Most American families have a link to World War II, even after 80 years. With 16 million citizens who served from 1941 to 1945, we all knew about someone who was in uniform. Grandfathers and grandmothers, grand uncles and aunts, fathers and mothers, uncles, aunts, cousins or friends of the family. The remaining veterans of that war are very old now, mostly in their late nineties or even 100 years old. My father, a naval veteran, died six years ago and would have been 99 this November. I never really wondered about my families’ experiences in WW II until I was much older, when I started inquiring among my uncles and aunts. I didn’t even know of my father’s naval service until I was well over 20 myself. It seems like there was some sort of personal choice for everyone not to talk about it.

My father, Bernard, was drafted after he graduated from high school in June, 1944, a few weeks after the D-Day landings were taking place in Normandy, France. 1.5 million Americans were drafted or joined the military in 1944, a large percentage of them were high school graduates. He trained in various capacities, aviation ordnance, airborne radar and aerial gunnery for Navy TBM torpedo bombers. The TBM Avenger carried a crew of three and either a torpedo, bombs or depth charges in its bomb bay. After his training was completed, he remained on the East Coast, waiting for transfer to the Pacific until the war ended in August, 1945. He served until July, 1946.

My father’s older brother Samuel was in the military police in Europe. Of two uncles on my mother’s side, my uncle Francis was in the Army during the North African campaign in 1943 and my uncle George landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day. Of that, he only said it was the biggest mess he had ever seen. My father-in-law, Lynn, was badly wounded in France a month before the Battle of the Bulge. My mother Janet, and her sister worked as a secretaries for the Navy Department in Washington DC and two of my father’s sisters worked in various war industries. As you may have noticed, I am somewhat old to have parents who served during the war, but eventually I will be gone and all of the direct family connections to the war will be half-remembered or lost.

(Below, my father, Bernard, as a Navy Seaman 1st Class, TBM Avengers lined up and the USS Bennington, CV-20, an Essex Class aircraft carrier. I am still trying to find out about his association with that ship since it is clearly marked on his service record.)