2024 Week 17 - War

         There are lots of wars in our history – some family members fought in, others they lived through, and others I really don’t know anything about.

       I’ve written previous blog posts about family veterans.  One looked at ancestors serving or providing service during the American Revolution.  Another looked at those who served during the Civil War.

       The Belles family knew how to serve their country.  Let’s start with the current generation.  My son, Nathan, served in
the US Navy from May 2010 to December 2017.  This would include Operation New Dawn in Iraq, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Freedom’s Sentinal in Afghanistan.  He was in the Persian Gulf in 2016 serving aboard the USS Ramage that was part of an escort for an aircraft carrier. 

My husband, David, served in Vietnam in 1970 in the US Army.  I’ll have to ask him to write about his time.  He’s talked about it some but I don’t have all the details.

        My father-in-law, Jack, served in the US Navy during WWII.  He enlisted in September 1942 and was discharged in December 1945.  In May 1943 he started serving aboard the USS SC746 (a sub-chaser) as an F1c on temporary duty to the 7^th Fleet.  He advanced to MoMM2c in December 1943.  In 1945 he had training at the Atlantic Fleet Amphibious Training Base.  In December 1945, he was transferred from LSM500 (a medium landing ship) to San Diego Staging Center for discharge.  Interesting thing, two of his brothers also served during WWII.  Frank was also in the Navy (S2) and was on the USS Amesbury (APD46) in June 1945.  The ship was also in the Pacific.  Fred served in the Army Air Corp as a mechanic.