The sisters, Edith and Prudence, each have specific memories of their father: Edith has happy thoughts; Prudence remembers his trait of "thoroughness" in everything that he did
As have I . . . a man of principle and a true patriot . . . I always wonder about his enlistment in the Marines in May of 1941; 'twas a valiant act, but what of a relatively young family and a still struggling business both of whom were dependent upon him . . . and he was off, not to war, but to anticipate a war with Germany that may have been inevitable, but certainly was not upon us . . . he traded a Laird & Company suit for a second lieutenant's fatigues and he only managed that because, at 33, he was too old for the peacetime Corps so he had to present special credentials: an ability to speak Malay . . . he had learned some basics from a cook aboard the schooner Chance in 1929/1930, but no one in the Marines knew any at all so he prevailed.
When I asked him why he joined the Marines . . . He, an Army brat and son of a cavalry officer who once fought the Indians out of Fort Huachuca, Arizona in the 1890s . . . Daddy's answer was always that in the Army many died due to the incompetence of their commanding officers . . . that did not happen in the Marines . . .
The irony of that statement was that in the island hopping campaign in the South Pacific, Daddy was G-2, head of intelligence for the Third Marines, and had to send out scouts each evening to ascertain where the Japs were. The scouts were young, 18 to 20 year olds, and often wound up wounded, or occasionally dead, if they ran into a group of Japanese . . . yet the intelligence was critical to forming the battle plan for the following day . . . one of his best scouts was a lad from Oklahoma who carried an air cooled submachine gun that weighed, with ammunition, about 50 pounds instead of a rifle because of the additional firepower it gave him . . . Daddy rationalized the dead and wounded as unfortunate, but necessary, casualties to protect the rest of the brigade . . . I cannot imagine having to do that and then to live with the memories.
I am sure that he is happy to have Babe with him. I miss her too . . .
