Bubba-isms from the Heart - World War II

23 April 1944 9:00 P.M.

"Someday we will own our own cottage at the seashore. Then the 

whole family can spend many days at the seashore instead of only

once in a while. We will spend every possible minute of the summer

days there. Won't that be fun?"

                   - Edward H. Smith S/2C to his wife, Ruth

Bubba the Sailor Man - World War II Medals

According to Bubba's Notice of Separation from U.S. Naval Service, dated 2 January 1946, he received the Asiatic-Pacific 1 star, the Philippine Liberation 1 star, the Victory Medal and the American Theatre [sic]. After researching these medals online and discovering that they were ribbons, I realized that they can be seen on Bubba's uniform:

Here is a closeup of the ribbons:

Wikipedia should not be used as a reliable source for information, but as a good source for clues. Images of all of Bubba's medals can be see in online shops, but I wanted images I could use on my blog and I found them on Wikipedia. These images are free to use via Wikimedia Commons, which indicates that these images are in the public domain. 

Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal

 

 Philippine Liberation Medal

 

World War II Victory Medal

American Campaign Medal

Two of Bubba's ribbons, which are medals for specific campaigns, each have one star, which can just be made out on the photo above.

Here is the closeup again of the ribbons on Bubba's uniform:

And here are the ribbons his service record says that he was awarded: 

 

I think we have a match. What do you think? 

For a more reliable source of information about Navy medals, I was hoping to consult the book, Complete Guide to United States Navy Medals, Badges and Insignia: World War II to Present, but according to WorldCat, the closest library is in Buffalo, New York. Too far to go before the kids get out of school. May just have to order it.

Happy Monday, I mean Tuesday! Where has the week gone?

Scrappy Gen

Let's Remember!

Military Monday - Postcards from Bubba the Sailor Man

According to his enlistment papers, on the second of March, 1944, Bubba became a reserve member of the United States Navy. His first child was just a toddler and he was deeply in love with his beautiful, blond wife, my grandmother. How heart wrenching it must have been to leave them.

Bubba always told us he hated school and didn't do well, but in his postcards home, his writing clearly conveys his myriad of feelings across these many years. This postcard is from his first full day as a member of the United States Navy.

     

     Dear Ruth.

     am writing this from the U.S.O. Lounge

     of the New Haven R.R. Station. Time is

5.55 - we leave about 6:30 for Sampson. at

the recruiting office there was a Marine Sargent

and he said he had a quota to fill and some of us

were it. He picked several fellows who

thought they were going in the navy and put them

in the marines. For awhile I sweated bullets. 

After that we went out and ate dinner which the Navy

Paid for; and also went to the show for half price. The Navy

gave us a slip showing us to be Navy Personell[sic]and we got in

      
   FROM Edward H.Smith

        U.S. Navy

on that. Then we went back and

got our supper tickets. After supper

we went bowling. I bowled 70

Pretty low huh! From the windows

here as I write I can see the sound

it is very beautiful. I'm with those

two brothers Mom knows John + Joe.

I'm feeling fine now after the

goodbye's and sech [sic]! Don't worry!

take care of yourself and Sharon.

They have treated us swell so far

               all my love  Eddie 

[postmarked] 3 NEW HAVEN

               MAR 3

               11 AM

               1944

               CONN

[addressed] Ruth G. Smith

            197 King St.

            Bristol, Conn.

Bubba's own words about his first full day away from home and officially in the Navy stand for themselves, so I will leave it at that. 

Scrappy Gen

Let's Remember!

Military Monday - WWII Military Personnel Records

Speedy turn around! My mother signed and mailed the next of kin signature verification form on Thanksgiving weekend. Last week she received a thick brown mailing envelope, containing Bubba's World War II service records, from the National Personnel Records Center. That's less than two months start to finish. 


We used the online ordering system eVetRecs through the National Archives website, which has changed somewhat. The first thing I notice is that on the main page for Military Service Records, it states "Most veterans and their next-of-kin can obtain free copies of their DD Form 214 (Report of Separation) and other military and medical records several ways". When we placed the request we did not remember seeing anything about potential charges, so my parents were surprised to receive in late December a bill for a fee of $60 in order to receive the records. The letter did not indicate the reason for the fee. If you know in which cases a fee is assessed, please comment. Thankfully this was for my parents. If I were doing this for a client, I would like to be able to better advise them about cost in advance. 


