Joined
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574 Posts
DEC 7 1941
A day that changed my family's world forever. My father was a 23 year old ranch hand in a Texas border town. Had never been more than 50 miles from home.
After Dec 7th he joined the Naval Reserves and was deferred to work as a tradesman/plumber on the secret Hanford Nuclear Project during the construction phase of the housing for the nuclear research facility scientists. Hanford Project was in southern Washington state.
Then he was sent to active duty and assigned to the floating dry-dock ABSD 3 in Guam. ABSD= Advanced Base Sectional Dock. He was an E3 Metalsmith. They put damaged ships back together again. He served over 18 months there till end of war. The ABSD-3 was scheduled to be moved up further north closer to Japan for the land invasion of Japan. The two nuclear bombs canceled those plans and ended the war. He came home alive and raised a family. I was born in 1960.
Photos are of him (back row far left) and some of the ABSD 3 crew posed on the floor of the dry-dock with the nose of a battleship behind them. Gives you a good perspective of the sizes of those things. The second photo is of the battleship USS Pennsylvania in their drydock (ABSD-3) being repaired after it was hit by kamakazi (sp?) cira 1944. Third Photo is USS Idaho same time period (cira 1944).
Rest in Peace Papa (1918-1986).
A day that changed my family's world forever. My father was a 23 year old ranch hand in a Texas border town. Had never been more than 50 miles from home.
After Dec 7th he joined the Naval Reserves and was deferred to work as a tradesman/plumber on the secret Hanford Nuclear Project during the construction phase of the housing for the nuclear research facility scientists. Hanford Project was in southern Washington state.
Then he was sent to active duty and assigned to the floating dry-dock ABSD 3 in Guam. ABSD= Advanced Base Sectional Dock. He was an E3 Metalsmith. They put damaged ships back together again. He served over 18 months there till end of war. The ABSD-3 was scheduled to be moved up further north closer to Japan for the land invasion of Japan. The two nuclear bombs canceled those plans and ended the war. He came home alive and raised a family. I was born in 1960.
Photos are of him (back row far left) and some of the ABSD 3 crew posed on the floor of the dry-dock with the nose of a battleship behind them. Gives you a good perspective of the sizes of those things. The second photo is of the battleship USS Pennsylvania in their drydock (ABSD-3) being repaired after it was hit by kamakazi (sp?) cira 1944. Third Photo is USS Idaho same time period (cira 1944).
Rest in Peace Papa (1918-1986).


