{"id":11832,"date":"2017-04-30T23:54:30","date_gmt":"2017-05-01T03:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/?p=11832"},"modified":"2020-12-01T11:46:38","modified_gmt":"2020-12-01T16:46:38","slug":"2020-sergeant-dad-wwii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/?p=11832","title":{"rendered":"2020 – SERGEANT DAD (WWII)"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on November 30, 2020)<\/p>\n

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I was hoping to get to this in time to post it on November 2, which would have been my father\u2019s 99th birthday. Then I swore I\u2019d have it done by Veterans Day, November 11. Instead, I just barely got it done in November\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026..on his other son\u2019s birthday (HB, Ed!).<\/span><\/p>\n

Since I wrote about my mother\u2019s father being in WWI, it\u2019s time to switch to the Leafe side of the family: MY father in WWII.<\/span><\/p>\n

The real impetus for this topic actually revealed itself about a month before I made the Grandpa post when I came across a large draw-stringed bag that contained military jackets that covered some metal things\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026a pair of helmets!<\/span><\/p>\n

A week or so later, I found a box with a lot of old Kibbe and Leafe photos and other items that support both stories, so now that you\u2019ve seen the opening act, here comes the headliner: Sergeant Dad.<\/span><\/p>\n

What I found lets me piece together the first quarter-century of his life\u2026\u2026\u2026..sort of.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was amazed to find a photo of him and his mother when he was 6 DAYS old:<\/span><\/p>\n

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This photo is undated\u2026\u2026\u2026..how old could he be here – 6 or 7?<\/span><\/p>\n

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I seem to recall hearing something long ago about him being \u201cin need of discipline\u201d (or words to that effect), which resulted in him being enrolled at the Bordentown (NJ) Military Institute (BMI), but I didn\u2019t know when or for how long.<\/span><\/p>\n

This photo offers zero information, but it\u2019s definitely military-looking:<\/span><\/p>\n

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However, nothing identifies it as BMI-issue.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Enter 2 of the 3 jackets in that bag. The first:<\/span><\/p>\n

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This appears to match the jacket in the photo (and what\u2019s up with the folded-up sleeves? A rebellious fashion statement?)<\/span><\/p>\n

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The buttons and ROTC patch cinch the deal:<\/span><\/p>\n

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The second jacket is a bit less-festooned:<\/span><\/p>\n

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I wanted to see if I could get some more information about his time at BMI. I found an email address with \u201cbmicadets\u201d in it and sent all the questions and pix.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the reply:<\/span><\/p>\n

As you may know, Bordentown Military Institute merged in 1972 with the Lenox School in Lenox, MA.\u00a0 The merger lasted only one year and BMI\/LENOX closed its doors forever in June 1973.\u00a0 We do not know what happened to all of the records after that time.\u00a0 However, I do have a BMI Alumni Directory dated 1968.\u00a0 It lists Leafe, Norman S. Jr., ’34-35.\u00a0 That means he attended BMI for only one year and did not graduate. The 1968 directory lists his address as 523 Cumberland Avenue, Teaneck, NJ.\u00a0 I worked at BMI as a secretary for 22 years and I regret that I do not have more information to help you with your search.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Well, it\u2019s more info than I had before. If their school year began in September, then he entered BMI when he was 2 months shy of his 13th birthday. I know he went to Teaneck High for junior and senior year, but I don\u2019t know where he got his sophomore-year schooling.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Here are Norman S. Leafe Sr. and Jr. on July 28, 1935 – probably the month after he exited BMI. I don\u2019t know how much discipline he absorbed there\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.he still looks like a bit of a wise-ass. By the way – NSL Sr., is the grandfather of mine who died 3 days after I was born:<\/span><\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve been looking for some way to work this interesting family photo into this post\u2026\u2026\u2026..I mean – look<\/em> at her: that smile, that phone, that seat backing, that thing in her hat that looks like a bird diving beak-first!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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This undated photo identifies her as \u201cNorman\u2019s grandmother\u201d\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026which<\/em> Norman? So she\u2019s either my great-grandmother or my great-great-grandmother. I\u2019m guessing it\u2019s the former.<\/span><\/p>\n

