This is my father's Army picture. He was in WWII and came home a Disabled Veteran. Let me tell you a story... When Hitler came to power, and America entered the war, my father enlisted, even though he was really too young. Didn't matter ~ he lied about his age and the government lied about his height... He told them that he was 17 and they told him he was 5'7" ~ My dad was 5'2" or 5'3" at the very most... in shoes. But, the Army did him right, and didn't make him a combat soldier... He worked in a Supply Unit. My dad didn't smoke, so he traded the cigarettes in his C-Rations (I think they were called K-Rations then) for candy bars ~ and he gave the candy bars to the kids on the street and shared his canned meat with the stray cats and dogs roaming Europe. This sharing grew ...'till he finally got caught... He was busted down to the rank of Buck Private ~ a failure in the eyes of the Government, but a man so full of love that he made God smile. The Army also transferred him to a Medical Unit. It was there, as a Medic, that he got a serious head wound, from the opposing forces, while attempting to get the dead and wounded combat soldiers onto stretchers. When he finally recovered, he was discharged a Disabled Veteran, and even though he always worked a full time job, he kept that status, without a reduction in benefits, until the day he died. There's more to my father's story, so much more ~ but for now, this is the end of my tale.

Booby Trap	Swan Dive	Rubber Shortage
Airplane Spotter	V-Mail Envelope	Tied Score
Page 1 ~ Half Sheet	Letter Sized Envelope	Note the Censor's Cut
Outside of V-Mail Sheet	Folded into an Envelope	The Space to Write a Note

My Uncle Tony, my father's childhood friend, gave that painting of a tiger, that I'm standing in front of at the top of this page, to my father. He also preserved the letters and cartoons my father sent to him during WWII ~ and passed them on to us. What a gift their friendship was to our family! These are just a few of the comics that my father drew, and one of the letters, complete with a portion of the letter actually cut out by the CENSOR. The thumbnails are all quarter scale, so that the size of everything can be compared, and all the little pictures link to the full sized image. Almost all the V--Mail sent to my Uncle Tony was microfilmed, reducing it in size before being sent, except for one. It seems that Microfilming Service wasn't available in the area that he was stationed at that time, so the V--Mail went through full sized. And I included the letter because I found the censor's cut interesting and thought you might too.

Also, when going through my father's army discharge papers, I discovered a few other things about his term of service. Never a fighter, he enlisted as a Firefighter, moved on to Utility Repairman, and as he told me, his military career ended with an Honorable Discharge, as a disabled Veteran , from an injury received when he was a Litter Bearer. The paperwork states he was a man of "Excellent" character ~ I can attest to that ~ and he was awarded a Bronze Service Star, an American Defense Service Ribbon and a Combat Medic Badge.

To see a few other photos of my father and mother, that we chose from to use for my father's niche, click here