We found one of these in Grammy’s house, after everybody died.
It was an official Navy Dept. postcard addressed to my father on May 12, 1944, informing him that the Navy had accepted him as a recruit. He hastened to report for training and made it to the Philippines shortly before the end of the war. Happily, he was assigned to an ammunition supply ship: admirals took pains to keep those ships far away from the shooting. No smoking aboard her, either.
Note the upper right-hand corner: “Penalty for private use to avoid payment of postage, $300.
Anyway, off my father went to fight in World War II. He’d only just finished school. Five years later he would have a wife, a son, and a job he kept for the better part of 40 years.
My father was a giant.
I don’t think they make ’em like that anymore.
It was a different era, a different world. I hope we get back to something like that level of discipline and integrity someday.