Wreckage of ship on which 5 Iowa brothers died during WWII is found

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27. My dad was on the USS Hornet & was one of the Marines in the first wave. I never knew anything

as a kid about his WWII service except that it was stinking hot and there were a lot of hellish typhoons. He was diagnosed with ALS in 2000, so I got a FMLA from work (work 2 days/5 days with dad who was in a nursing home 200 miles away.) He and his buddies would sit in the sunroom and bs about the war. I couldn't believe the stories I heard. After he died, we moved mom down to where my husband and I lived. As I was packing up, I found a cigar box full of medals, campaign ribbons, and pictures. One picture struck me like a thunderbolt. After dad was evacuated in November 1942 from Guadalcanal, he was sent to Hawaii for some R & R. I almost didn't recognize him. He was always a stocky guy, but he looked like he'd lost 75-100 pounds--he was nothing but skin and bones. He also contracted a nasty case of Malaria that plagued him for 20 years. I remember he always kept a bottle of quinine water in the cupboard "just in case." One day as I was leaving the nursing home for the day, one of his friends came up to me, looked me in the eyes and said, "Your dad was a real hero." Heck, he was always this little girl's hero, even without hearing of his WWII experiences. I miss him every day.