Memories of the Greatest Generation!

[Timothy]

Elton James Bevins 1919-1989  US Navy BTC 1938-1948

Purple Hearts x 2
Good Conduct x 2
Philippine Liberation Medal
Sea Service Deployment x 5
WWII Victory Medal
Honorable Discharge

Bluenose Certificate
Newfoundland Skreech Certificate
Icelandic Domain Certificate
Order of the Golden Shellback Certificate
Order of the Spanish Main Certificate
Panama Canal Certificate

USS Texas BB 35
USS Wasp CV 7
USS Wederburn DD 684
USS Soley DD 707
Plankowner Certificate


Dad was born in Otsego, MI the youngest of nine brothers and sisters. His time in service is well documented in a scrapbook in my possession.  Of the ten years active duty, eight years were spent at sea.

Nearly every picture I have of him in uniform, two things are present. A shot of whiskey in one hand and an attractive women on his arm....Apparently, something we had in common.....

After the war, he worked driving Greyhound buses and apprenticed at General Motors as a tool and die maker where he eventually retired after thirty years at Fisher Body, Plant No. 1 in Grand Rapids, MI. He raised two daughters and three sons on a meager income.

All three sons served in the US Navy for a total family service of 42 years.

Feel free to add your Pop, uncle, cousin, friend, brother...

[tombogan03884]

Dan Bogan
Sgt USMC Machine gun section leader
Korea 1952
Silver Star
Purple Heart
Presidential Unit Citation
Korean Presidential Unit Citation
With the Good Conduct, and "I was there" medals he earned 3 rows of ribbons for 3 years of service.

[twyacht]

Thomas Diamond Watchorn
United States Navy Feb. 1942-May 1946
B.M. 2/6
Member of the crew on the U.S.S Hornet, CV-8, as a 17 year old from Sapulpa, OK, during the Doolittle Raid Apr. 1942.
Was also a 20mm Oerlikon Gunner onboard, when the Hornet was attacked and eventually sunk, and was a Purple Heart recipient for injuries suffered off Santa Cruz.
Combat medals and ribbons, rescued downed pilots, participated in Midway, Okinawa, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Marshall Islands.

Served onboard everything from the Battleship U.S.S. North Carolina, to Fletcher class Destroyers, as well as piloted LCV's in many island campaigns across the Pacific.

(Just one of those sailors that could do any task/order given)

 Re-enlisted in the Naval Reserves and was a Korean War Veteran, participating in the numerous supply ships that ferried food/ammo/medical supplies to the troops.

Went to MIT on the GI Bill, started Watchorn Hydraulics in Miami, was awarded a NASA contract for launch pad retraction systems, and repaired aviation landing gears and other hyd. systems for airlines.

Incredible man. Stories he kept silent until he knew his time was short for this world. Stories he told me that I will cherish. Was there when I bought my first handgun. A used Ruger Police Service Six. He just felt it, with his well worn hands, wiggled this, pushed on that, smiled and approved. I paid $250.

They truly are the greatest generation. He was a hunter as a boy, took fondling a firearm to the next level as he knew tolerances, and mechanical engineering as we know tying our shoes. It came natural to him. Witnessed things only those that were there will ever know.

He told me, that incoming bullets made a sound he would never forget. Modern movies can come close, but not to the soldiers and sailors that were there to hear them.



RIP Grandpa. Wish you were here today.

[Pathfinder]

Donald Blair Lowe, Jr.
1st Lt., USAAF
8th Air Force
398th BG
601 Sqdn.

Piloted B-17G from Nuthampstead, East Anglia, England on numerous missions over France and Germany. Key missions included Stuttgart, Normandy on June 5, 1944, the Falaise Gap (it was one of his BG squadrons, but thankfully not his, that accidentally bombed friendly Polish forces at the Falaise) and Berlin.

Earned the DFC and Air Medal, plus has a chunk of flak they dug out of the back of his armored seat back. I still have his flight jacket, the summer one. We wore his boots and hat out a long, long time ago.

Went to art school after returning, became an industrial designer, introduced me to Raymond Loewy's work. Dad was a minimalist, his entire office was white except the floor which was white with gold flecks. Seems there was no all-white linoleum . . . .   

He designed the "look and feel" of film strip/record player combos (remember those?), commercial kitchen appliances, hair clippers, massagers, electric blanket controls and the Water-Pik. Yeah, that Water Pik. I remember him sitting at the beach house north of Charleston, SC as he mixed plaster, made a clay model of the hair clippers, built the mold, and then used resin to make the prototype of his design.It was magic.

He also made some jewelery early on, and made some sterling silver things - playing card deck holders, small things like that.

Dad started a gun club when my brother and I were pre-teens with a number of other Dads. We used Army surplus bolt .22s that we stored in the basement just leaning against the wall. I had little, short T-Rex arms, so my barrel bounced off the floor at the range more than a few times until I got the hang of it.

We met at the VFW, had to walk through the smoky, beer-stink bar to get to the gathering room. To this day, I can remember that classic dive bar smell.

When the Steve McQueen movie The War Lover came out, the studio flew a B-17G around the country as an advertisement. It had "The War Lover" painted across the underside of the barn-side wings. Dad took us into Midway airport in Chicago, and we got a tour of the plane, including sitting in the cockpit. We weren't allowed in the tail or the nose tho. Entry was through the waist door, exit through the nose hatch.

I found out that day that the bomb bay in the 17 doubled as the latrine. As an adult, I cannot imagine parking my kiester over the open bomb bay at 18,000 feet and taking a dump. But, that is what they did.

As we toured the plane, Dad struck up a conversation with the pilot who was a former B-17 pilot during the war as well. they chatted all through the plane, none of which conversation I remember. As we exited the nose, down a step ladder (where was OSHA? Think of the children!!!!  ), Dad muttered "I've got to see if I can still do it" and he moved the step ladder.

From inside the plane, we all heard a voice yelling "Hey, who moved the ladder?" The pilot stuck his head out, saw Dad, and said "Oh, it's you Don, go ahead!" He knew.

Dad walked over to the hatch, jumped up, grabbed the inside beam on the upper lip of the hatchway, chinned himself on the outside, and swung his legs into the plane through the hatch, followed by his entire body - all in less time that it took you to read this. And just like you see in the movies.

Dad took on a whole new level of awesomeness that day.

He never was into guns other than the .22s we shot. Never hunted so far as I know. Also - typically for that generation - never talked much about the war, it is was just a nasty, ugly, horrific time in his life when he had the lives of 10 men in his hands and people were actively trying to kill him and his crew.