From Omaha, Nebraska, to Samar, Philippines
My father, Donald James Towey, was born on July 26, 1926, in Lincoln, Nebraska.
From January to July 1944 he worked at the Marine Electric Company in Portland, Oregon. He also worked as a janitor at an electronic institute in Omaha, where, besides maintaining equipment, he supervised Marines on work detail.
He got permission from his parents to join the service before he was eighteen and went to boot camp at Great Lakes, Illinois.
He was promoted to the rating of Storekeeper third class, V6, in the Naval Reserve.
Just two months before the use of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki he was sent to the Philippines.
In December 1945 he was sent to PT Boat Base 17, the largest PT Boat base in the world.
In April of 1946 he was transferred from PT Boat Base 17 back to the continental United States to await discharge. He had to accumulate enough points under the system that rotated service men and women home.
For a while at least, he had no knowledge that the atomic bomb would save all the soldiers, sailors, and Marines waiting to invade Japan.
My father's records came with a notation that due to technical training he received in laundrymen's school he was to be sent overseas to a combat area where his training could be put to use.
Books about PT Boat Base 17describe how massive it was and what effort it took to keep each small, mostly wooden PT boat stocked.
The last duty the sailors at PT Boat Base 17 had was to burn the PT boats.
From January to July 1944 he worked at the Marine Electric Company in Portland, Oregon. He also worked as a janitor at an electronic institute in Omaha, where, besides maintaining equipment, he supervised Marines on work detail.
He got permission from his parents to join the service before he was eighteen and went to boot camp at Great Lakes, Illinois.
He was promoted to the rating of Storekeeper third class, V6, in the Naval Reserve.
Just two months before the use of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki he was sent to the Philippines.
In December 1945 he was sent to PT Boat Base 17, the largest PT Boat base in the world.
In April of 1946 he was transferred from PT Boat Base 17 back to the continental United States to await discharge. He had to accumulate enough points under the system that rotated service men and women home.
For a while at least, he had no knowledge that the atomic bomb would save all the soldiers, sailors, and Marines waiting to invade Japan.
My father's records came with a notation that due to technical training he received in laundrymen's school he was to be sent overseas to a combat area where his training could be put to use.
Books about PT Boat Base 17describe how massive it was and what effort it took to keep each small, mostly wooden PT boat stocked.
The last duty the sailors at PT Boat Base 17 had was to burn the PT boats.
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