“Once a Marine…always a Marine.” I'd heard that expression countless times growing up . . . in reference to my father, Roger Jamieson who was a World War II era Marine officer. He was one of 17 million Americans who put their lives on hold to defend our great nation. He suffered from fleas and jungle rot, Dengue Fever, dysentery and Hepatitis A. He was wounded twice and suffered the loss of his entire platoon. He also lost his cousin, David, who was killed in action.

This is a story about my father’s life, his upbringing and subsequent training in the Marines. Roger grew up in a middle class family where baseball was the predominant avocation. Roger's Uncle Charlie Jamieson played for the Cleveland Indians. It is a story about the battles he faced along the way; some internal and some external.

It is also a story about a father and son revisiting old battlefields and reliving bad memories in the quest for closure. Roger would say that he didn’t do anything special or different from anyone else. In the end, he, his extended family and neighborhood sacrificed and suffered like all Americans did during the war: separation, loneliness, illness, injury and death of loved ones and comrades. But to me, my father was a brave man and my hero.

And like millions of his fellow servicemen and women, when the war was over, Roger married, found work and raised a family and tried to put the war behind him.  >> Read More