Honor Thy Father – Chapter 2

First and foremost, thank you to all who have read my past blog posts and my book, “Homey’s Adventures.” 

As promised, I am writing this book as a sequel to the happy ending of my first book. I just started writing this book, but publishers frequently give the reader a taste of the coming book by including the first two chapters. So, without delay here is Chapter 2 of my third book: 

Chapter 2 – First Mission 

 My mother and father met in California after my father volunteered in the United States Army Air Forces. They were introduced to each other by my uncle Jim, my mother’s brother, and my aunt Nicey, my dad’s older sister. Yes, I was named after Jim.  

Like thousands of other young people caught up in the throes of war, they got married soon after they met. They stayed married until my father’s death in 1984. I believe there is something we can learn from this.  

I lived with my ex-wife 4 years before we got married. I know now that I did not know the important things about her until after we were married 16 years. She hid the fact that she had incest in her family, and she was raped when she was 16. 

I heard my mother once say that she did not know that my father drank so much when she married him. I suspect that my father did not understand her puritanical ways. Somehow, they found a way to look past each other’s faults and stayed married until the end. 

My minister says that people who live together before marriage are statistically more likely to get a divorce after marriage. I believe that you should marry because you are madly in love with the person because that is the only thing that will help you succeed in marriage. I married my best friend and that was the wrong reason. 

After marriage, my father was stationed in Yuma, Arizona. My mother worked in a secretary pool under the command of Barry Goldwater. Barry Goldwater would run for president in 1964. If he had won over Lyndon Johnson, we probably would have not gotten into the Vietnam war. That war radically changed this country for the worse. It is also why I became a Republican even though my family was traditionally Democrat. 

There was no air-conditioning in Yuma in the early 1940’s. I remember my mom saying the thing she remembered most about Yuma was that it was so hot! Both of my parents were smart and talented. My dad was promoted to Master Sargent and my mother become the personal secretary to one of the Colonels stationed in Yuma.  

In early 1945, my dad was assigned to Tinian Island in the Marianas. The most famous thing about Tinian Island is it was the home base of the Enola Gay. My father’s last mission in his journal was May 10^th, 1945. On 6 August 1945, piloted by Paul Tibbets and Robert A. Lewis during the final stages of World War II, the Enola Gay became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in warfare. The bomb, code-named “Little Boy“, was targeted at the city of Hiroshima, Japan, and caused the destruction of about three quarters of the city. Enola Gay participated in the second nuclear attack as the weather reconnaissance aircraft for the primary target of Kokura. Clouds and drifting smoke resulted in a secondary target, Nagasaki, being bombed instead. 

Like most veterans, my father did not like talking about the war. When I was about 10, I was rummaging in our attic, and I found a picture of Nagasaki before it was bombed.  

I asked my dad: Did you know Colonel Tibbets? 

He reluctantly replied: Yes 

And that was all that he wanted to say. 

 Those photos have since disappeared. I suspected that my father did not want them around anymore. I have always wondered about the problems associated with being so close to that event. I personally would not judge anyone who fought in that war. America did not start the war and advisors to President Truman said that the atomic bombs was projected to save 1 million American lives and probably many times that in Japanese lives. The bomb killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians, and this was a dark time in USA history. 

My father and my hero did keep a journal of the details of his missions over Japan. I would like to share his entries from the first mission with you my reader: 

This first mission prayer and the plane insignia confirms my proposition that all men have a Jim and a Homey part of themselves. I suggest the naked Island Queen picture represents the selfless love that these heroes fought for. Love of God, love of country, love of their way of life, and love of their families and sweethearts. 

End Of Chapter 2 

My brother’s son-in-law, Leeway suggested that we publish my father’s journal as a coffee table book. My original idea for this book was to meet the descendants of the 11 men who were saved by father and write about my adventures. Many of them including me would not be alive if my father did not create a way to keep the plane from crashing on their 6^th mission.  

Honor Thy Father will be a culmination of both Leeway’s and my original idea. I will write a love story built around my father’s Journal. I will protect the privacy of myself and all the descendants of crew of the Island Queen. I will write about love of God, love of country, love of the American way of life, love of family and love of God’s children. I love the way the movie Pearl Harbor told the war story as a story of love. I want to do the same with Honor Thy Father. 

For example, as I was researching the material for Chapter 2, I learned that Enola Gay was the mother of Colonel Tibbits. I question the wisdom of naming the most destructive weapon of World War II after one’s mother. I could understand naming it after one’s mother-in law. 😁 Homey then wondered about the origins of the Island Queen. I doubt if she was mother of any of the plane’s crew. 😁 

I just started writing my new book and I have a lot of research to do. I plan to share some of my work as time and resources permits. Originally, I started this blog as an eclectic mix of what I was thinking during the week and book reviews. I will do some of that too. So, you do not want to miss what follows. Follow my blog to make sure you receive it. 

If you do not want to wait that long and you have not read my first book. I encourage you to go to my website, www.homeysadventures.com. You can read the first two chapters for free, and you can also purchase it. Or you can purchase it from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many other fine retailers. Just search for it using the words: Homey’s Adventures by Jim Wish. 

If you liked this blog post, please click on the like button at the bottom of this page. If you Love my work, then please donate to my future writing: 

I liken myself to the Vienna Violinist described in chapter 5 of Homey’s Adventures Too. I play (write) for your enjoyment and mine. May God bless you all on this Memorial Day.