Thursday, January 17, 2013
Yes,I have a story to share. It happened only yesterday. As next of kin, I have, I guess, the final say on such things as, for example, Lt. Joseph J. Limacher's headstone at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery. And of course, they're just now in the process of getting it wrong! So far, the thing doesn't give him his full middle name, nor does it have his rank right. It's a long story, of course, (nothing involving my dad was ever simple :) but here it is quickly: He enlisted in 1942 in, I'm sure, a kind of hurry-up Naval officer training program in Chicago for any college kid that qualified. He came out of Midshipman School an Ensign and BOOM: went to war. He served well and admirably and, among other things, actually landed with the Marines on the 3rd day of that assault on the Japanese-held island of Iwo Jima. Oh my God, they rained down hell all around him, all night long, while he ducked for the night underneath an abandoned half-track (it's a truck-like vehicle with tank-like treads). Well, they never got him. [So here's my little joke, which the family promptly overruled: I wanted his headstone to say: THEY MISSED. OK, it's the kind of thing I myself would put on my own Tombstone, besides the pepperoni and extra cheese, but not Dad's. He never did dig my humor very much. OK, so I'm still trying to get *them* to get it right.] Dad was promoted once during the war and ended up a Lieutenant Junior Grade (LTJG) and THAT's what the Veterans Administration shows for his rank. But it's wrong. Dad got promoted again! So I'm trying to explain to the guy on the phone (Jim, he said) at the VA (I think it was) how, after THAT WAR and all *that* horribleness, my Dad quit the Navy. He had HAD it. He wanted my Mom and, ultimately, I guess, us kids. But... pretty soon Dad was hit like Saul on the donkey with the flashing bolt of insight that, *Hey, this Navy gig ain't all that bad!* (For one thing, it gets him buried in a national veterans cemetery with high military honors, eh?) So, Dad RE-JOINS the United States Naval Reserve (USNR) and starts being a *weekend warrior* and summertime two-week cruiser. Yes, he finally did get to serve aboard ship. I remember those summers. He used to bring home toys--even from South America! So now I'm trying to prove to Jim on the phone that, yes, the Navy liked the fact that he rejoined (but wouldn't give him a 20-year pension, however, because his service wasn't continuous) and BOOM: they promoted him to full Lieutenant! I said to Jim--after he agreed that, hey, the VA is on my side! They want him to receive his full due also!--*OK then, I'd just like to get his headstone to read LT instead of LTJG.* I then told him about Iwo Jima, and just lost it. Tears all over the telephone. *My Dad is a kind of a hero to me,* I said. *If those Japanese machine-gunners would've got him, I wouldn't be here.* He agreed and then told me what to do and I am *still* trying to do it. And I promise all of you this: Before I go to MY grave, HIS grave is gonna be spelled right! He is, and shall be forever: Lieutenant Joseph John Limacher, USNR. And also solidly written *between those lines* is this phrase: WAR HERO.
