Pearl Harbor Day…December 7, 2019: Today we remember the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor which happened on this day in 1941. The surprise attack on Hawaii was the trigger that led to the United States entering WWII. My father, Chester Pomorski, was a young high school senior attending Macomber High School in Toledo, Ohio. A few months later he was granted early graduation along with many of his fellow classmates who elected to join up and fight for freedom. Dad joined the United States Navy with his good friend Frank Obarski. A couple of young Polish kids, first generation, who were doing their part to fight evil in the world. Dad served in the Pacific theater of operations, his initial ship going West was the MSS Day Star. Dad was a landing craft gunners mate and saw much action.

After the war he and Frank started an auto body repair business. They both learned auto body repair in their high school. Macomber was an all boys vocational high school. The kids who graduated from this school left with real knowledge….practical life skills. Most of those kids went off to war and when they came home they started businesses, raised families, bought homes, and put their kids through college.

A few years later my dad and his partner Frank decided to join the Toledo Police department. Dad retired 22 years later and worked as an umpire in the youth baseball leagues, as well as docent at the Toledo Museum of Art, during his retirement. His life was one of service to our country both in the military and later as a Police Officer. He was, like the vast majority of WWII veterans, very private about his war time experiences. These guys were stoic and many suffered for years from PTSD as well as physical problems from their war service. They were not complainers or whiners I can tell you that. The Greatest Generation?….. No Question!

Thanks Dad….we miss you greatly.

Micahel Hawke