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Topic: PT 283 Crew |
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Virginia Lorberau
New Member
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Posted on: Mar 11, 2015 - 2:08pm
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How nice to see my Daddy, GM3 John R. Day Jr., smack dab in the middle of the photo of the PT 283 crew. The man with his hat cocked to the side. Too bad you can't his tats - he was covered. If you look hard you can see some on his arms. He was 25 at the time, older than most of the crew. He had tried to re-enlist with the Marines in' 42, however, he was married and the Marines would not accept him.
Daddy died in 2005-age 88 old age. He served in the Marines '36-40 , Navy 42-'46 Army 47-60
He spoke of the night the boat was blown apart, he wanted so badly to save a young engineer, who's 21st birthday it was, he swam back and forth through burning gasoline time and time again looking for him and never found him. Daddy did save the life of one of the crew members of PT 283 and they stayed in touch through the years.
Daddy went on to crew with the remnants of the PT 109's crew - all of whom spoke very highly of JFK.
My Dad really got ramped up when he talked about running night missions, heading for shore at 40 MPH and then pulling a hard 90, manning the 50 cal screaming obscenities as the gunboat came alive and whatever was in the foliage was decimated.
If you have any pictures of PT 283 - please get a hold of me
Virginia Day Lorberau
valorberau@yahoo.com
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victorkchun
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Posted on: Mar 12, 2015 - 8:29am
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Virginia, my blood was pumping hard as I read your description of the night mission.
Victor K Chun |
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