Fascinating
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
When the USS Missouri came into Cook’s inlet my father us for a tour of the battle ship and pointed out the the spot where the peace accord was signed. My brother and I were very young but we understood the importance of the ceremony. Fast forward many years my dad and I grabbed a hop to New Zealand with a layover in Honolulu. He took me to all the WWII spots on the island. The most impressive were the cemetery in the Punch Bowl and the trip out to the USS Arizona Memorial. I had read Day of Infamy by Walter Lord in school; with that in mind I understood how hollowed the graveyard of ships and humans was. More years passed and on our way to Cubi Point, PI with the boys I took them on the same tour. My mom was with us as far as Hawaii so it was meaningful to her too. Later older son, a 4th grader at the time, went with me by boat to Corrigador. We toured the Malinta tunnels. (My husband has flown VIPS there many times.) After that ttrip I read every book I could find at the base library on the war in the Pacific, especailly the eye witness ones of the Japanese occupation.
My late Uncle Bill Taylor was a sailor on the USS Missouri during the surrender ceremonies.
That is really neat. Do you have any of your Uncle Bill’s reminiscences written down?
Uncle Bill was a bon vivant and a general good time Charlie. He never talked about the War. He spent almost all of his time serving on the carrier the USS Bennington, which saw a lot of combat after its launching in 1944. I think he preferred to talk about happy and funny things, rather than recalling memories which were probably fairly grim.
I think I got the fact about him being at the Surrender from his wife, my Aunt Betty. She passed in 2004 and he passed in 2013. They were married for 57 years.