Dad’s WWII Story

My dad didn’t talk about the War. But on Thanksgiving 1968, we were at Mom’s sister’s place for dinner.

Dad had been in the Army in the Pacific theater, and he told us the story of being right at the front keeping watch out for the Japanese. Suddenly, a few Marines came up looking for souvenirs and asked where the front was. Dad jokingly told them several yards ahead.

Moments later, there was gunfire and the Marines came running back, cursing my dad and his buddies. My uncle, a Marine, who was married to my mom’s sister, yelled, “That was you?”

There on the WWII battlefield in the Aleutian Islands, my dad and his future brother-in-law met, however briefly.