My Own Santini (eBook)

A Father and Son Story

John J. Case (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2021 | 1. Auflage
234 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-0983-6894-4 (ISBN)

Infos

In 1951, John Case made his arrival as the fifth of six children born to an Irish Catholic mother and Marine Corps father. What he had no way of knowing was that his father had not wanted a fifth or sixth child and openly resented their presence. John would spend most of his childhood living in fear of a repeat of a terrifying display of anger that occurred when he was seven years old. That fear would continue until he reached a personal epiphany and escaped the constant state of implied threat that had defined his childhood in so many ways. His story also traces the ups and downs of his parent's relationship, and how the phases of that relationship impacted their parenting abilities, interest and competency. Set against the backdrop of 1950s and 60s middle class America, from California to Hawaii to Michigan, My Own Santini also reflects the changes in American culture from the relative calm of the post war years to the volatility of the late sixties. At times both heartbreaking and heartwarming, My Own Santini is the story of a personal journey that proves that one's past does not dictate one's future and, as importantly, even life lessons learned through pain and fear can be used to craft a positive result.

Textauszug

Chapter 4 Post War Happiness

In August,1950, while still in Quantico, my father once again underwent six months of advanced electronics training. Two months earlier he had been granted clearance to handle information classified as Secret. In February,1951 he packed up his pregnant wife and four children (ages five to two) and drove cross country to his new assignment at Point Magu, California, the epicenter of the Navy’s guided missile research program. 1951 would represent a year of immense change for my father, due in part to the fact that the United States Marines now had a problem with Master Sergeant Kenneth K. Case.

That young enlisted man from Nampa, Idaho had absorbed every bit of training in radar, radio and electronics that the Marines could offer. As a Master Sergeant, he was now at the highest rank an enlisted man could achieve. In other words, this highly trained, highly skilled electronics genius, couldn’t go any further in the ranks.

I don’t know how common this problem was, but the Marines had a solution. On August 19, 1951 Master Sergeant Kenneth Case left the United States Marine Corps and on August 20, 1951, having received a commission, Second Lieutenant Kenneth K. Case joined the Regular Marines.

The commission reads in part:

“The subject officer has been closely associated with guided missile development since the organization of Marine Corps Aviation Guided Missile Unit #1 at U.S. Naval Air Missile Test Center, Point Magu, California. His technical ability and personal initiative has enabled him to contribute materially to the development of complex electronic equipment both at this center and at contractors facilities. For the last twelve months he has served in a technical and command capacity in the unit and has demonstrated an outstanding ability to grasp the fundamentals of a problem and approach the solution in a clear cut analytical manner.”

Like I said, one smart son of a bitch.

1951 is also when I begin to really layer family life and my father’s career, to figure out the dynamics of what was going on in each and how it shaped events in my early life.

The family had settled in at 4328 Carfax Avenue in Long Beach, California. On June 4, 1951, baby number five arrived, John Joseph Case, named after my beloved maternal grandfather. I was born on the base hospital, which is officially in Port Hueneme, California. What I didn’t know at the time, but learned later, was that despite my mother’s 1950’s Catholic mindset that she was obligated to go forth and multiply, my father had been very happy with four kids and had no desire for any more. Lucky me.

In September of 1951, my father was listed as a Guided Missile Officer and was put on temporary duty as a liaison officer with the Sperry Gyroscope Company in Great Neck, New York. Following his return, he was put on temporary duty with the Douglas Aircraft Company back in Long Beach. It is very clear that he was heavily involved with the development of Guided Missile Systems, as also evidenced by him being approved in early 1952 for flight status as an Electronics Technician with Point Magu, Guided Missile Unit #1.

On May 29, 1951, he passed the Educational Equivalent Test and in doing so, his records would now reflect “that he possesses educational information equivalent to satisfactory completion of a four (4) year course at an accredited college or university”. In November, 1952, Second Lieutenant Case was promoted to 1st Lieutenant. By any measure, Casey was rockin and rollin’ in 1952.

From January to July, 1953 he was assigned as a Missile Officer at Point Magu. In August, he was abruptly re-assigned as Communications Officer for the 1st Battalion at Camp Pendleton. His guided missile days were over and my father wasn’t pleased. It would appear that he was caught in an authentic, real time Catch-22.

