My father was married and father of two when WWII broke out. He did not volunteer for service as he was trying to raise a young family. He did get a draft notice, I have been told, but the war was over before he had to report for duty.
The person in my family who did serve during WWII was one of my favorite uncles, Tío Gil.
I remember his photo hanging in my grandmother’s house. He was a hero to me, and a very handsome hero, too. All of my mother’s brothers were handsome. But a man in a sailor’s uniform was a charmer.
The things I remember was that Tío Gil served in the Pacific. My mom would write to him and he responded. I recall Mom crying after she would get a letter from him and asking my sister and me to kneel down and pray for his safe return.
There was censoring in the correspondence at that time, but I recall Mom pointing out the phrase, “Gil is OK now.” This was probably used by many of the servicemen to indicate that they were in Okinawa. I don’t recall the year when this happened, but I must have been pre-school age. It is amazing that the phrase has stayed with me all of these years.
On my dad’s side of the family, all of my male cousins served in the US Army, and I salute them, too.
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