goddamnit - I can't watch this

[lapfog_1]

9. shortly after my brother graduated college and got his commission

he wanted to go to flight school.
that was when he discovered he was blue / green color blind.
My dad was heart broken. My brother brought all these color blind tests home. I couldn't understand how he didn't see the difference, this was years before I would enter the Naval academy. I was shorter than he was (he was 6'2" and I was 5'11&quot so submarines was what I wanted.
Plus I always love that campy TV show "Voyage to the bottom of the Sea"... and in high school I actually attended a presentation by Jacques Cousteau. So I really loved the idea of the ocean even if I had never been near one ( Kansas ).

Yes his body was shipped home. He wasn't kill by enemy fire, but there was an accident on board ship... he struck his head on something while practicing deployment on his LST... and he actually drowned before they could get him out. Technically in the war zone, but not engaged in enemy action. Even a full Navy funeral, but his name isn't on any memorial. I always wondered if my sister has the flag that draped his container that my mother put into a triangle shaped display case along with his ribbons and medals. Some of his closest mates came to visit when they had shore leave when their ship came back to port in San Diego.

Funny thing, as a possible Annapolis nominee ( named by Sen. Bob Dole!) and a high school senior, the Navy had a program for younger male (this was a while ago) relatives to join the ship on their voyage from Hawaii to San Diego... and I was going to do that too.