Jack DeBar Smith
Now retired, he is putting together
his rediscovered diary journal of his USNR, WWII experiences going through navy schools,
traveling around this great country of ours & finally winding up on the aircraft
carrier Antietam, CV36.
He hopes the readers will enjoy it
and jog their memories of their military experiences, perhaps before WWII & after, for
the seemingly never ending “needs” for American participation around this
planet.
To Order:
The Iconoclast
Goes To Sea
or
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Born in
Chicago in a very multi-ethnic neighborhood in the early 1920’s, he grew up learning
to appreciate our great American Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the history of
the nation. Harry DeBar ( his granddad on his mother’s side) was a seaman
in the halcion days of “Iron Men & Wooden Ships.” His dad, Herbert
Ellison Smith, was in WW I as a coxwain, serving as gun captain on a destroyer &
light cruiser. His dad was a traveling salesman & the family moved frequently –
Chicago, Minneapolis, Dallas, & finally came to California in what his dad said
was the “family vibrator,” a 1927 Ford 2 door sedan jogging
over washboard roads to the land of sunshine, fruits & nuts, and a home in Long Beach,
California..
Before that tragic day of December 7th, 1941., Jack moved to Hollywood with his parents,
and hitchhiked to Los Angeles City College & also played trumpet in an
orchestra while taking business courses to prepare for the future. He took a
summer job at NBC on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, parking cars and was then put inside
as a Page trainee for radio sound effects. While shopping with his dad at a market
they heard the news about Pearl Harbor, along with the rest of the world.
So, on August the 8th, 1942 he enlisted in the navy, as the family had been all navy for
several generations. His dad was proud, his mother in tears. The next 4
years are described in THE ICONOCLAST GOES TO SEA.
"Read it and enjoy..
God Bless America, the Military, and all of us."
Jack DeBar Smith |