Dad is still alive
My Dad is 90 and he's still alive. But then he's my hero, so I'm not waiting till he dies to post about him.
He raised 5 boys, all successful, happy relatively normal people. No criminal records worthy of note, no bad people, no creeps. Just 5 normal kids.
He was married for 45 years to the same fine woman.
He worked for the same company (he was a milkman) for 25 years.
He never had an accident or a traffic ticket. he doesn't drive now.
He never had a new car until his 75th birthday, when we ganged up and bought him one.
He was 17 when WWII happened, and joined as soon as he could. His two brothers joined as well, one was a B-17 pilot and died over France. The other was a pilot in the Pacific, and died in a freak air accident just after returning from a deployment.
My dad was a machinist mate on an LST; officially known as Landing Ship Tank, but known by all who sailed in them as Large Slow moving Target.
When his second brother died he was in the Pacific, and of course as the last male of the family they yanked him home.
In 2004 this guy calls my dad, and wants to know if he was so n so who served on LST 467. My Dad says yep. The guy says, do you know where your ship is? My dad says, uh, scrap? The guy says nope, it's down here in the Virgin Islands. In 90' of water.
As it turns out the guy was former British Special Forces, and had bought a dive shop after he retired. The locals kept telling him the old wreck he liked to dive on was just an old freighter, but having never seen a freighter with gun tubs, he thought not. He did some research (a story in itself) and eventually figured out that old wreck was indeed 467.
Well, since Dad's 5 sons are all divers, and we try to do a family vacation every year or so, that's all it took. What with wives, girlfriends, kids and what not, 22 of us headed down to St. Thomas to see our dad's old ship.
The dive guy did us right. He knew a video guy who worked for the History channel, and he knew the skipper of the tourist submarine that was based out of St. Thomas. And, he knew the local news reporters.
We were there 5 days and dove on the old ship almost every day. One day they even got permission and took the tourist sub out to the site, so my Dad and a shipmate could see the wreck. And the video guys filmed all of it. Maybe, they said we could make a History channel documentary. That never happened, but we have some amazing footage.
Anyway, it was pretty amazing, to stand on the deck of my dad's old warship. And for the first time my dad talked about the war. He really is my hero. It's a miracle that he survived to have kids. Really.
The dive shop guy brought up the engine telegraph from the engine room, cleaned it up, and presented it to my dad. We all cried.
After the sub came back from the site the news reporters were there to interview my Dad and his shipmate. This nice lady reporter said to my dad
"So, did you recognize your old ship after all these years?"
My dad says
"Aw hell, ships are like women. You can change their hair and change their dress, but as soon as you see them from the back, you know em every time"
They printed it, and put it on the 9 O'clock news.
And my Dad became an instant celebrity down there. It seems PC hasn't quite reached the Caribbean.
