Circumstances of Irises Pomp

There is "pomp" and there is more pomp. Graduations are taking place all over our city and country. We are not going to attend any (we haven't been invited) so our attention is focused on the things whose circumstances we do attend . . . Irises for one:

Don't ya just love 'em? We have been waiting all spring for the Irises in our yard to bloom. A few days ago, my daughter sent me a photo of one of their Irises that just bloomed -- the lower left pic above.  I checked ours and they were in the budding stage as seen in the other bottom pics above.

Then, the very next morning, they blossomed and they are shown in the top three photos. The fourth photo, top right, is of Van Gogh's painting, of course (we have that in puzzle form).

It is so interesting that the Irises in our yard blossomed within one day of the Irises in Lisa's yard and she lives 800 miles to our north. These flowers seem so independent yet they do act in unison.

This was a strange week in a way. I did do some research on Memorial Day (like most days) but research is like a box of chocolates -- you never know what you might get or find.

Appropriately, I was looking for military type records on Memorial Day, and as luck would have it Ancestry.com also had just released some new type military records.

I put the above article in to emphasize the fact that so many of the military records that I would like to find were destroyed in 1973 -- 80% of the Army personnel who discharged between 1912 and 1960 were lost.

And that is what has been my dilemma as I try to piece together my father's military service. But I have seen some evidence of my younger brother's Navy experience since he served in the 60s.

Above, that is Jon in basic training being shown how to hold his weapon. On the right is a photo of the U.S.S. Gallant, the minesweeper that he served on and my other brother and I watched as he sailed out of the Port of Long Beach on his way to Vietnam.

Besides the patrols on the Mekong Delta, that ship was the one where the Elvis Presley movie, "Easy Come, Easy Go" was filmed in 1966 or 67 and Jon is shown at the helm in the movie with a brief speaking statement . . .

Now, back to what I was lucky enough to find out about a snippet of my father's service:

Above is the Army Transport ship "USAT Chateau Thierry" and my father was on that ship in 1926.

My father did not talk about his service days very much. Once in a while he mentioned bits and pieces now and again -- but never very much. He did have one tattoo -- one word "Honolulu" in the crook of his arm. I wondered when he was there and the circumstances of that duty.

The answer to the above question is that he arrived in San Francisco on 31 Aug 1926 from Honolulu, Hawaii. So, of course, that means prior to that time he was in Hawaii -- and probably got that tattoo around that time as well.

What is interesting too is that I found a second record showing him, again arriving in San Francisco just less than a month later -- this time on the ship "Cambrai" and this time from New York.

So, while finding these two records is great information (thank you Ancestry.com) it is confusing to me as to the circumstances of this two trips on troop transports.

I never heard my father speak of San Francisco with respect to military service. I am glad to have this information and it begs for more details -- maybe, just maybe more records will be found that were not destroyed in that fire . . .

So to wrap up this post, the sentiment expressed to the right is so true. The Irises are still in their process of expression and I find myself  totally in a
state of still searching . . .

It is like hitting a "jackpot" when I stumble onto new information. I almost did not read the email from Ancestry.com telling about the release of that data.

I'm so glad for whatever reason I opened that mail and for finding the info. I'm sure there are other details for other relatives in that database -- so back to searching.


That is a bit of our week. See you all "in a few".