MY ''SAILOR DAD''

We are losing our WW2 vets at over one thousand a day now. These guys are 'aging our'' and we are losing an oral history that can not be replaced. I would give anything if I had recorded some of the ''sea stories'' my dad told me about WW2. Sometimes he would get to talking and get a far away look in his eye and you could see that he was reliving the things he would tell me about. Pop served aboard the Uss. Gunston Hall Lsd 6. He was a MM3 and he was a gunner/coxon/mechanic on the boats that took the Marines ashore in several invasions in the South Pacific. We use to watch ''Victory at Sea'' ..... It was a program of authentic WW2 films about the south Pacific in WW2. Poppa would sit quietly and watch the films and then he would tell me about what he saw and did. One night the program was about Kamakazi pilots attacking ships at Okanawia. Poppa fired a 20 MM machine gun on the ''Hall''..... He told me that he said a little prayer for the pilots he helped shoot down but he still helped send their soul to hell. He said that one of his greatest fears while heading for shore in his Higgins boat was the ''turning bands'' coming off the 12 and 16 in shells going overhead to soften the beach up for the Marines. A ''turning band'' is a bronze ring devise that engages the rifling's on the cannons barrel. Sometimes they would split or simply slip off while the projectile was in flight.
Poppa seen a lot and did a lot during the great war. He was a NAVY MAN and an OLD SALT and I am so proud to be his son. He was kinda' short in stature but I would not even reach his shoe tops or make a good pimple on his butt as a Navy man. I still think of him often.
Seajay the sailor man
God bless our troops and bring them home soon and safe
God bless our vets for their service to this great natio