I met one yesterday. I hate to tease this but I said something down below about writing it up, and I don’t have time right now. I will do that later.
As it turns out, he was my mother’s boyfriend after she graduated from high school until he enlisted and went off to war. (She met Dad on the rebound. And that worked out pretty well, I think.) Anyway, they’ve met up again after all these years. And he has stories to tell that three hours yesterday didn’t even begin to cover.
War photographer in the Pacific. Spoke Japanese but had to hide that fact when he was traveling in post-war Korea with a war crimes unit (he went there the day after the surrender). Ham radio operator until he developed macular degeneration and couldn’t see to work his rig anymore. Freemason. Oil painter (self-taught).
And that barely scrapes the surface. There will be more to tell.