Some of My Dad's Old Photos...

 Oct. 26th 1991 was the day my dad passed away. He was 66 years old. Seemed real old at the time. From my perspective now he was gone way to soon with many things left to be done. I'll be posting some old photos of his from World War Two. One of the things he never did was say much about the war.

This is a small section of a panoramic photo of his boot camp unit at Camp Fannin in Tyler Texas. They still give you a photo like this after boot camp. My dad is the third one from the top on the end of the row by the unit colors. I think late summer or fall 1943. 200,000 men trained at camp Fannin in just those few short years 1943-1946 that it was operational. A little internet research indicates that a conservative estimate of causalities for these men based on overall WW2 percentage would be 5000 killed 10,000 wounded.  That estimate is considered conservative because these were all infantry men.  A section of the land this camp was on is now the University of Texas Health Science Center.  

Like I say my Dad never said much about the war. I think this was common because I recently met a man in his 90s who was a WW2 vet. I asked what branch, what his job was, where he was stationed. He answered these questions and said that was more than he had ever told anyone about the war. One thing my Dad did tell me was don't ever join the army. I may not have always followed his advice but I think he knew what he was talking about on this point. 

Without an oral history to go on I have gathered what I could and submitted a request for any records the Army might still have. Many old service records were lost in a fire in 1972. The National Personal Records Center has been very helpful. I will be receiving medals earned by my Dad. One of them is a Bronze Star. This is a nice discovery because even though his memorabilia includes some insignia there is nothing that was actually his. The best reason I can gather is that he wanted to leave these things behind. 

Glad I had my Dad for the short time I did. Hope there were not too many of the guys in the photo left behind with their families having less than I do now. That's my daily prayer. Dear Lord because I have so much, let those with less have more than they do now.