My father was ten years old when he became the man of the house and began helping his mother care for four younger siblings. It was the 1930s. The Great Depression was devastating millions of families in Texas and all across America.
Dad worked on the farms and ranches of neighbors and relatives, eventually moving all over Texas. He worked in places from the Panhandle to the Gulf Coast until he landed in a more stable situation with his aunt and uncle in Port Arthur at age 16. There he worked in a store and he fished. And in Port Arthur dad came to love boats and being on the water.
Shortly after dad turned 19 in 1941 he joined the Coast Guard. Pearl Harbor was attacked five months later and by early 1942 he was stationed in the Pacific.
Columns of troop-packed LCIs trail in the wake of a Coast Guard-manned
transport ship en route for the invasion of New Guinea. 1944
He was engaged in search and rescue and patrol operations and then piloted landing craft loaded with marines and solders onto the shores of distant places with names like Guadalcanal, Corregidor and Iwo Jima. He and other coasties ferried the wounded back out of harm's way, too. It was while transporting the injured to a hospital that dad met two men who would be among his best friends for life.
A Marine is transferred by Coast Guardsmen to a landing craft off the shore of Iwo Jima. After darting to shore with boatloads of Marines, a Coast Guard-manned landing craft ran back to sea to LST's, specially fitted as temporary hospital ships. February, 1945
My dad was not unusual. He did his duty and served in the war along with millions of other Americans. He spoke very little about it when I was growing up. He'd say, 'We were defending America.' I knew his service was courageous and important because of the pride he had in service to his country. And because of the lifelong friends he had made.
Amtracs bogged down in the sands along the beaches of Iwo Jima. In the background, U.S. Marines and Coast Guard beach parties operate communications and command posts and fox hole "hospitals" as assault troops push back the enemy from the beaches.
We were lucky to be able to go on vacations when I was a kid. A lot of the trips we went on involved visiting friends my dad made during the war. We traveled all over the western U.S. seeing the sights and dropping in on dad's war buddies.
Driving down the Mother Road on the way to???
One of dad's Coast Guard friends had a mining claim in the California desert. And in 1965 my dad filed for a mining claim in the Mojave desert. I don't know if there ever was a plan to mine the section of land. I think the only thing abundant there was plain ol' sand.
Looks like the middle of nowhere.
Mojave desert, near Route 66 in California.
One day in November, 1966 my parents received a phone call alerting them to the possibility that someone might have broken into the little trailer we kept on the mining claim. It was a Wednesday and my brother and sister were both sick in bed with colds or flu. My dad decided he didn't want to wait for the weekend to check on the trailer, so mom packed sandwiches for dad and I and we climbed into his truck for the drive to the desert.
As soon as we were away from city lights we saw meteors streaking across the sky. Not just a few either. Lots and lots of them. More than I could easily count.
88 meteors were counted on this negative during a 3 minute exposure taken at Table Mtn Observatory in Wrightwood, California. November 17, 1966
We arrived at the trailer to find the door open, but no sign of trouble. By then the sky was lighting up with what seemed like swarm after swarm of meteors. I asked dad if we were in danger. He told me no, but he said he hadn't seen anything like it before.
It truly was amazing. We stayed for hours, much longer than originally planned as we watched the stars fall from the sky. That night would later be known as 'The Great Meteor Shower of 1966.' It was estimated that tens of thousands of meteors were visible over Arizona and California that night.
And I was hooked. I was already interested in science, but the experience that night led me to a passion I still enjoy today - photographing nature.
Twilight fireball during Leonid meteor shower
City of Rocks State Park, New Mexico
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World War II photos from the National Archive
1966 meteor shower image, NASA/JPL
All others by me, desertguy
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