Spending Time with my Grandfather

YanceyGreenhorn

Still Not a Moderator
Got family here visiting. My grandfather came with them. You talk about a resilient 90 year old man. He’s beaten cancer twice and currently has blood cancer which he’s getting treated for. He’s on home kidney dialysis which he does himself and that takes over 5 hours a day. I always ask him about his time as a Corpsman and he lights up. Yesterday he was telling me about being up in the Great Lakes in the winter during his training and there being no heat in the barracks. He said they always looked forward to their classes and training bc there was heat, but dreaded free time/bed time. He said “maybe they were trying to make us tougher, but I was too cold to ever determine whether it worked or not.” Then he talked about the Korean War and all the Marines he worked with, and on. One of his tougher times was having to work on all the Korean POW’s that got wounded after trying to overthrow the camp. When he got out of the service he became a contractor and did chemistry regarding the missiles we had in Italy. It’s weird, he worked on them and my grandad on mom’s side was part of the Manhattan Project lol. Him and Grandmom did a lot of world travel up until 9/11. He’s got some great stories about going to Nova Scotia with her and fishing for pickerel, trout and perch. He was raised by a single mother that had different men around all the time and he never knew his father. Last year my aunt tried to get him to do one of those ancestry tests and he said “I’m not interested in that. Just because I didn’t know who my father was, doesn’t mean I want to find out. I’ve made it this far without him.” I’ve mentioned it before but he fudged his birth certificate so he could get in the Navy at 16 and start a new life. His mom practically disowned him for it since she wanted him to stay stuck in the chaotic life they had. I’m grateful to still have some time with him and today we’re taking him up to the Smokies.
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ibgreen

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
There are a lot of parallels with him and my father in law. (except the family issues). My FIL was a corpsman on board an aircraft carrier during nam and is currently also a multiple cancer survivor as well as battling blood cancer.
 

Rescue44

Old Mossy Horns
Sounds like he is one of the one's his generation is named "The Greatest Generation" for. Thanks for sharing!! You can share more of his stories if you like. 🙂 BTW...my dad is 93+.
 

timekiller13

Old Mossy Horns
Word of advice. Do some recordings of his stories or write them down.
This is sage advice.

Over the last 5 yrs I have been recording nearly every conversation I have with my grandfather. His stories are awesome. Especially since he was in the Korean War. You don’t hear a lot about the Korean War so it’s great to get first hand perspective.
 

YanceyGreenhorn

Still Not a Moderator
This is sage advice.

Over the last 5 yrs I have been recording nearly every conversation I have with my grandfather. His stories are awesome. Especially since he was in the Korean War. You don’t hear a lot about the Korean War so it’s great to get first hand perspective.
Very cool. What branch? I’ll have to let my grandfather know.

There are a lot of parallels with him and my father in law. (except the family issues). My FIL was a corpsman on board an aircraft carrier during nam and is currently also a multiple cancer survivor as well as battling blood cancer.
Wow that’s amazing how similar they are. Thanks for sharing. How is your family friend(I think) that had the accident the other day
 

Helium

Old Mossy Horns
Got family here visiting. My grandfather came with them. You talk about a resilient 90 year old man. He’s beaten cancer twice and currently has blood cancer which he’s getting treated for. He’s on home kidney dialysis which he does himself and that takes over 5 hours a day. I always ask him about his time as a Corpsman and he lights up. Yesterday he was telling me about being up in the Great Lakes in the winter during his training and there being no heat in the barracks. He said they always looked forward to their classes and training bc there was heat, but dreaded free time/bed time. He said “maybe they were trying to make us tougher, but I was too cold to ever determine whether it worked or not.” Then he talked about the Korean War and all the Marines he worked with, and on. One of his tougher times was having to work on all the Korean POW’s that got wounded after trying to overthrow the camp. When he got out of the service he became a contractor and did chemistry regarding the missiles we had in Italy. It’s weird, he worked on them and my grandad on mom’s side was part of the Manhattan Project lol. Him and Grandmom did a lot of world travel up until 9/11. He’s got some great stories about going to Nova Scotia with her and fishing for pickerel, trout and perch. He was raised by a single mother that had different men around all the time and he never knew his father. Last year my aunt tried to get him to do one of those ancestry tests and he said “I’m not interested in that. Just because I didn’t know who my father was, doesn’t mean I want to find out. I’ve made it this far without him.” I’ve mentioned it before but he fudged his birth certificate so he could get in the Navy at 16 and start a new life. His mom practically disowned him for it since she wanted him to stay stuck in the chaotic life they had. I’m grateful to still have some time with him and today we’re taking him up to the Smokies.
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Dang he looks healthy to be 90
 

timekiller13

Old Mossy Horns
Very cool. What branch? I’ll have to let my grandfather know.


Wow that’s amazing how similar they are. Thanks for sharing. How is your family friend(I think) that had the accident the other day
He was Navy. Served on the USS Talledaga. Several years ago I tried to track down some guys that he served with. Unfortunately all had passed, except one. I was able reconnect them via Facebook and they bantered back and forth until he passed last year. He enjoyed that. But he’s ready to go now.
 

YanceyGreenhorn

Still Not a Moderator
He was Navy. Served on the USS Talledaga. Several years ago I tried to track down some guys that he served with. Unfortunately all had passed, except one. I was able reconnect them via Facebook and they bantered back and forth until he passed last year. He enjoyed that. But he’s ready to go now.
Awesome thanks for sharing 👍🏻
 

JONOV

Old Mossy Horns
This is sage advice.

Over the last 5 yrs I have been recording nearly every conversation I have with my grandfather. His stories are awesome. Especially since he was in the Korean War. You don’t hear a lot about the Korean War so it’s great to get first hand perspective.
I agree. Personally I wish we had more of that from my Grandpa than the big that was recorded for the library of Congress WW2 progect.
 
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