He was already in the Army and stationed in Hawaii. I have a picture of him standing under a palm tree next to a big Harley that he owned at the time. He was 23.

He saw action in the Pacific and in Europe. He had four Purple Heart medals and was transported home to New York on The Queen Mary which had been converted into a hospital ship.

He never talked about Pearl Harbor or the war. I found most of this out by accident over time. My mom told me about his Pearl Harbor service when I was about 11 and came home one December 8 all excited because a classmate told us that his uncle had been there.

The only part I remember hearing directly from him was about The Queen Mary.

My dad was always a small businessman. He bought a NYC taxi medallion and had a big yellow checker cab with two extra jump seats in the back. That was a good business before Reagan wrecked the middle class. My parents owned a pretty house and put three kids through school on that income. When we kids got to college, we all had to buy him a rear window college decal for his cab. He wanted everyone to know.