Military B.R.A.T.S.

Mom and Dad at a tea ceremony in Hokkaido, Japan, 1953.

Our dads preferred posts in Germany so we could travel to England …

every summer to visit our relatives. Our favorite was taking the ferry from Calais to the White Cliffs of Dover. One year, we took the hovercraft. Though we liked the speed of the English Channel crossing, we were disappointed the water spray covered the windows and we couldn’t see out. (photo: mid-70s) Anyone else take the ferry or hovercraft back then?

When I was 5 years, my Father was MIS in Korea. His mother got a visit and telegraph in Texas, saying that he had died and awarded a Purple Heart. She began arranging his funeral .My Mom, a devoted Catholic, was on her knees praying he would be found. She eventually got the miracle telegram saying he was found alive in a Tokyo Hospital. We would finally see him after he he recuperated from being shot. He was transferred to an army hospital in New York. I was quite shy and afraid when my mother and I traveled to the hospital to find my Dad. The room was full of nurses dressed in white, the walls painted white and the beds were white metal with white sheets. I could not figure which man was ours…. I grabbed my moms hand and yelled “Daddy”…and all the patients turned to me and tried to wave. My Daddy yelled for us to come to his bed and we all had a great cry of happiness. He lived to be 94.
From 1945. After missing in action for three years in the Phillipines, my uncle (my mother’s brother) finally returns home. My grandfather was there to greet him, of course. Granddad was in the medical corps at that time.