Uncle Jake

He fought on Guadalcanal, Tarawa Reef and Iwo Jima as a Marine infantry sergeant. He was an all American, rough and tumble male. He was 5’10” and built like a box: square shoulders and a square jaw full of big white teeth. And his laugh was loud and full of fun. He liked hot-rod engines, dogs, and being a truck driver after the war. But most of all he loved his wife and 3 daughters, my aunt and cousins. He was a Catholic and went to Mass. But his religion was a personal, a quite place for him that he never spoke about. –But Jake was always ready to talk about being a Marine.

On holidays all the relatives would drive to Jake’s for a reunion. The food and pies would arrive by the trunk load in all my aunts’ cars and grandma’s too. The women would gather in the kitchen to get everything ready. Their chatter and laughter flowed like music throughout the house and into the living room where the loud talk and guffaws of the men would mix with it and with the calls and shouts of me and cousins playing outside and turn it into one symphony of family voices.

After our sumptuous banquet, full to bursting, the men would retreat to Jake’s study. The walls were lined with hundreds of books about war and the Marines, especially large books with photos of the Pacific campaign during WWII. All of my 14 cousins were girls. Being the only boy gave me permission to join the men. They would talk about the war. My father was the only one who chose the Navy. My grandpa and my 3 uncles all joined the Marines. Jake had the best stories. He had been a platoon sergeant. One story was about when he and his men were following a narrow mountain path on Iwo Jima and turned a corner and came face to face with a Japanese sergeant and his platoon. And this still stays with me. During the telling of this particular tale, Jake would almost go into a trance. Jake had reacted more quickly than the enemy sergeant he was facing a few feet away. He and his platoon of Marines survived. Many of the Japanese didn’t.

Jake also told us about Guadalcanal. Many of the landing craft could not reach the beach. There was a large growth of rough coral and rocks that prevented them. The Marines had to wade almost a half mile through the surf and the treacherous obstacles and Moray ells beneath before they could reach the beach. More than half of Jake’s platoon never made it. They were raked down by mortars and machine gun fire.

My uncle and the bravery of the Marines astonished me then and it still does now.

My uncle Jake was as American as apple pie. He was a good, honest, hard working man and he was the most liked guy in his neighborhood and at work too. Jake greeted everyone with a grin and a firm handshake. What he did in the war he never doubted. It was job he had to do to save his men and his country.

America still has men like my uncle. Some of them are still serving in the military and some are just getting out. It is in honor to their character, patriotism and bravery that my wife and I began this website: www.HirePatriots.com. They want to work. Give them your one day, part-time and full-time jobs!

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