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Three Generations |
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My Dad,
Charles H. Caffey
native of Mississippi,
joined the Navy
in World War
One.
Bell bottom trousers
and coat of Navy Blue,
he became a sailor
and a patriot
true.
He sailed the Atlantic
in a freighter and
could climb the riggin'
like sailors often
do,
even to the "crows nest"
high above the deck
a look-out
for a German sub
which would like to cause a
wreck
of an American war-ship
on the heaving sea.
And there was
a German
U-boat
which torpedoed his ship
afloat.
Upon his gaining consciousness
from the
attack
he found a leg missing
while lying on his
back.
It was found that his leg was
still attached
but was hidden behind
him, out of sight
for the torpedo
struck at
night.
Bleeding and broken, the ship
made her war to
France
where the wounded
sailor's leg
was screwed together
with a silver
shaft
attached to the
bone.
His temporary
home
was a French hospital
in Bordeaux
and when the war was
won
they shipped him home
with sturdy
crutches to act as
a bone.
After fourteen more
surgeries
they took off his leg
and then zeroed his disability
pension
with the excuse that he
was better off
with his right leg gone.
Never once did I hear him
complain
in all the years of
growing up!
In his mind he was still
a sailor
with bell bottom trousers
and coat of Navy
Blue, and he still thought that
he could climb the rigging
like young sailors
do.
Then came World War
Two
and the elder son,
Charles Douglas Caffey
like his dad in
World War One,
had the urge to fly
in The Greatest Generation
to protect this great
nation
from the Rising Sun.
It was not bell bottom Trousers
and coat of Navy
Blues
but the Army Air Corps
with tan uniform
and big brown
shoes!
Off to Davidson College
in uniform for
cadet training
in the ASTP,
qualifying for Fighter
Pilot to fly
the Mustang P-51
in the skies so
blue!
But flying the P-51
was not to be
for Uncle Sam washed out
our entire unit of
two-hundred-sixteen
young men
and we wore one stripe
of a PFC.
Off to Photographic school,
Lowry Field
Denver
where we learned about
cameras of different
sort
and how to be an aerial
photographer
in the
mighty Superfort
known as the
B-29
of the 509th Composite Bomb
Group, which loosed
the atomic bombs
on the Rising
Sun,
and also the Atomic Test Bomb
loosed at
Bikini.
Somewhere in the wide
Pacific
this young airman
came home with the dreaded
PTSD,
and now disabled is he
no longer to fly the
Mustang
above the Pacific
sea!
But there was a younger
son, my brother
Gene,
who was attracted to
bell bottom trousers and
coats of Navy Blue,
who joined the Navy in the Korean
War,
and climbed the rigging
like his daddy
used to
do.
He could fix marine diesel
engines
to keep war ships sailing
the oceans so
very blue.
The war was soon over
and he found his
niche
with Cummins' Diesel;
ending his life career with owning
the Alabama franchise
of Cummins
with a
friend!
Now there is a third generation,
my son Mark,
who also liked bell bottom
trousers
and coats of Navy
Blue,
who was an Airdale
flying in the P3-C
in the Cold War
keeping track of Russian
subs
and keeping them at Bay.
They did a super job for no Russian
sub ever turned
their atomic
missiles
toward the USA.
Three generations of the
Caffey Clan,
four men with three
wearing bell bottom trousers
and coats of Navy Blue,
And one poor soul
wearing khaki with a
matching brown
shoe!
One airman and one sailor,
the brown and the
blue,
not here to impress
you,
but to secure
Freedom
as you would do! |
By
C. Douglas Caffey
Copyright 2007
Listed March
31, 2009 |
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Author's Bio:
C. Douglas Caffey is a disabled veteran of WWII. He
served (1944-1946) in the 509th Composite Bomb Group,
58th Wing, Air Photo Unit, 20th Air Force, United States
Army Air Force. It was the 509th who dropped the atomic
bombs on Japan and did the atom bomb tests at Bikini in
the Pacific. A chronic sufferer of PTSD since WWII, Doug
is a former college dean. He started writing poetry
several years ago and though he doesn't claim to be a
poet, he does claim to write from the heart. |
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C. Douglas Caffey. ~~ |
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