"Thank You For Your Service Clint Fye!" "EvenThough It Wasn't A Long Tour.....THANK-YOU!"

                                       Great Grand Mother's Son.....My Great Uncle Clint! 

He was called back from Okinawa and discharged honorably when his father died and he was the only male left in the family. He came back and took care of his Mother (Sara) sisters (Virginia & Mary)  and niece (Marie)

He never married. He took care of his mother until her death and then when his sisters married and divorced he was there for them,  and they moved back home.

In 1949 Marie married Roy Badgerow and in 1950 I was born  in Port Huron Hospital. Mom, on the other hand, was born in the old house which still stands on 16th Ave. Port Huron. Seems Gertrude got knocked up when she was a teenager in 1928. February 6, 1929 Marie Edith (Bradley) Fye was born. As the story goes the young Bradley boy wanted nothing to do with Grandma Gertie after he found out she was with child.

Marie thought John and Sara were her mother and father for a good portion of her youth.. Her mother lived right next door on 16th Ave. and she thought she was her aunt. Then one day the girls she thought were her sisters, spilled the beans.

Her Uncle Clint was the closest thing to a father figure in her life. Uncle Clint had a good job with the railroad and made good money to provide for them all.

I have fond memories of going over to Grandma Fye's house and Mom would scrub the floors and such. She would clean the house from top to bottom, all the while, Clint was working on the railroad. Seems we went over there a lot.  Mom would toil at the housework so he could relax when he got home.

Then we would rush home so she could clean our house before Dad got home from work.

Thanks for following our story!

Missing In Action

She kept right on writing to her son even though the letters from him had stopped. She prayed and wrote in the hopes...
 that some would reach him.

She kept the letters that were returned and wrote more!
Three or more per week she wrote, as the letters came back, "Return To Sender"
"Missing In Action."

She never lost faith that her son was alive.
Even when she read in her hometown newspaper about his unit being wiped out!
The Times Herald depicted a somber story of the First and Third Ranger Battalions....
  fighting to the death of the very last man in Italy.

She held fast to her belief that here youngest son Roy.....
 was okay!

A shoe box full of letters from the past that she saved all the years of her life... is a testament to my loving Grand Mother  Edith C. Hill Badgerow.
As children, we are never told  the story of the strength, that our ancestors possessed....
or of the hardships they had to endure.

This Was His Stalag

Of course I knew he was a POW. He was missing the two middle fingers on his right hand and had a bullet wound entrance and exit scar on his thigh, that showed when he wore short pants.
He told me it happened when he was captured.

He never talked about it and I always thought he was a prisoner in a German Stalag....
 in Germany.
I was dead wrong, all these years, gone by!
Turns out he was being held in Poland at Stalag 334.....
The Old Stalag VIII
His number was 36131.

I wish he was around so I get some updated info. about his life, while he was a captive.
I do remember him saying, it was not that bad at all.
He spoke highly of  the German soldiers that were guarding them.
He said most were, down to earth....
 good compassionate human beings.

Lamsdorf Guards

Victory Mail

This new mode of messaging launched on June 15,1942. Called V-Mail, it was in operation for 41 months, and
helped expedite the tons and tons of mail for members of the American forces, stationed overseas.
Before e-mail, and before cell phones and the such, we had Victory Mail.
I am fortunate to have some examples and will post a look see for you, after the video.