Sunday, June 08, 2014

Happy Late Birthdays...

I been out of town. Doing research if you must know. My business made me miss some birthday blog posts. I'll catch up now. Happy birthday to my daughter Katherine, June 6th and my dad, June 7th who would have been 89 if he were still with us. I have not got all involved with the throw back thing that seems to be popular on the internet but I may so here's a couple of old photos. 

Here's the artist formerly known as Katie in her marching band days. That's the Junior high band andv it must have been mid 90s. I think this was made during a parade at the Gilmer Yamboree which is a top venue for the display of junior high marching talent. After at the fair you get to eat sweet potatoes cooked every which way you imagine and then also get to take sacks full of the succulent red dirt grown tuber roots home. All this makes the greatest junior high bus trip. In the photo it's easy to seen the seriousness with which Katie approaches the pending performance and the expected fun. No gig written about is complete without detailing the gear used. The sax was a vintage horn used by originally by Cathy's uncle Bill, then Cathy and last but not least Katie. It soon wore to a non repairable point and we bought a good used sax. I think the old horn reverted to Uncle Bill's ownership and I sold the other horn to another band student and it was well used. Sorry bought selling that horn. I usually never sell gear but I did this time. 

June 7th was my dad's birthday. The notable thing that happened to him this day was that in 1944 he landed on Normandy beach, the second day of the invasion as a replacement troop. If you know your WW2 history the army in Europe kept a pool of unassigned troops and as causalities mounted they simply plugged these troops into the units where they were needed. This system has it's pros and cons but the war was won and my dad made it through. This photo was probably
                                              made shortly after boot camp graduation in 1943. 

As I have detailed on these pages I did a little research on my dad. I got his medals, including the bronze star with a cluster from the veterans department. I found an online spread sheet where someone had put in all the morning reports of May through December 1944 for the 29th infantry division. His name is mentioned three times so we know what he was doing three days in June/July 1944. On June 19th he reported for duty to Company F of the 116th regiment of the 29th infantry division. A little research shows this was the division that pioneered the tactics and equipment for a tank to punch through the hedgerows. On July 29th he is recorded as MIA reporting to hospital as non battle causality. WW2 research shows that anyone who made it through the month of June in Normandy was doing something right. The report from July 30th shows dropped from rolls as non battle causality. I know my dad was discharged from a military police unit in 1946. I don't know what the non battle injury was but family stories report a good bit of drunkenness and fighting on his return home. It's possible this is what they called post tramatic stress in WW2. 

Happy birthday Katherine and dad. Thanks for the memories.  



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