That’s for sure!

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Shaun,
Thank you for sending me this wonderful comeback story of the Red Socks and how much your father and you cheered them on to victory that season. I wish your dad had lived to see his beloved Red Sox win the World Series! I now live in a suburb of Chicago. We’ve had the “long suffering Cubs” who were in a 108 year drought without a World Series win. That finally ended in 2016 which ended the curse of the Billy Goat! It brought so much joy to long time Cubs fans!

Meg

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I hope you were able to extract other stories of your father’s experiences during the war like his interesting memories of Iwo Jima. My father was a friend of Joe Rosenthal who took the famous raising of the flag photograph on Iwo Jima. He gave my father an autographed copy of the photo. My father had another interesting story that began early in the war. He asked if he could go out on a submarine war patrol. Every time the answer was a resounding “no!” After he became a war correspondent he asked an officer if he could go out on a patrol. He was told that the officer would have to go through the higher ups and get back to him the next day. The next day he was asked when he wanted to go. Dad told the officer “give me 3 days to get things in order and I’ll be ready”. He left on the first patrol of the U.S.S. Bullhead submarine. Months later when they returned to port, Commander Walter Griffith pulled him aside as he was leaving the sub. “Guess you were lucky Scoop as I just received this bulletin.” The bulletin read: NO CIVILIAN MEN WILL BE ALLOWED ON A SUBMARINE WAR PATROL! REPEAT: NO CIVILIAN MEN WILL BE ALLOWED ON A SUBMARINE WAR PATROL! It was a mistake but someone let dad go out. He wondered who gave him the o.k. After several visits to Admiral Chester A. Nimitz after the war dad again asked the question and Nimitz just smiled. Dad felt he was the one who gave him permission! The Bullhead was the last submarine lost (on it’s 3rd patrol) in World War II.

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Thank you! Bless you as well. It’s always so interesting to hear another perspective on dad’s recollections. I never knew about your father until I found your blog. He must have been a great man.

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Meg – Dad knew your father pretty well and loved to tell the story. Given the horrors of what he experienced in the War, he rarely talked about any of his experiences in the South Pacific even though he fought in some of the most famous battles in recent history. Your Dad’s incredible story though? THAT he loved to tell to us! God bless.

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