HAPPY FATHER’S DAY, DAD!
My Dad Died of a Purple Heart
When I was very young, I always thought a purple heart was a medical condition like a heart attack.
My father’s mother, whom we used to call “black nana” because she always dressed in black, told me that my dad had a Purple Heart and a Distinguished Cross. She kept them in a box over the fireplace. When I got older, I saw their silhouettes carved into his headstone every Memorial Day.
She said he used to fly bombing runs in Korea and flew with Ted Williams, the famous Boston Red Sox player.
My mom used to say, she was pretty sure my dad got drunk listening to Hank Williams and had a “Cheating Heart.”
She would always laugh like hell when she said it, but she never said that where nana could hear her. Not because she was scared of her, I don’t think my mom was ever scared of anyone. She was tough as nails with a warm heart.
We called my mother’s mother, pink nana. But we called my father’s mother, black nana because she always wore black. My mom said it was so that she was always ready to bury someone.
She lost two brothers in WWI and two sons in WWII, then my dad got shot down in Korea. My dad didn’t die from the crash, he was killed in a car accident a few years later. But he had a VA disability from the bullet wound that hit him in the hip.
Nana always said she lost her daughter to that “Jew-boy” out in California. It’s funny how some of the people you love are so hateful and prejudice, but you love them anyway. I’m sure she was proud of my Aunt Rebecca “Jane” Dalton Weinberger.
She met her husband during WWII in the South Pacific, where she was a nurse and he was an Infantry Soldier. He was Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under President Nixon, and Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) under President Reagan.
He was even indicted for the Iran-Contra arms scandal but was exonerated. Even I have my doubts about that one, I still don’t believe an LTC wielded that much power without the SECDEF or POTUS’s knowledge. But that’s another story.
This is a funny story because they came to my graduation from Army Basic Training, which got my Drill Sergeant in trouble. When I got the letter from Aunt Jane saying they were coming, I told my Drill Sergeant. I guess he didn’t believe me because he didn’t tell the Chain of Command.
There was a big hubbub because they had to move the ceremony outdoors at the last minute because the gym they planned to use wasn’t big enough. I had already won Trainee of the Cycle, and they promoted me to Private First Class that day.
A couple of guys in my platoon said it was because of my uncle, but the Drill Sergeant said, “Don’t listen to that BS, every Trainee of the Cycle gets a promotion.”
Takeaways
I never knew my father, I was much too young when he died. However, I do believe his service in the US Army helped persuade me to choose that branch over the Navy when it came right down to it.
I always wanted to join the Navy since I was 9 years old. The USS Enterprise was a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that came into port at Portland, ME when I was a kid. Our school was able to get a tour of the ship. I was amazed at how big it was and thought it would be great to be a sailor. Their uniforms were way cool.
When I was 17, I realized there were no women on those ships (They did start allowing women on battleships later in the ’70s, though). Six months or more out at sea without any members of the opposite sex did not seem as romantic then.
I served in the US Army for 28 years and never received a Purple Heart. I’m just as glad, though. To get a Purple Heart, you have to get wounded at the hands of the enemy.
I wanted to send this out as a salute to my father and all the Dads in the world on Father’s Day 2020. Happy Father’s Day, dad.
More Stories by the Author
Stephen Dalton is a retired US Army First Sergeant with a degree in journalism from the University of Maryland and a Certified US English Chicago Manual of Style Editor. Currently living in the Philippines, Stephen is a Top Writer in Virtual Reality.
You can see his portfolio here. Email [email protected]
