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+--- Thread: Memorial Day Tribute to my Dad (/showthread.php?tid=930)
Memorial Day Tribute to my Dad - RobertH - 05-30-2022
=9ptMemorial Day 202=9pt2
=9ptI miss my dad, Charles R Hastings, who was at sea during WWII on the Liberty Ship John T Holt 4 times in the Arctic Convoy of the Murmansk Run.
=9ptHe was cold, frightened, seasick as well as constipated from the rations.
=9ptRejected by the Navy because of young age, he joined the merchant marine,
=9ptand they had only sidearms for defense, and not much in the way of convoy defense.
=9ptHe went to DC, and got a copy of the captain's log for the John T Holt, which I got to read.
=9ptA humorous entry was when he discovered, one typically foggy day, that his men were firing on fish, thinking they were German submarines.
=9ptHe entered "the war on fish may never be won".
=9ptThe Merchant Marine participants were under-defended, and not considered real Navy for a long time,
=9ptalthough many years later, they were fully recognized.
=9ptDad was also annoyed that the Navy veterans were awarded "Heros of the Soviet Union" medals and he wasn't.
=9ptHe pestered the Soviet embassy until Gorbachev gave him a medal and a signed letter.
=9ptA lifelong Republican, he puzzled his veterans group one time when he wore the hammer and sickle.
=9ptHe took me out to see Sputnik in 1957 at the age of 5, an event that I remember well,
=9ptand that gave me a lifelong interest in astronomy.
=9ptHe is buried at Indian Town Gap National Cemetary in Lebanon, PA with my mom Susan.
=9ptI miss them.
RE: Memorial Day Tribute to my Dad - Rose H-H - 05-31-2022
Thank you for re-membering your dad with us, Robert.