Hello there Jiujitsubowl, Good to hear from you as well. Beard growing is going good. Second week in. I had forgotten how scratchy the initial stage is. I practiced, Traditional Japanese Shotokan karate. Got to first purple before I damaged my left rotator cuff and had to have it surgically repaired and had to make the call to continue and maybe hurt it again or stop. I decided to stop.
My uncle (who raised me) had a black belt (is that correct?) in Jiujitsu. Unbelievably he joined the US army when he was 15 in March, 1944 because the Canadian army wouldn't take him and he served with the 91 Chemical Mortar Battalion and served and fought all the way into Germany. When my grandparents discovered that he was shipping overseas they appealed to the Canadian Government to have him sent home. What is doubly amazing is that he survived. Back then it took time for these things to be processed and he was honorably discharged and sent home when he was 17 only to re-enlist when he turned 18. He served in Korea and wanted to make a career out of the army but when my grandfather passed away suddenly from a heart attack, he decided to come home and take care of my grandmother. He was once again honorably discharged and remained a bachelor living in the same house he grew up in until his death in 2013. For some reason that no one understand, he began destroying all his army uniforms and papers. My mother found him one day burning his discharge papers. The only piece she was able to rescue was his second discharge document, or a portion that I now have in my possession. It says, "Romeo Blanchette Specialist Third Class was honorably discharged from the United States Army 21st day of December 1956. This certificate is awarded as a testimony of Honest and Faithful Service.
He willed to me a book that was written by his Battalion commander
He has two sets of serial numbers and two discharge dates. This is where it gets confusing because the documents my mom was able to save are torn and burnt. I have tried unsuccessfully for over 20 years to find information about his service. He has always been very reluctant to talk about his time. He developed Alzheimer in his last years which made it even more difficult.
Compounding this the DOD National Personnel Records Center in Overland Missouri suffered a catastrophic fire on July 12, 1973 destroying critical and irreplaceable military records for numerous historical periods including 1912-1959.
Anyway, my apologies for going on at length. I hope I haven't stolen or overwhelmed your thread.
I can request that an administrator delete my post.
Kindly
Chris
I think these are his first enlistment dog tags?
His name in the Battalion roster