Archive for September, 2008

The Red Phone Between Churchill and Eisenhower

Monday, September 29th, 2008

Jean grew up in West Kirby, west of Liverpool in England. In 1939, she joined the auxiliary of the RAF (Royal Air Force). Her first assignment was to the 8th Air Force base at Sealand, near Chester, England. She was in radar and telephone operations there for about a year ...

A Pilot Achieves Her Dream

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

In February of 1943, Kay was teaching in Bucks County, Pennsylvania when the Marine Corps Women Reserves was formed. She thought she would like to be a Marine, so she joined. Her boot camp training was at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. From there she was assigned to attend a Link ...

A Marine Named Toby

Monday, September 22nd, 2008

During World War II Joel had two members of his family in World War II. His father was in the Merchant Marines and his dog was in the Marines. His dad was an oiler on a tanker. While unloading fuel in North Africa, the ship was struck by a torpedo or ...

A Present for Gen. Patton’s Wife

Thursday, September 18th, 2008

For most of the war, Wes was stationed in Naples, Italy in the Finance section of the Army. Here soldiers came to receive their pay, and on occasion, some rather famous people arrived. One of his fondest memories was the day General Patton arrived at the window requesting $400 to buy a Christmas ...

Memories from Washington, D.C.

Monday, September 15th, 2008

Joan was ten years old, growing up in the city of Washington, D. C, during the war. She recalls spending wonderful summer afternoons in the city for just seventy cents. The bus to and from home was three cents, the cream cheese and olive sandwich at People’s Drugs was twenty ...

How One Family Served Our Country

Thursday, September 11th, 2008

  John was one of ten children. He was sixteen in 1946, but many of his siblings were involved in the war. His three older brothers served in World War II. His brother Andrew joined the Army in October of 1941, just prior to the outbreak of war. The family did not ...

Life Along the Ohio River

Monday, September 8th, 2008

While visiting with my good friends Joan and John in Chincoteague, Virginia, recently, I gathered material for several blob entries. John’s story begins with his father who came to this country from Italy in 1912, and arrived in New York City. Even though he was a trained shoemaker, who actually made ...