An Interesting Sailor

During World War II, my father served on a Landing Craft Infantry - LCI (L).  As I was learning about these ships, I came across a book by John J. O'Connor, Jr. titled USS LCI "Landing Craft Infantry".  At the back of the book, a number of veteran's supplied their biographies.  In reading through these, I was struck by one in particular.  I am including it here.

 

     “Bobby Lee Pettit, electrician’s mate first class, USS LCI(L) 750.  Was born December 31, 1928 in Houston, Texas.  Joined U.S. Navy December 22, 1942 at the age of 13.  Boot camp San Diego Naval Training Station.  Assigned to USS Tallulah, AO-50.  Made three trips to South Pacific with oil, gasoline, aircraft and PT Boats.  Later participated in invasion of the Marshall Island and the Gilbert Islands.  Transferred to Naval Receiving Station, Aiea, Pearl Harbor for further transfer Naval Receiving Station, Balboa Park, San Diego.  Assigned to USS LCI(L) 750.  Participated in landings in New Guinea, Morotai and numerous landings in the Philippines.  Encountered numerous air attacks off Leyte.  Following end of war at age 16, requested discharge to return to school.  Transferred to separation center, Camp Wallace, Texas where Navy verbally abused him for enlisting under age, voided his enlistment and refused him an honorable discharge and GI benefits.

After much publicity, action by the Veteran’s Service Center in Houston and Congressman Albert Thomas he received an honorable discharge on November 22, 1945 with GI benefits, permitting him to return to high school and later attend Texas A&M University where he received a degree in electrical engineering in 1952.  He returned to serving the fleet as an electronics field engineer and later represented Texas Instrument in the Pentagon…"

Source:  USS LCI “Landing Craft Infantry” by John J. O’Connor, Jr. page 135.

Mr. Pettit died in 2020 at the age of 91.  His obituary includes the statement that: "Mr. Pettit dedicated his life to the United States Navy. Joining at the age of 13 years old he was the youngest Navy Veteran, as well as the third youngest World War II Veteran."

As part of the Library of Congress, the Veterans History Project preserves service members story in their own words.  If you would like to hear Mr. Pettit tell his story, follow the link below. 

Mr. Pettit's Story 

I Could Not Resist

 

Some of you might remember when I sold my Mini Cooper in December of 2021.  If not check it out HERE.

It was very low mileage and I received $200 more than I paid for it.  

At the time, I was concerned about our need to coordinate our driving needs with only one car.  Well it was fine for awhile, but then I started getting more and more cabin fever.  I started looking online for Mini Coopers.  I found one at CarMax that I came pretty close to buying.  It was a four door Countryman and I thought it would work out.  Then I did a search for used Mini's at the Mini dealership here and found the one above - Mini Cooper S 2022 with mileage of 1414. The owner saw a higher powered Mini and traded this one in on it.  It really wasn't inexpensive, but it fit my needs and to be honest, my desires.  So once again I am the owner of a Mini Cooper!

Lest We Forget

 

 https://web.archive.org/web/20220909024633/https://911digitalarchive.org/

War Communique - or What I Want to Hear

 

This is from my mother's memory box that I have mentioned before.  I have googled Pvt. James M Black, Jr with no result so I am not sure if this is the real author or not.  I thought it was interesting the names of people that he mentioned and was especially interested in "Did Charley Chaplin beat the rap?" I again made Google my friend and discovered the following about Chaplin. 

"The 1940s were marked with controversy for Chaplin, and his popularity declined rapidly. He was accused of communist sympathies, , and some members of the press and public were scandalized by his involvement in a paternity suit and marriages to much younger women. An FBI investigation was opened, and Chaplin was forced to leave the U.S. and settle in Switzerland." Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Chaplin. Chaplin died in 1977 in Switzerland.

Of course the real message was that soldiers didn't want to hear news of the war, but rather wanted to know what was going on in the lives of their girlfriends.

Rationing during World War II

The last thing of my mother's (died October 28th, 2015 at the age of 99) for me to go through is her sewing chest. This 11 x 9 x 6 box contains letters from my father during WWII and numerous other letters and newspaper clippings. I'll post about some of the more interesting ones here. The first one is from the Wichita newspaper on January 25th, 1945.

The idea of rationing was pretty foreign to me, so I googled to get some more information on what was rationed. The following information is from the National WW2 Museum.

"World War II put a heavy burden on US supplies of basic materials like food, shoes, metal, paper, and rubber. The Army and Navy were growing, as was the nation’s effort to aid its allies overseas. Civilians still needed these materials for consumer goods as well. To meet this surging demand, the federal government took steps to conserve crucial supplies, including establishing a rationing system that impacted virtually every family in the United States." I also learned that in the US, most glycerin came from the production of soap... when fats and lye are combined, soap and glycerin were formed. Glycerin is a crucial ingredient in the manufacture of explosives such as nitroglycerin. Slogans like "One tablespoonful of kitchen grease fires five bullets" and "One pound of kitchen fats makes enough dynamite to blow up a bridge" were used to inspire housewives to save.

Long Place Names

 In the summer of 2018 we took a cruise that circumnavigated Ireland with a stop in Holyhead, Wales. Holyhead is the home of a town that had the longest place name in Europe until January 31st, 2020.  That was the date of the completion of Brexit.  Now the longest name in the European Union is held by a town in Finland.  The longest in the WORLD is held by a location on the North Island, New Zealand.

 Below is a picture of a sign with the Welsh name, Llanfairpwllgwngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch,  and a video of it being pronounced by a weather man.

Enjoy!