As you may be aware a group of excellent Bloggers put together an incredible Blogfest that includes over 128 blogs. The idea is to talk about a cherished item and to link together a number of bloggers who will be describing an item they cherish. The founders of this idea are Damyanti – Daily (w)rite, Dan Antion – No Facilities,Paul Ruddock – Echoes of the Pen, Peter Nena – Demogorgons Fiction,Sharukh Bamboat – India Destinations and Tom Benson. Here is the badge for the event and if you click on it, you can go to a complete list of the participating bloggers.
The following is my contribution. Todays JohnKu is suspended
A Cherished Item by John W. Howell
When I considered joining the Cherished Blogfest I had in mind some items that could qualify for the title Cherished. Of course, I ruled out family since although cherished they are not items and in keeping with the blog fest it would not be fair to include them. I finally settled on a piece that belonged to my father. I have so few items left since he died was I was ten and the years have taken their toll on those mementos that could also qualify as cherished.
My dad served as a naval aviator during World War Two. He was the bombing group navigator and had the awesome responsibility to plot the course to the bombing site and then back to the ship. He served on both the Aircraft carrier Lexington and Yorktown. His group participated in battles that included the invasion of Iwo Jima and bombing strikes to the Japanese homeland.
He was an older man when the war broke out and could have stayed behind since he had two children and was a member of the Detroit Police detective bureau. He chose instead to enlist and was promptly sent to school stateside to earn his navigator wings. He was commissioned as an Ensign and assigned to Bombing Group Nine of the US Navy. These were the dive bombers who were most effective against the Japanese fleet and land-based targets. He and his group earned a number of medals and to his credit never got lost or missed reaching the assigned target.
My most cherished item is the Year book that all members received upon completion of the war. Here is a picture of the cover. You can see the scuff marks of time. The book is now seventy years old.
The next picture is the page devoted to my dad. The editor had a sense of humor in that a poem was written describing my father as a fighter that was intended to parody his true nature. The cartoon below the picture depicts the sinking of the battleship Yamato, which my dad helped plan and execute.
This book and the fact that the Lexington is permanently docked close to my home are the last links I have to my father. I do cherish it.
