Finding the Focus of a Story

Ashley and Faye, Spokane, Washington, September 1944.

I'm close to wrapping up the last two weeks or so of my father's letters to my mother from the Western Pacific in the last year of World War II.

It has been quite a journey.  I've met my father as a 24-year-old puppy, and learned a great deal more about the one part of his overseas service during the war that he rarely talked about. The war part.

The "Wild Deuces" of the 1902 Aviation Engineers

A photo of my father, Commander of "C" Company, from the unit history of the 1902 Aviation Engineers' overseas tour in the Battle of Okinawa. 

The unit history of my father's World War II battalion arrived in the mail yesterday from Maxwell Air Force Base. It is absolutely fascinating, though difficult at times to decipher.

The reports that make up the history began life 66 years ago as monthly reports, typed up by an adjutant for the commanding officer who shot it up the chain of command to his commanding officer. Thus, they are, as is the case in almost all big organizations, reports heavy on things one would want the chief to know, and light on any details of "complications."