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My dad's first cousin, Charles Homer Wallen, Jr., enlisted in the U. S. Navy on March 4, 1943 at the age of 16. He spent from August 1943 until September 1946 in the Pacific theater of war and retired from the U. S. Navy on July 1, 1966.
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| Charlie aboard the U.S.S. New Jersey anchored at Oslo, Norway July 1947. U.S.S. Wisconsin in the background. |
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| Charlie and "Tojo" the monkey mascot Leyte Gulf, Philippine, Is. 1945 |
Charlie was our second generation family historian, following in the footsteps of his aunt Sula (Wallen) Splitek. He and I worked daily on our family history from January 1, 1998 until shortly before his death on October 4, 2009, almost a dozen years together. We shared some great times.
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What a handsome man! I expect they didn't figure out quickly that he was only 16 either! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
Well...I do have another photo of him Cheryl. It's a close up and he does look very young in that one (and cute too!). You can see it at his FindAGrave.com memorial here:
Deletehttp://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=wallen&GSfn=charles&GSmid=46492684&GRid=43620328&
A monkey mascot! Goodness!
ReplyDeleteI know! Must be a monkey from the islands there!
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