Either way, she looks like a real character\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026and kinda cool.<\/span><\/p>\n

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I bought this 1938 THS yearbook (Dad\u2019s senior year) on eBay. It belonged to a classmate of his named Dorothy Parrish. I DO have his copy, but – of course – it has everyone\u2019s signature but his:<\/span><\/p>\n

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The above pic\/info was previously posted here: https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/?p=9366<\/span><\/a>. If you want to know what the \u201cless amorously-demanding\u201d comment is about, here you go:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Now out of high school, here\u2019s Dad on 9-18-41 with his harem-attracting hot convertible:<\/span><\/p>\n

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BTW – I remember that license plate\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.well, plates<\/em>\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026hanging in our garage when I was a kid. I was disappointed that I never found them when I cleaned out my parents\u2019 house after their passing. I always wanted to get that same BP77E in the same configuration (B over P), but it\u2019s never been available that way.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Dad had started working at IBM World Headquarters at 590 Madison Avenue in Manhattan – where the boy from Jersey met a girl from Long Island (future wife Eunice) – but I don\u2019t know when he started there or when he entered the army.<\/span><\/p>\n

But I DO have one of his army jackets – the 3rd jacket I found in that draw-stringed bag:<\/span><\/p>\n

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At least I hope it\u2019s his. In the inner upper back of the neck area, it appears to have the word \u201cWALT\u201d written in it:<\/span><\/p>\n

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But it DOES have a sergeant\u2019s patch and I know he made that rank. Here\u2019s that patch, along with everything else that\u2019s on the jacket:<\/span><\/p>\n

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I have NOT researched what they all represent, so if anyone is knowledgeable in that department, please post in Comments.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Helmets!<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know much about these either, so if you do\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

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I think the second one may be from WWI. This looks similar: https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/WhichWar<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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This undated photo shows Dad somewhere during WWII:<\/span><\/p>\n

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This may be one of the most interesting things I found. I wonder if many (any?) other solders kept a small notebook with them throughout 29 months of service in the Pacific Theater.<\/span><\/p>\n

In it, Dad made note of every<\/u> departure and arrival at every<\/u> place he was sent during those almost-2\u00bd years AND the name of every<\/u> ship that took him to those places.<\/span><\/p>\n

I had found that notebook years ago, scanned its pages and printed them out. Now, I haven\u2019t been able to find the notebook (yet), but I DID find the printouts and rescanned them to be larger:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Dad in 1944, but there\u2019s no indication as to where this was taken:<\/span><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\nhttps:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/24-Meanwhile-back-in-the-States.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Mom was part of the Men-In-Service Committee at IBM (second woman from the right standing against the wall):<\/span><\/p>\n

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This is the same Committee\u2019s Christmas card. Mom is sitting on the left:<\/span><\/p>\n

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I remember that her boss’ name was George Skelton. The woman standing on the right (Rose Cobb) was a longtime friend of my mother\u2019s whom I remember visiting in Poughkeepsie when I was a kid. We called her \u201cAunt Rose\u201d, but I could never figure out how we were related (nobody told me we weren\u2019t).<\/span><\/p>\n

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The IBM Wall of Honor was an ongoing Committee project throughout the war. Dad is circled in green:<\/span><\/p>\n

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A different angle\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.this time Dad\u2019s circled in yellow. Mr. Skelton appears to be sitting at the same desk as in the Christmas card picture (the same flag photo is behind him). Mom is at her desk (closest woman to the window) and Rose Cobb is behind her. Mom has an IBM \u201cTHINK\u201d sign on her desk. When she died, her sister Joan requested and received it. I have my father\u2019s sign placed above the entrance to my bathroom, where it\u2019s said that a man does his best thinking (or is it \u201cstinking\u201d?). <\/span><\/p>\n

