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restoration going on in Portland, Oregon. TIMING LIGHTS
We went for a ride on the boat and listened
to all of the stories that the Veterans were AVAILABLE AT TLI
telling. One man there that day seemed to
recognize Dad for some reason. Being a Jim Wolak, DTM and Area 31 Director-
torpedoman, Dad had been on most of the elect will have several battery operated
PT boats loading and arming torpedoes. This timing lights for sale on June 25. Each
Veteran was on one of the PT boats during the light has 3 bright LED’s. Two versions are
Kamikaze attack. He and Dad traded stories available: one with 1-1/4” diameter lights
for a while, and I had to ask what it was like and the larger one has 2-1/2” diameter
to have a thousand pound bomb go off forty lamps. Each light has 3 bright LED’s and
yards away. Both he and Dad said almost at is manually controlled.
the same time, “No, it was forty feet.” The
bomb had gone off just below the surface of Advantages of these timing lights:
the water, stowed in the side of Dad’s ship, and
flipped over one of the PT boats. Ssuddenly • More visible than cards
the stories Dad had told us about his times
in the Navy were all true. • Handy for outside meetings, such as
Speechcraft or YL
It was many years later when Dad finished
the story of not having his first Purple Heart • A great addition to every D7 leader’s
a few days after we had given him the shadow toolkit
box with his medals. He had confided with
me that he gave back his Purple Heart so the Prices range from $15 - $30 depending on
Captain could pin it on the chest of his fellow the style.
torpedoman they were about to bury at sea.
They were short of medals at the time. He was Cash, Checks and PayPal accepted.
not the only one who returned their medals
to honor their shipmates so highly. Dad’s first
medal rests eternally with his shipmate and
fellow torpedoman.

My father confided about some of the
demons he lived with in his life after WWII.
They included what happened to his fellow
torpedoman, firing a torpedo from a PT boat
himself that sank a Japanese destroyer, and
getting blown off the same PT boat trying to
get away, just to name a few. The one thing I
will remember for the rest of my life was that
Dad told me that there wasn’t a single story
he told my family that was made up.

With Honor and Respect Dad

Bob joined Liberty Talkers in 2011. He is a
Mechanical Engineer and CEO of New Ventures
Engineering, LLC specializing in product
development, engineering, and prototyping. He
holds over 20 patents granted with several in
process. Contact him at BobNiemeyer.com

Volume 2 Issue 12 - JUNE 2016 37