Welcome to the WWII Forums! Log in or Sign up to interact with the community.

Howdy from Spudville Idaho

Discussion in '☆☆ New Recruits ☆☆' started by jaxson50, Jan 12, 2009.

  1. jaxson50

    jaxson50 Member

    Joined:
    Jan 12, 2009
    Messages:
    29
    Likes Received:
    5
    Greetings!!!!
    I'm a battle scarred veteran of the Internet forum wars, some of my fellow battle weary comrades suggested I meander over to World War II Forums and from what I've seen by eaves dropping over the past few day's has convinced me to jump in with both feet.
    So, here I am!
    A little about myself, my great great grand father served in the Civil War in the 8th Iowa at Pea Ridge, his great grand father was in the Revolutionary War.
    Well, war skipped two generations to my father & uncle who served in WWII (as well as several cousins). Dad served in the Navy, joined in Jan 1941, he married mom two weeks before Pearl Harbor was attacked. He spent the next nine months working on the salvage mission in Pearl Harbor, assigned to tug that was built in 1912 and drafted all of 10 feet. They sailed to Hawaii in it from San Pedro Calif.
    His next deployment was in the same little wooden tug during the Aleutian islands to pull damaged and stranded craft out of the freezing mud. The ocean going tug had previously been a large harbor tug, it now had a crew of 36 men, dad was a MM. He told me many stories about working axes in four hour shifts fighting to keep ice from rolling the oversized cork they called a tug boat.
    About this time my mothers father joined the Seabees, so he was outranked by his 18 year old son in law, and dad never let him forget that!
    Later in the war he was reassigned to DD-802 and was a plank owner of that fine ship.
    He was in the forward engine room 8 April 1945 when the USS Gregory DD-802 was attacked by three Kamikaze air craft, two went into the sea in a ball of fire, one hit the ship at mid ships right at the water line, the plane cart wheeled between the stacks clipping the forward stack, the bomb failed to detonate, but the damage was enough to send the Gregory state side.
    Dad stayed in the Navy till 1953, serving in the Korean War on CVE-92, the first US Ship to sail into Saigon on 1 Feb. 1951. A calibration party included mortars, grenades and snipe fire while the crew delivered it's cargo of F4U's, Bearcats and mechanics and military "advisors" to aid the French.
    My interest in WWII was sparked from sitting with my dads and his Navy buddy's as they drank beer and relived tales of the war.
    As my two cousins served in the ETO, another cousin served in the 5th Marines.
    I am on the sunny side of 60 (barely), have varied interest, have played guitar since I can remember, I'm a avid shooter and have and fisherman, and a proud grandfather.
    I am looking forward to making new acquaintances and friends here, hopefully I can contribute, from what I've seen in the past few days, that may be a tall order.
    Oh, by the way I chose my handle, jaxson50 to honor my dad, his name was Jack, I am his son=Jaxson and I was born in 1950! (seems like yesterday). So please call me Jim.
     
    dgmitchell, brndirt1 and Slipdigit like this.
  2. Tomcat

    Tomcat The One From Down Under

    Joined:
    Feb 8, 2008
    Messages:
    4,048
    Likes Received:
    267
    G'day mate and welcome.
     
  3. Skipper

    Skipper Kommodore

    Joined:
    Jun 6, 2006
    Messages:
    24,984
    Likes Received:
    2,386
    Quite an introduction Jim! I hope we"ll share some nice thoughts together.
     
  4. PzJgr

    PzJgr Drill Instructor

    Joined:
    Dec 19, 2000
    Messages:
    8,386
    Likes Received:
    890
    Location:
    Jefferson, OH
    Howdy and welcome to the forum. Glad to have you with us. Happy posting.
     
  5. texson66

    texson66 Ace

    Joined:
    Jul 12, 2008
    Messages:
    3,095
    Likes Received:
    592
    Welcome, Jim! Enjoy the forum!
     
  6. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Good Ol' Boy Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

    Joined:
    May 21, 2007
    Messages:
    18,045
    Likes Received:
    2,364
    Location:
    Alabama
    Howdy Jim,

    You have a good background to tell about. I hope that you fit in as well as you seem to think you will. I gather you know some of the guys here-we can figure out who they are later on.

    Tell us more about the salvage your father did at Pearl Harbor. What ships. etc was he involved with?
     
  7. bigfun

    bigfun Ace

    Joined:
    Oct 2, 2007
    Messages:
    3,851
    Likes Received:
    217
    Location:
    Karlsruhe, Baden-Wurtemburg, Germany
    Hey Jim!!
    Glad you could join us! I would love to hear more of your stories!!
     
  8. urqh

    urqh Tea drinking surrender monkey

    Joined:
    Dec 23, 2002
    Messages:
    9,683
    Likes Received:
    955
    Wellcome, we may have disagreements at times, but wars are few and far between.
    Youve found a great place. Stick with it, and us.
     
  9. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Good Ol' Boy Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

    Joined:
    May 21, 2007
    Messages:
    18,045
    Likes Received:
    2,364
    Location:
    Alabama
    Battles and skirmishes, yes, but there will be no wars.

    Unlike the real world, we have a fully functional UN. [​IMG]
     
  10. urqh

    urqh Tea drinking surrender monkey

    Joined:
    Dec 23, 2002
    Messages:
    9,683
    Likes Received:
    955
  11. brndirt1

    brndirt1 Saddle Tramp

    Joined:
    Jul 7, 2008
    Messages:
    9,713
    Likes Received:
    1,501
    welcom "jaxson50", glad you made it over here. I think you will enjoy your stay personally. Great place, many well informed and civil posters unlike THC. Again, welcome aboard.
     
  12. krieg

    krieg Ace

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2008
    Messages:
    1,554
    Likes Received:
    31
    Welcome aboard mate
    you will enjoy your time here Krieg
     
  13. jaxson50

    jaxson50 Member

    Joined:
    Jan 12, 2009
    Messages:
    29
    Likes Received:
    5
    Thanks for the warm welcome, I am taking my time sliding into things (need to get my sea legs). brntdirt1 (Clint) thanks for the invite to join up, I like your car, I had a blue one!
     
  14. JCFalkenbergIII

    JCFalkenbergIII Expert

    Joined:
    Jan 23, 2008
    Messages:
    10,480
    Likes Received:
    426
    Hey there Jasser!!! Robert/Kaoschallenged here. Nice to see you made it :).
     
  15. dgmitchell

    dgmitchell Ace

    Joined:
    May 9, 2008
    Messages:
    3,268
    Likes Received:
    315
    Jim -- Welcome! Great first post! As you already know a few fine Rogues, you also probably already have recognized that this is a fine place. I look forward to reading more of your posts.

    Cheers!
     

Share This Page