My Father was the most incredible person I have ever met. He had the most remarkable life — a long and adventurous one, that almost didn’t happen, and one that almost ended too soon.
Dad, who went by the nickname, Charlie — was an exact copy of Tom Sawyer, complete with his little dog, Carlo. Together, they roamed the hills of Tennessee, getting into mischief at every turn.
When Charlie turned 17 years old, he asked his step-father to allow him to join the Navy, and the rest was literally, history.
Shortly after enlisting, he was stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; However, due to a series of fortunate events, he was transferred to the South Asiatic Fleet, and was sent to Manila, luckily escaping the tragic bombing of Pearl Harbor, by the Japanese.
Shortly after the formal start of WWII, my father’s ship, the USS Pope, was torpedoed and sunk in the Straits of Makasser. My father was saved at sea by a Japanese ship, along with 168 other men, and became the first POW’s ever taken aboard a Japanese ship, thanks to their illustrious Captain, named Antrim.
All men were put into a POW concentration camp at Makassar for the rest of the entire war, until my father’s actions helped liberate the death camp.
My father and I wrote his biography together over a period of several years, and it will soon be published, with a collection of his original drawings, never-before seen.
On this Father’s Day, I and my family continue to miss this wildly fascinating, intelligent and spiritual man. There shall never again be one like him. A true American original.
God bless you in heaven Daddy. I know that’s where you are.
~Voxx~
