My father Grady, never spoke much about the War, when he did, it was brief. I could see in his eyes that it effected him much deeper than the fragmentation wounds in his neck. I learned more after he passed; I found his family albums where many of the letters and pictures from his time in WWII were compiled.

Like many Veterans, he didn't speak of the 'glories of war', he spoke sparingly with just enough details to prick my curiosity . He was with the Navy's Construction Battalion (SeaBees) in the Pacific theater. Originally stationed on Adak Island in the Aleutians, building runways for B-17s and other fighter aircraft, it was a long way from Midland, Texas for that boy. Dad said that he had never been so cold as he had been on Adak. It was windy all the time and would rain, then it would freeze, then the planes would try to land but crash from the deep mud and ice.

While in the Aleutians, their crew was visited by a photographer from LIFE Magazine. You can still see some of the pictures online.

Later they cleared the jungle to build runways on PeleliuGuam, and Tinian among others, for our B-29s to reach Japan.

When I was a little boy, I asked him if he fought any 'Japs', he said, 'Yeah, like this...' where he would pretend to run one way then turn and fire over his shoulder in a comical presentation. Dad did fight and the action was pretty heavy. A mortar killed a group of his friends standing just behind him during an attack on the airfield. He was left alive, covered with what was left of them. Later a Japanese grenade went off in his foxhole, sending fragments into his neck, effectively taking him out of action for a few weeks.

He served with distinction and was honorably discharged from the Navy and then returned home to Texas.

If you have an older veteran in your family, don't let their stories pass with them. Record them for posterity and your family's history, for it is priceless.

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