Sharing Our StoriesJack Johnson I would like to take the opportunity to say thanks to my family members who served in several services during World War II. Both of my parents and several of my uncles and an aunt served. My father left the Navy in 1946 and was drafted into the Army for the Korean Conflict. My mother's older sister was an Army nurse who participated in the North African, Italian and Normandy campaigns serving in a field hospital (much like a M.A.S.H. unit). Her army career spanned from January 1942 to V-E Day. She ended the war with General Patton's 3rd Army in Germany. She married her husband in Germany following the end of the war. Her wartime biography would fill a book. My mother's second brother was a locomotive engineer in the 'Santa Fe' Battalion, Army railroaders who transported supplies to the supply depots that supported the advancing forces and returned prisoners of war to the rear areas as Allied forces crossed into France and then Germany. Another uncle flew 25 combat bombing missions into Germany with the 8th Air Force. Other family members served in the Navy and the Army Air Corps during the war. Miraculously, all of them came home safely. My family is really typical of the group who are the “greatest generation.”
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