Cannibals, Christians and Crashes....

I remember, as a child, watching Victory At Sea with my father. He was in the Marines in World War II, and traveled across the world on Navy ships. He was over the side, in the water, and on the beach, too.

And that is all I know....

He never talked about his service during the war. From his demeanor, I know that he was very proud to serve his country. But he saw no reason to talk about it later. Oh, there was the one time when he was on some Pacific island, and the natives saved his platoon from the Japanese soldiers....

Something about their being cannibals, if I remember.....and something about the fact that most of the men in my father's group were wearing crosses around their necks. It seems the cannibals were somewhat Christianized, to coin a word. They didn't eat Christians.

Nothing else. He would watch the program and make a casual comment about something that he remembered doing. But nothing I can remember.

I do remember the story of his coming home, though. He contracted malaria while serving in the jungle areas of remote Pacific islands. He was quite sick and quite yellow, or so he told me. He was to be airlifted off the island and back to a hospital for treatment.

The plane was full of wounded and sick Marines. And it crashed on take-off. Somehow, another plane flew in and took the Marines out to a hospital. And Daddy was released and sent back to the US. It was the summer of 1945, before Hiroshima, and he “missed” the invasion of Japan.

And he came home.

I know he was injured more than once because, when I was about 8, he had some shrapnel removed from his back. He needed the dressing on the wound changed twice a day, according to the physician, and my mother just couldn't bring herself to do it. And so, I did it.

I remember that it was strange to see such a deep hole in my father's back, and I knew that it needed to be cared for in order to heal. I was just surprised that I became his “nurse” at such a young age. I remember that it seemed to take forever to heal, but it finally did.

I have been watching WWII in HD on the History Channel. I have learned a lot more about what happened back then, and I have watched closely when the story is about the South Pacific.

I guess I hope to see my father......