Veterans' Day

My dad was a Ninety Day Wonder, enlisting in the Navy in December 1941 at the age of 27 and rushed through officers' training. He served all war, first in several stateside berths (Bath ME, Alameda CA) and then on one or more troop transports in the Pacific. He never wanted to talk about the War, though he loved to watch tv specials about it, so I can only reconstruct his travels through the souvenirs that survive him -- coins from all sorts of Pacific ports of call, a pair of ebony elephants he bought in Bombay, some opals from Australia. Because of physical similarity, I tend to picture him like Henry Fonda in Mister Roberts, lanky and taciturn but with a sense of humor, never quite making the impact he aspired to.

Thanks, Dad.