said his class was doing a project on ocean survival stories. It hit home with me because I remember sitting by my fathers side while he was dying and listened intently to the stories he told of his war years in the Merchant Marines, something he had never discussed before. He told me how he had ran away from home at the age of 14 and joined the Merchant Marines in 1940. He was on oil tankers in the Atlantic and recalled how about a week after the D-Day invasion his ship was off the Normandy beachhead delivering oil. He recalled seeing a dogfight with German fighters and seeing the Germans shot down by P-51 Mustangs.

 

In either November or December of 1944 he was on an oil tanker in the Pacific near the Phillipines when his ship was hit by two Japanese torpedoes and exploded and caught fire. I remember how he described being blown off the deck into the water with alot of the crew. He described how the oil on the water was ablaze and as they tried to swim away from the ship they would have to swim underwater and when they came up for air they had to first splash the surface with their hands so the burning oil wouldn't coat the hair and head and burn them. He was very emotional as he told this part of his story and I could tell he still felt the horror he must have felt all those years ago. He told me how his best friend Frank had also made it into the water but didn't make it past the burning oil. Dad said he was in the water for two days and two nights before getting picked up by a Navy Destroyer. As he told this story I remembered back to when I was much younger and remember him screaming in his sleep and moving his hands wildly above his head. Hearing his story for the first time made me understand the torment he lived with and kept to himself.

 

On a lighter note of his service, in 1945 after V-J Day, he got out of the Merchant Marines in the Philippines and attempted to join the US Army. He said all the soldiers were in tents and just waiting to be sent home. He went to the HQs and told the 1st Sgt he wanted to join the Army. He said the 1st Sgt was confused because he had soldiers all trying to get home and here he had a 19 year old wanting to join. My Dad was told that there was nothing in place for him to enlist but that the 1st Sgt would see what he could do to accommodate my Father's request. Dad was given a couple used uniforms to wear, bunk to sleep in, and was allowed to eat with the soldiers while the Sgt figured out what to do with him. Dad had his muster out pay from the Merchant Marines and would go to a near by town almost every night and get drunk.

 

One morning he said he was woke up at 4AM and told he had KP duty. He said they must be mistaken because he wasn't in the Army and went back to sleep. He told me they attempted to get him up several more times and each time he went back to sleep. The last time he was woken up it was by the 1st Sgt, and he was fit to be tied. Dad said the 1st Sgt yelled at him telling him you wear our clothes, eat our food and sleep on our bunk and won't do KP? Dad's reply was simply I am not in the Army. He said with that the 1st Sgt had two MPs escort him to the COs office and he was officially sworn into the US Army. My dear old Dad said that until he finally got shipped out the 1st Sgt had him on KP every day. That's my Dad!!!!

 

The final note is Dad finally got shipped back to the states with a stop in Hawaii. In Hawaii they picked up more enlistees for the Army. Once stateside Dad and the other enlistees were sent to Ft. Dix NJ by train. Once again my Dad complained....he said I joined the Army in the Philippines to see the world and they shipped me to Ft.Dix NJ for bootcamp, 40 miles from my hometown!!! He eventually served in Berlin during the occupation and did a year as a guard at Spandau Prison with the major nazi war criminals seeing all of them. I would say my Father did alot....or at least saw and was apart of alot of history.

 

Sad note: My Father named his first son Frank in honor of his best friend which died after their ship was sunk. His son Frank was drafted in 1968, became a LRRP with K Company 75th Rangers 4th Infantry Division and was KIA ON 8 July 1969. Dad never fully recovered from that loss.....and we all felt his anquish and pain.

[BagmanL6]

Semper Fi

[Jay Seay]

Thanks to your Dad for his service, and to his son Frank.

Also thanks to you for sharing.

[1563621]

Thank You for sharing, And to your Dad and Brother for their sacrifice to our Country.