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On this day, Dec 8th 1941, my dad and a group of his college friends at Washington University in St Louis marched down to the local induction center to volunteer to serve in WWII.
The induction center was so overwhelmed that they took my dad's information down and said go back to school and finish your semester and we will call you up.
Soon enough he was sent to Pensacola and was trained as a Naval Aviator.
He demonstrated such skill in combat flight training that he was invited to join the elite Marine air corps.
After shipping out to the Pacific, he flew combat missions from both aircraft carriers and island bases in the Pacific flying an F4U Corsair--and aircraft he adored.
There were so many losses. Good friends and squadron mates who never returned.
In his final combat mission my father very nearly had a similar fate. His plane was hit after an attack on Japanese positions and he crash landed at sea. At the last possible moment, he was miraculously rescued by a Naval destroyer at dusk, during the worst typhoon of the war. The destroyer was taking 38 degree rolls in the massive storm--far beyond the ship's rating. Those brave sailors truly risked their own lives to save him.
My dad as my hero. A brilliant man, and a humanitarian who used his creative energies to make the world a better place. And unsurprisingly, my dad was a passionate and progressively-minded liberal Democrat.
I wish he was still among us and could have met with Joe Biden today.
What a beautiful moment.
I'm very proud of our president!
Miss you dad.