It seems that many more people might soon be interested in ordering World War II service records. Dick Eastman posted here about the formation of the Society of Sons & Daughters of World War II Veterans Hereditary Society by the Admiral Nimitz Foundation. The foundation is very broad in its membership options, offering lineal (direct descent), collateral (any other relationship including marriage) and memorial (includes friendship) memberships. Proof of service is required in the society application.

http://www.sonsanddaughtersofww2veterans.org/S&D_Application.pdf

Next on the list is ordering my paternal grandfather's records and asking my parents if they would like to join the society. In the meantime, there are lots of goodies in Bubba's records to share.


Thanks for reading. 


Scrappy Gen

Military Monday–Searching for Bubba’s PT Boat Part 2

My sister and I found two photos in the stash at my parent’s home on our visit home for an early Thanksgiving with Bubba’s descendants on Sunday. We dove into the stacks looking for photos from Bubba’s time on the PT boat. One of the photos shows PT 163 and must have been ordered from PT Boats,Inc..

If Bubba was in indeed a member of PT RON 23, then this is not a photo of his boat. PT RON 23 encompassed PTs 241-244 and 277-288.

This is the other photo we found. It is hard to make out, but shows PT 328. See my photo edit here.

Bubba may or may not have taken this photo, but I am betting on the fact that he did because he brought his camera everywhere and taught my sister and me to do the same. The photo I have is an old blow up. Someday I hope to go through the literally thousands of slides we have to see if he kept the original. Meanwhile, my Aunt will be looking through the photo stash at her house for photos taken on his boat with his crew mates. My secret wish is that the boat number will be visible in one of the pictures she finds.

Happy Hunting!

Scrappy Gen

Photo Edits–Rescuing an Old Faded Photo–PT Boat 328

This photo is blown up from another (location unknown) damaged photo. The damage that is visible is part of the image. We actually found two copies kept in archival sleeves, so it is most likely that it was an important picture to Bubba. You can read more about it here.


For this photo, I am not interested in a full restoration. The quality isn’t such that I would ever hang it on my wall, but I would like to be able to more clearly read the number on the side of the boat and perhaps during the process other photo clues might become apparent.


As always I begin the process with my trusty Epson 4490 scanner, scanning the photo at 600 dpi and saving in both TIFF and JPG formats. This is a bit of overkill I know, but most websites will not accept the TIFF format and I like to have JPG version handy if I know I will be putting it online. I open the TIFF version in Lightroom to make my photo adjustments. Have I said before that one of the reasons I love Lightroom is that it leaves the original image untouched? Your edits are made and saved in the Lightroom Catalog. You can save new versions to your photo folders by clicking Export, but your original is always available.


Here are the photo adjustments I made.

1. Adjusted Blacks +63


2. Adjusted Clarity +100


3. Lowered the Contrast –45


4. Lowered the brightness –61


5. There is more substance to the photo, but some of the detail has been lost, so raised Contrast +120


6. Can’t leave that brightness alone because I think I see some clouds in the sky. Brightness –32


7. It isn’t a color photo, so that isn’t really blue sky peaking through, but I do think clouds are visible.
    A little too dark still. Exposure + 48.


Here are the things I have noticed while working with this photo. There are clouds in the sky and land is visible in the background. The two men sitting at the front are not on high alert. Their shoulders and backs are slumped as if they are relaxing (or exhausted) and enjoying a nice boat ride. The boat is flying the American flag. The number 328 is certainly clearly visible on the side, but I didn't notice with the original version that it is also visible on the top of the boat right in front of the radar pole. There may be two or three more men sitting at the top.


Here again is the original scan of the faded photo.


I love a good black and white photo as you know from here and here.

You can’t see the clouds as well, but if you were putting together a project with a cohesive look, it might be worth the extra step to convert the photo to black and white. I think it is a little less distracting to the subject.

Happy Photo Editing!