The Marines had a brilliant electronics guy, who was made a commissioned officer in order to keep his expertise in the Corps. At the time he received his temporary commission into the Regular Marine Corps, his commanding officer at Point Magu had directly requested that “Master Sergeant Case remain at his present station for duty when commissioned.” As a junior officer, he was able to work on classified missile guidance systems but his work in missiles was categorized as “Electronics”, a functional field that the Corps, in its regulations, declared was not-suitable for officers.

You have officers and soldiers in the armed forces. During the war, in the rush to train the number of radio and radar technicians needed, plus the need to be developing cutting edge weapons systems, lines became blurred. In effect, my father had become the equivalent of a highly trained electronics engineer, needed by the Marine Corps as it continued to work with companies on developing guided missiles. But in 1953, civilian companies were now doing the development work. Even though during and right after the war, the Marines in effect needed engineers, the world had finally caught up. The Marine Corps now could get back to the basics. We have soldiers and officers. We don’t have engineers.

When my father received his temporary commission in 1951, he had been allowed to continue his guided missile work at Pt. Magu. In practice, when a soldier had passed all the requirements to be commissioned as a second lieutenant, he would receive a temporary commission, replete with the rank and pay. He would also secure his number on the promotion list. However, it wasn’t until the Marine Corps had a need for a second lieutenant and you had reached the top of the promotion list that your commission became final. From 1951 to 1953, my father had been able to continue his work on missiles, but when that commission became final in 1953, he was just like any officer. He was now at the bottom of the barrel in the officer corps, prior experience in guided missiles be damned.

It was when this new reality kicked in that my father attempted to resign his commission and leave the Marines. On September 14, 1953, he submitted his letter of resignation to the Marines. It reads in part:

I hereby tender my resignation from the U.S. Marine Corps.

This resignation is tendered for the following reason: I desire to utilize my thirteen years of Marine Corps electronics experience, including specialized work with guided missiles, as a foundation for greater achievements in this field. Electronics, as a primary vocation, cannot be continued in the Marine Corps due to restrictions as noted in Paragraph 3.

Electronics as a functional field is not suitable for regular unrestricted officers of the Marine Corps. I was placed in this officer category by integration January 20, 1953, but retained primary duties as a Missile Guidance Officer until July 1, 1953.

 

On October 8, 1953 the Marine Corps turned down his resignation request, telling him the reasons he wanted out “do not meet the criteria established for the separation of officers of the Regular Marine Corps”.

And, by the way, your wife is pregnant…again.

All of this detail is important to understand how my father’s military life was beginning to unravel while we were enjoying life on Carfax Avenue.

In October, 1953, just days after his request to leave the Marines was denied, until April of 1954, his duty assignment was to the base hospital in Long Beach; as a patient.

When he was admitted, the doctor wrote the following:

Complaining of low back pain, intermittently present for the last several years. It was moderately disabling and not associated with sciatic pain. X-rays showed 1st degree spondylolisthesis.

Treatment consisted of surgery for spine fusion January 5, 1954 following a trial with relief of pain in a flexion jacket plaster cast. In April, 1954 he is ambulatory with a long back brace and x-ray shows good fusion mass from L4 to S1.

Looking at the timing of this surgery, right on the heels of no longer being assigned to the missile program, I can only speculate as to what was going on. I surmise that my father had been putting up with some serious back issues, but was toughing it out while he was doing what he loved, working on missiles at Pt. Magu. Once that was over, he sought relief through some major surgery.

A full chest cast kept him immobilized for three months. Then he was put on “desk duty” while recovering. He was assigned as Assistant Legal Officer at Battalion Headquarters at Pendleton and then, as a Company Commander to finish out 1954 and move in to 1955.

He was now doing what all regular Marine officers do; moving from command to command, taking on new assignments and slowly crawling up the ranks. It was not the life he was interested in (as evidenced by his attempted resignation), but it was his life now.

On May 5, 1954, my father received word that his mother Corinne had passed away. On June 24, 1954, baby number six arrived, Kenneth Knowlson Case, named after my father, but not officially a Junior. (What is it about this family and names?). My mother had named him that hoping it would create a bond between baby and father. It didn’t work. If my father had been irritated when a fifth baby arrived, he was really not happy when my brother arrived three years later. So unhappy that, according to my mother, he neither took her to the hospital, visited her or brought the baby home. He was...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 4.6.2021
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• ISBN-10: 1-0983-6894-0 / 1098368940
• ISBN-13: 978-1-0983-6894-4 / 9781098368944