“The last two great landings in the Pacific north of the Philippines were on the rocky little island of Iwo Jima, 640 miles from Japan, and on the populous island of Okinawa, 350 miles from Japan (both distances by air). Although the men who participated in these landings were drawn from several parts of the Pacific, the bulk of them came from the units stationed in Hawaii or Guam, and the Red Cross planning of them was in Honolulu.”
There may lie the reason I am alive. Though my father and grandfather did not meet there, my father was in Honolulu, probably at the same time as grandfather Henry. Because he taught math and radar radio theory and electronics, which was very new technology, he was considered too valuable an asset to send to combat in Guam or Okinawa. So he stayed alive. Later on, he met and married my mother, Henry’s daughter Barbara, and I was her second child.
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