Scrappy Gen

Photo Clues for Genealogical Success – Bubbie’s Parents and Siblings

MJ’s cousin Cathy brought some treasures to show us during our dinner at Sammy’s. This jewel was particularly touching:

According to Cathy, this is a picture of Bubbie’s parents, sisters and brother. Someone identified the oldest girl as Ida and the youngest girl as Esther. The boy she believes is Bubbie’s brother, Joseph. She cannot identify the middle daughter. Bubbie left Latvia for Michigan in 1909. Her sister, Ida, left in 1908 for New York, where another sister Lena had settled in 1906. If the oldest girl is Ida, then this picture was most likely taken in Russia after Lena had gone, perhaps to send to her in America. This means that one of the two younger daughters is probably Bubbie, but that is a photo clue adventure for another day.

Seeing this photograph was an emotional experience for MJ and me. Growing up MJ knew that his Bubbie’s family had perished in the Holocaust, but to gaze into the eyes of these souls and to picture their tragic fate was deeply moving. At the time of World War II, Esther was married and had a family in the Riga area. Joseph may have as well. Cathy knows this because of the treasure trove of memorabilia that her family has collected since the early twentieth century. She has letters from Esther and other family members in Latvia, letters that suddenly stopped in 1941.

We feel so grateful that we met Cathy and that she is so generously sharing a big piece of Bubbie’s ancestry with us through, as she puts it, her family’s pack-rat habits. Personally, I love pack-rats. Thank you Cathy!

Love,

Scrappy Gen

Military Monday–Searching for Bubba’s PT Boat

Here is the patch I told you about yesterday.

It represents Patrol Torpedo (PT) Boat Squadron 23. My grandfather continued to feel a strong connection throughout his life to his time with the men who served in this squadron. Each new grandchild upon entering the family received a t-shirt or a sweatshirt with the words PT Boater emblazoned across it, Bubba’s message to each that this was significant to him.

As the oldest grandchildren in the family, my sister and I were privileged (although at 15 and 13 we felt more burdened than honored) to travel with our grandfather to the National PT Boat Museum at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts. He wanted to share this significant part of his life with us. As the family photographer, he made sure to document the trip as well. That’s my sister and me posing under the big guns.

One of the many things I loved about my grandfather is that he always asked us to take pictures of him. Did he know how much we would someday appreciate his forethought in handing his camera over to us?

Of course, I was thrilled when my son as a Cub Scout went and slept on one of the ships at Battleship Cove. My husband, MJ, pointed out the displays for PT Boat Squadron 23 and our son dutifully acknowledged them. Some day he will appreciate it, just like I do now.

We don’t know on which boat in Squadron 23 Bubba served. My mother as his next of kin can order his Military Service record through the National Archives. That is our next step in the hunt for his p.t. boat.

Happy Monday!

Scrappy Gen

Technorati Tags: World War II,Military

Genealogical Serendipity or Supernatural Occurrence

Bubba was Irish and that may explain it. We grew up hearing anecdotes about souls, who had passed, communicating with those still living in the physical world. There was never a question of whether or not a connection to the spiritual world existed, it just did. It was certainly a comfort to grow up believing our ancestors were watching over us.

This history is why I was not all that surprised by what happened yesterday. Several weeks ago, I had decided to learn more about Bubba’s service on a PT Boat during World War II. I mentioned here having a patch with a rabbit that Bubba had given me. The patch represented his PT Boat Squadron. Wanting to share it with you, I searched through all of my treasure boxes and memorabilia files but could not find it anywhere.

I called my sister, who also had one of the patches, and she agreed to send it to me for scanning as long as I immediately returned it, which I did. Fast forward to yesterday and suddenly, sitting on my back hall counter was the patch. Had it fallen out of the bag for my sister? A call to my sister revealed that she was in possession of her patch. I knew I had put my patch away with my family treasures for safe keeping. How had it appeared on my counter? Did Bubba put it there?

A skeptic could easily explain away my discovery, but a skeptic I am not. I am partly Irish after all. 

Bubba, thank you for letting us know you are around. We love you and miss you, especially today, your birthday. Happy Birthday!

Love, 

Scrappy Genny

(Bubba always called me Jenny.)

Technorati Tags: Genealogy,Genealogical