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By the way – my mother was a secretary at IBM. I found a strange item amongst all this memorabilia that I had never seen or heard of before: steno cuffs, which supposedly protected your sleeves from\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.something (not much online info about these items):<\/span><\/p>\n

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I found some letters from Dad\u2019s Mom (our Nana), Dorothy Kavrik (she divorced NSL, Sr. and married a Little Ferry, NJ, police captain named Stanley Kavrik). She refers to \u201cCap\u201d in the letter, so I guess that\u2019s him). They actually lived on Kavrik Street! (I have NO idea how that came about).<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of the letters are handwritten and many pages long, so I picked this one-page 8-6-45 typed letter from her office at work. Some of it went off-topic and personal, so I redacted that part:<\/span><\/p>\n

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You\u2019ll note that she calls him \u201cSpence\u201d near the end. She always called him that to differentiate him from his same-named father, Norman Spencer Leafe, Sr.<\/span><\/p>\n

She overloaded on the \u201cdarling\u201ds so much that even she<\/em> made a note about it. Too bad she didn\u2019t include a picture of the chickens with his name on them. \ud83d\ude09<\/span><\/p>\n

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She mentions the \u201cEmpire State disaster\u201d. On July 28, 1945, a bomber flew into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building. In a subsequent letter to Dad, she included the front page of the next-day Herald Tribune:<\/span><\/p>\n

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According to my father\u2019s War Wanderings list, he was in the Philippines on 8-6-45, so I don\u2019t know why his APO mail in San Francisco was redirected to his home address in Teaneck. That happened on the other ones I have as well:<\/span><\/p>\n

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By the way, you may have noticed JASCO in the midst of the Philippines listings. That stands for \u201cJoint Assault Signal Company\u201d, which might give a clue as to what he actually did during the war (Sibs: try https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/NSLJASCO<\/a><\/span>).<\/span><\/p>\n

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Nana worked in the engineering department (I think as a secretary) of Air Associates, Inc. Here\u2019s a 1945 ad for them:<\/span><\/p>\n

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On 10-10-45, the secretary of the Men In Service Committee (Mom) sent a letter and photo to NSL, Sr.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A month later, Dad was back to work. Here\u2019s his 11-5-45 IBM ID card:<\/span><\/p>\n

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The following Spring, Dad appears to be considering a new uniform and way of life:<\/span><\/p>\n

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This appears to cause Eunice to consider doing the same:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Uh, oh! A rift?<\/span><\/p>\n

Actually, this sequence of images makes it seem that way, but the truth is the sequence is actually backwards. Mom in uniform was taken on 2-6-44, Marine enlistment contemplation was taken on 11-4-45 and Dad\u2019s apparent LGBTQ dalliance was shot on 4-21-46, so it never happened.<\/span><\/p>\n

Want proof? Two months later (6-24-46), Mom submitted her letter of resignation from IBM because she was marrying Dad on 7-13-46:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Good thing she did or else I might not be here to post this:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Extra picture that didn’t fit in anywhere:<\/span><\/p>\n

590 Madison Avenue is between 56th and 57th Streets. Trump Tower would have been right behind them on 5th Avenue. The info on the back of the picture says it was taken from IBM’s roof on 4-20-45. The Chrysler Building on 42nd St is the second building from the left edge and the Empire State Building on 34th St is the third building from the right edge, so this picture is a south view:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Nice shot, Mom.<\/span><\/p>\n

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One last rather cosmic connection (they loved this): In October 1968, I was subcontracted to IBM in their East Fishkill, NY facility’s chem lab for one year to analyze chemicals that were used on computer chips. If that story is of interest to anyone, it’s included here: https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/?p=6541<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on November 30, 2020)   I was hoping to get to this in time to post it on November 2, which would have been my father\u2019s 99th birthday. Then I swore I\u2019d have it done by Veterans Day, November 11. Instead, I just barely got […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11832"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11898,"href":"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11832\/revisions\/11898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}