For Dad (and Vinny, Patsy, Rusty, and Sis)

Private First Class, US Army; 491st Battalion, Battery A Gun Crew, a group of anti-aircraft and automatic weapons specialists so proficient at shooting down V1s and V2s and other assorted Luftwaffe over England that Stars and Stripes dubbed them "Murder, Inc."

And that was only for starters. The battalion also landed at Normandy and took part in the second invasion wave on D-Day.

God knows how, but all the members of Battery A Gun Crew — including Vinny, Patsy, and Rusty — made it back home safely.

And for Dad's Sis, a WAC Lieutenant who served in several military hospitals at home and abroad. A Patton in nurses regulation white shoes, she outranked all the males in her family and always insisted on being saluted.