Here is my brother, an Illinois farm boy who joined the Army as a private in 1939. He was at Wheeler Army Airfield, Hawaii, on his 20th Birthday when it was attacked by Japanese. He spent the war years as a coast watcher and Morse radio operator on remote Pacific Islands. He was commissioned a 2nd Lt after the war and married Margaret Ditterline of Mascoutah Illinois in 1945. Then he worked as a radio inercept Officer in the US and in Asmara, Ethopia, where his daughter, Valerie, was born, and in Yokosuka Japan, where he had Tanuki San built. He retired from Army after 20 years and then worked for a Government agency for 15 years. His marriage ended in divorce. He came to Longview, Texas in 1970 to open East Texas Bolt Company. Here he married Cliffogene "Poochie" Phelps, and lived out his life here. He succumbed after a series of heart attacks at age 76.
Here is my brother, an Illinois farm boy who joined the Army as a private in 1939. He was at Wheeler Army Airfield, Hawaii, on his 20th Birthday when it was attacked by Japanese. He spent the war years as a coast watcher and Morse radio operator on remote Pacific Islands. He was commissioned a 2nd Lt after the war and married Margaret Ditterline of Mascoutah Illinois in 1945. Then he worked as a radio inercept Officer in the US and in Asmara, Ethopia, where his daughter, Valerie, was born, and in Yokosuka Japan, where he had Tanuki San built. He retired from Army after 20 years and then worked for a Government agency for 15 years. His marriage ended in divorce. He came to Longview, Texas in 1970 to open East Texas Bolt Company. Here he married Cliffogene "Poochie" Phelps, and lived out his life here. He succumbed after a series of heart attacks at age 76.
