B''H
Family
I had three uncles: my mom's brother and my dad's younger
twin brothers. My favorite was Uncle Lawrence, the youngest of my dad's
brothers albeit by only a few minutes. He was exceedingly energetic and
endlessly positive. Not only did he work 40 to 50 hours as a journeyman
electrician, but he would clean the house, do the laundry, cook the meals, do
the dishes, wash the floors, and maintain the house. I am afraid this, however,
became a problem for his daughters when they married. Each of them, I suspect,
expected their husbands to be like the father. That was not going to happen.
They have all been divorced.
When he would come to visit us at our home, unbidden,
he would begin to repair things around our house much better than my father
would ever could have done so. He was always happy to see me, welcomed me with
open arms and wanted to know about my life. Nevertheless, he was given to fits
of inexplicable anger out of character with the rest of his life.
On December 8, 1941, my Uncle Lawrence volunteered
for the United States Navy. He served on two carriers, the USS Princeton and
the USS Wasp both of which were sunk. Being a quartermaster, he was below decks
both times and escaped. Family lore has it that my grandmother received two
missing in action reports regarding him. The Wasp, off Guadalcanal, was hit by
three torpedoes launched by a Japanese submarine, setting off gasoline fires,
leaving the ship a blazing wreck. According to my uncle, he was in the
compartment next to one that was hit and told me if that torpedo had been 20
feet in another direction I would not have been talking to him. The Princeton
was sunk at Leyte Gulf after being struck by a bomb. When my son and I watched the
episode regarding Leyte Gulf in the documentary Victory at Sea[1], I
told him to watch carefully and perhaps we could see Uncle Lawrence's ship
blowup. Indeed towards the end of the episode there was film of the Princeton
exploding, causing the death of more than 200 sailors on the USS Birmingham,
which was alongside the carrier to help fight fires. During both episodes,
according to my uncle, he spent several hours in the "drink". Luckily
he was the best swimmer of the three brothers.
