The Greatest Generation

My daughter is an art student in her senior year in college.  Her focus is in illustration and she has a project this semester in which she needed a tightly cropped photo of my dad for reference.  I shot the photo for her last week and while I was at it, decided to get a portrait of him.

Quick story on my dad.  A member of the Greatest Generation, he is a WWII and Korean Conflict veteran and Corsair pilot.  He enlisted in the Marines immediately following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and found himself pulling guard duty on the tarmac of an airstrip in Pearl Harbor after being deployed immediately following boot camp. 

As he watched the airplane traffic, he quickly realized that he didn't want to spend the entire war on guard duty.  He asked around and learned how he could apply for flight school.  He took a correspondence course in math (used in navigation, etc.) in order to increase his chances of passing the entrance exam and then pestered his CO for permission to take the test until he was allowed.  He passed and the rest is history. 

By the end of WWII he was a Captain and pilot of a Corsair, in his opinion the best all-round fighter of the prop engine era (what else would you expect?).  He re-upped when the Korean Conflict fired up and spent additional years flying the Corsair in Korea until his honerable discharge. 

As of this writing he is 91 years old and known for his wit.  He is famous for saying; "I've been through two wars, two wives, four kids and a whole host of medical problems!"

In honor of my father.  Truly one of the greatest.