MY DAD part 4

Against his mother's wishes, he enlisted in the military in late 1943.  World War II was raging.  He already had four or five brothers overseas.

My dad was a wiz at math.  It was definitely his best and favorite subject in school.

He was shuffled to the Army Air Corps (that was a separate branch of the military in those days) which was expanding at that time.   After basic training, he was sent to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to learn ground-to-air radio communications.

In between all this, my mom and dad were married on the 21st of June in 1944. They were married in St. Elizabeth Church in Norwood.  Mom's sister Joyce and cousin Rosemary stood up for her.  (My wife and I were married in the same church by the same priest twenty-two years later.)

When Dad finished his advanced training, he was sent to Orlando, Florida.   He worked as an air-traffic controller for the air base there while they were building up a unit to go to the Pacific theater.

Dad's mother, Cora, became very sick that Fall.  Dad was allowed to come back to Cincinnati to see her. She died in September.   When he returned to Orlando, after the funeral, his unit had already left for combat. He was assigned to another unit that was being put together.  This delayed his departure and saved him from seeing actual combat.

That Winter, my mom realized she was pregnant and made the long train trip to join Dad in Orlando. They rented a room in a home near the airbase.
o.o