BEFORE HOW IT STARTED

Yes I was born into all this mess somehow. I should start with a little background before all that and how it started and background checks hardly existed. My father was a Marine Engineer and his father a Machinist with Louisville and Nashville Railroads living in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Of course it seems that most of the men in the family are somehow related to engineering in some way. Being that my father was raised in a area that had a lot of family in river boating and boat building he would take to engineering like a duck takes to water. He lost his mother and sister in a tornado while he was in elementary school one day at the age of seven. They were found in a tree. His father working, family members stepped up to help with his growing up which had a big influence to his future.



He graduated from Jeffersonville High School and was financed by a local judge to go to college until the judge passed unexpectedly, bad luck for sure. With one year in Marine Engineering this then set his career in a uncertain path, but he had relatives working on the stern wheelers on the river. He became a Striker and later an Engineer. Most of you might ask what the heck is a Striker, well it is the lowest thing to the bilges or totem pole to some of you. I have a 8-3/4 x 13-3/4 frame picture of him and his Uncle, Chief Engineer George on a paddle wheeler. It is viewing them in engine room in front of a large triple expansion reciprocating steam engine, of course it is in black and white. This was in 1931 aboard one of Carnegie Steel boats. Uncle George was a steamboat engineer for 50 years on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and was a witness to the historical race of the Natchez and Robert E. Lee. He had seven children, twenty grand-children and six great-grandchildren and last that I know at the age of 86 he was married 65 years as of June 16, 1938.



I'm sure you recognize that I was not born yet so some of the information in these Blogs are only as good as my records and the stories I heard growing up, but will try my best to get it right!



As time passed my father continued to work on various boats for Carnegie Steel Corp. until 1936 and then went to work for Federal Barge Lines as a Engineer. Working his way up to Chief Engineer and meeting his first wife who later passed away at child birth with twins, only one surviving. This even complicated his life more as sailing the rivers and a newborn daughter. With all this on his table he conceded to let her be raised by her grandmother while he continued to work. This decision would later be something he would question as time went by. He later would meet my mother who had one son from a previous marriage.

This now gets back to How It All Started for me or at least just before. My Parents were living in Saint Louis, MO and my soon to be Dad was sailing the rivers. They were not poor but money was tight. So when I was to be born and the hospital bill was coming due there was not enough to pay the bill. My father came up with the idea that he could pay for me in a crap game, you know like rolling the dice. Well as it was told he won enough money to pay for me being born. So since then I was always told I was won in a crap game. Of course almost everyone knows that the rivers were famous for gambling years ago. I was won in a crap game! Sometimes I wonder if the dice were loaded, not my Dad!

HOW IT ALL STARTED

Born 1943 during WWII to a US Merchant Marine Chief Engineer serving in the dangerous waters of the World War II and by a mother in St. Louis, MO with a family of a uncertain future.
Many Merchant Mariners had been killed during the war and is said to have suffered the most casualties percentage by numbers, of any military service during the war, with the exception of the U.S. Marines. President Ronald Reagan acknowledged this in his 1988 National Maritime Day Proclamation, when he stated, "The importance of the merchant marine to our national defense was never more clear then in World War II when, at the cost of more than 6,000 lives and with a loss of 733 ships, the American Merchant Marine never faltered in delivering cargo for our Armed Forces throughout the world." Untold thousands of additional seafarers were wounded or injured in these attacks, and nearly 600 were made prisoners of war. General Douglas MacArthur said, "I hold no branch in higher esteem than the Merchant Marine Service." There was a book written called The Last American Hero's that will enlighten you to all the facts. This book was given to me by my oldest daughter and was even surprising to me, as having spent over 40 years as a Merchant Mariner with just a few challenges before that which played a big part to my future and will touch on later as the blog goes on. Hope everyone following will enjoy the long rocky journey.