Veterans Day Weekend
The family went to the dedication of the Dallas County Veterans Memorial Wall in Minburn, Iowa this weekend. My mom arranged transportation for my dad from the nursing home where he is staying.
The ceremony was nice, if too long; if only they hadn't signed that ol' armistice in November! The weather was sunny but windy. Most of the speeches were fairly nice and relevant (even the republican congressperson managed to MOSTLY not campaign), but one fellow who doesn't know how microphones work droned on and one for an interminable amount of time, which means we completely missed the thing that was supposed to have happened at the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day on the 11th month.
After the ceremony, we went to my dad's nursing home and had an early Thanksgiving, with food catered by Hyvee, pies made by my mom, and dad's reminiscences about his time in the Navy.
Which I will attempt to recap as follows.
THAT TIME HE WAS IN GUANTANAMO BABY FOR SOME REASON
It had been a nice day, the doors of the ship were open, and a rogue wave washed over and fried the electric systems. A tugboat pulled his ship to the nearest port, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and waited for repairmen. This process took a few months.
"What did you do while you were off the ship?"
"Played a lot of football."
HOW DID YOU DECIDE TO JOIN THE NAVY?
The timeline here I'm not sure of, but it had to do with someone recruiting him, being in the reserves during college, and then going to officer training school. At one point a military leader called him and asked him if he wanted to fly a plane; he told the person that he had some vision problems because he was struck in the head with a baseball bat as a kid, a story I had never heard before.
Aside: the city of Newport News, or was it Providence, Rhode Island, was very accommodating to the Navy--they knew that they made money when the Navy was in town. Meanwhile, the town of Norfolk, Virginia, was hostile to the Navy, putting up signs that said "Dogs and sailors keep off the grass."
THAT TIME THEY SAILED INTO A HURRICANE
The navy has very good weather-p predicting equipment, and there was a hurricane warning. The captain decided to sail into the hurricane anyway. Thousands of dollars of damage were done to the ship. Shortly thereafter a marine helicopter landed with an admiral on board; when that helicopter left, it took with it the newly decommissioned captain who had made that poor choice.
Aside: My dad would disparagingly claim they used Marines for "target practice." I realized I should explain to my children that MOST people think the Marines are a very elite part of the military, and this is grandpa being grandpa. (He also would often refer to the navy as "Uncle Sam's Canoe Club")
WOULD HE HAVE STAYED IN THE NAVY IF THERE WEREN'T A WAR GOING ON
"Hard to say." He would have stayed in if he could have been stationed on the U.S.S. Iowa, but the ship that had positions for 3,000 men had at least 10,000 men interested.
The ceremony was nice, if too long; if only they hadn't signed that ol' armistice in November! The weather was sunny but windy. Most of the speeches were fairly nice and relevant (even the republican congressperson managed to MOSTLY not campaign), but one fellow who doesn't know how microphones work droned on and one for an interminable amount of time, which means we completely missed the thing that was supposed to have happened at the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day on the 11th month.
After the ceremony, we went to my dad's nursing home and had an early Thanksgiving, with food catered by Hyvee, pies made by my mom, and dad's reminiscences about his time in the Navy.
Which I will attempt to recap as follows.
THAT TIME HE WAS IN GUANTANAMO BABY FOR SOME REASON
It had been a nice day, the doors of the ship were open, and a rogue wave washed over and fried the electric systems. A tugboat pulled his ship to the nearest port, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and waited for repairmen. This process took a few months.
"What did you do while you were off the ship?"
"Played a lot of football."
HOW DID YOU DECIDE TO JOIN THE NAVY?
The timeline here I'm not sure of, but it had to do with someone recruiting him, being in the reserves during college, and then going to officer training school. At one point a military leader called him and asked him if he wanted to fly a plane; he told the person that he had some vision problems because he was struck in the head with a baseball bat as a kid, a story I had never heard before.
Aside: the city of Newport News, or was it Providence, Rhode Island, was very accommodating to the Navy--they knew that they made money when the Navy was in town. Meanwhile, the town of Norfolk, Virginia, was hostile to the Navy, putting up signs that said "Dogs and sailors keep off the grass."
THAT TIME THEY SAILED INTO A HURRICANE
The navy has very good weather-p predicting equipment, and there was a hurricane warning. The captain decided to sail into the hurricane anyway. Thousands of dollars of damage were done to the ship. Shortly thereafter a marine helicopter landed with an admiral on board; when that helicopter left, it took with it the newly decommissioned captain who had made that poor choice.
Aside: My dad would disparagingly claim they used Marines for "target practice." I realized I should explain to my children that MOST people think the Marines are a very elite part of the military, and this is grandpa being grandpa. (He also would often refer to the navy as "Uncle Sam's Canoe Club")
WOULD HE HAVE STAYED IN THE NAVY IF THERE WEREN'T A WAR GOING ON
"Hard to say." He would have stayed in if he could have been stationed on the U.S.S. Iowa, but the ship that had positions for 3,000 men had at least 10,000 men interested.