For My Father on Memorial Day
During the Second World War, Theodore Herbert Robinson spent some three years as a boiler tender on the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Roger B. Taney, pictured above. He would spend hours at a time in the boiler room, where he regulated the oil that was piped into the boilers to keep them burning and the superheated steam that was piped out of the boilers to power the ship's engines. Deep in the ship, next to the boilers. That would have been a bad location if a torpedo or kamikaze had ever hit--and during the Battle of Okinawa, I learned when I did some research, the Taney came under repeated attack by kamikazes, sounding general quarters 119 times in just 45 days. In my father's place, I'd have spent every moment frightened of finding myself scalded or trapped. As it turned out, that would have been the wrong fear. The pipes in the boiler room were wrapped with asbestos, and the vibrations from the ship's engines, which were located in an adjoining compartment, kept the air in the boiler room swimming with asbestos particles. Thirty years after the war, my father lost part of a lung to asbestosis. A decade-and-a-half later he died, of conditions exacerbated by asbestosis, becoming, in effect, a delayed casualty of the War.
He never complained about his service--for that matter, he scarcely mentioned it, even when, once or twice over the years, I tried to get him talking about it. As he saw it, he had simply done what he had to do, just like millions of young American men like him. In one sense, I suppose, he was right about that--during the Second World War, heroism became almost commonplace. Yet on this Memorial Day, six-and-a-half decades after a young man from Johnson City, N.Y. found himself belowdecks thousands of miles from home, my father has two sons and seven grandchildren who are in awe of him.
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May '10
Re: For My Father on Memorial Day
Bless you and your father!
May '10
Re: For My Father on Memorial Day
Peter: Today is the birthday of my 88 yr old neighbor who also was in the battle for Okinawa, as a Marine. He spent the following 40 yrs spiking up and down utility poles. His body is tired and bent, but he has a picture in his living room of himself and a couple fellow Marines, shirtless and in their prime. Tough guys in a way that I and my buddies are not. Last night I helped him hang a Marine Corps banner on his front porch. Happy birthday, Mike Giordano. Happy Memorial Day.
May '10
Re: For My Father on Memorial Day
My father, Sherman Frank, served on an LST (Landing Ship Tender) in the Pacific, commanding a small group of landing craft, the ones you can see in the HBO series depositing Marines on the beaches of Pacific islands. In the latter years of his life, as I came to understand what he and his generation did for us, I called him every Memorial Day to express my thanks for his sacrifice.
Since my Dad's death three years ago, I have not had the opportunity to express my gratitude to him. But for anyone reading this who has served or is now serving our country in its wars, please accept my heartfelt thanks. And many thanks to your father as well, Peter, and to all of the courageous men who are no longer with us.
May '10
Re: For My Father on Memorial Day
Thought Ricochet might appreciate a picture of the tough-old-Marine-nextdoor, mentioned above. Happy Birthday, Mr. G, and happy Memorial Day, America
May '10
Re: For My Father on Memorial Day
My father fought on the other side of the world in the Battle of the Bulge. But he has been as quiet about the experiences as your Dad has apparently been. He shared a little when I spent time in uniform, but not much. As the motto goes, "Uncommon valor was a common virtue."
Aug '10
Re: For My Father on Memorial Day
Your father, and the other men mentioned in the Comments, demonstrated the simple reality that every life can be a fascinating and awe-inspiring story; life is--in fact--nothing other than one great opportunity to act heroically.