This past week my children were on Spring Break. So on Friday I took them fishing for there first time at Gandy, we had a blast.
Since we were out that way and I had avoided it for a long time for whatever reason I finally stopped by the Marine Corp Reserve center on Gandy. My father ran that facility and several others on the East coast back in 1987-1990, he is a retired Colonel, they usually use listed guys to run the reserve centers.
Long story short ( yeah right
) my Grandfathers WWII dress uniform was dedicated there back in 1989 when he was still alive, it was quite the proud day for all of us especially him of course.
He was a big part of my life, especially when my parents split in 1991. He was the Grandpa you went hunting / fishing (at Gandy a few times), worked on the farm with, drove fast with
, etc.. He lived in a small town in central Nebraska almost his whole life. He passed in 1998 while my wife was pregnant, luckily I went and visited him a week before he passed and I got to tell him he was going to be a Great Grandfather. He died kind of unexpectedly exactly a week later. It was the worst day ever for me and I still think about him almost every day.
Damn got off track there.
So I pulled up to the reserve center with the children in tow. No one answered the gate intercom. As I am getting ready to pull away a young Marine is heading out, so I wait. I ask him briefly if my Grandfathers uniform is still there ? He immediately says come with me and turns around.
He was very polite especially to my children, my son was eating it up ! He said he always wondered who the uniform belong to. It has his name in the case but that was the extent of what he knew.
In we go to the reserve center and as I turn the corner there it is, my Grandfathers WWII dress uniform.
It hit me pretty hard as soon as I saw it but I kept strong, I think the young Marine caught on to my silence, and gave me and my children a moment.
Back in he came and snapped a bunch of pics for us with it and I answered all the questions about my Grandfather that he asked. The big one to him was that he fought 22 months straight in the Soloman Island and Iwo Jima which is of course were the famous picture was taken of the Marines raising the U.S. flag and ended up being a turning point for us in the war.
He then took us on a tour, let my children see some of the heavy equipment, Amtrak, etc.. All the time with yes sir, no sir, etc.. Damn I felt old.
Seeing how a lot of you are like me extended online family
I thought I would share this. It also further strengthened my support for our troops fighting today that will have similar stories to tell there families later in life.
Not quite sure why I waited so long to go see it again but I am glad I did. My children also seemed to understand the importance of it all so that was great to see.
If you are ever by the Gandy reserve center for whatever reason as soon as you walk in and to the left you will find this. We have several more medals we need to get hung up on his uniform. We came across them after he passed.
