This tiny boy in his arms is named for his own father, the hero of my father’s world, a man who is fading in a long twilight of his life. Here is my father’s home-coming from his first war: He is a new father, rocking his son to sleep in a quiet apartment in California. My mother is exhausted when he arrives, and collapses in sleep. It was a difficult birth, and my brother is born with terrible colic. It is several months before he can come back. My father is very moved it is his own father’s name. My mother tells him she has chosen to name the boy Michael Christopher Wynne. Wife, baby, doing well.” A drive to another base finds a Ham radio operator, then a clear connection to another Ham in California, and a phone link. A search of hundreds of notes in the com center revealed one that only said “Lt. By chance, a friend said that there had been a message for him. Ten days later my father’s unit was withdrawn to Japan. My mother had not heard from him in weeks, went to the delivery room knowing only that he was in an area of hard fighting. My brother came more than a month early. At that moment, my father was near Wolmi-do island with the 1st Marine Division, under communist air attack. My mother, expecting her first child, had the option to return to her caring family on the east coast, but instead chose to stay in Coronado with the other young wives, women who shared the same struggles.Ībove, my father stands in the rubble of Seoul, the capital of Korea. On New Year’s Eve 1952, my father received an emergency notice recalling him to Korea. The story of my brother’s arrival in ’53 is integral to understanding the history of my family. My mother, 24 years old, had seen him off and boarded a Martin 4-0-4 for the flight back to San Diego. In flight, the plane had a terrific engine fire on her side. It was a rocky start to a long year, but my mother made the strongest friends with other Navy wives, awaiting and praying for the safe return of husbands from the new war.
The smiles don’t speak of my father, a young Navy officer in amphibious warfare, having just returned from his first tour in the Korean War. The three other kids in our family will gladly concede that he is the best child our family produced.Ībove, the six original members of my family (we are all married now), left to right above, Alison, Michael, Mom, Dad, myself and Melissa, at mom’s 80th birthday in 2007.Ībove, a photo of my parents on the beach at Coronado, Calif., in 1952. I am not the only one in the family who feels this way. I know every song by The Doors, Hendrix, CCR, Grand Funk and Steppenwolf, bands 10 years before my time, simply because this was music that he listened to, and thus so did I. My definition of what it means to be an American is clearly patterned after his. Normally such blind emulation might lead to trouble later, but not for me, as my brother is an outstanding human being, and the parts of me that are a low quality imitation of him are better than the parts I came up with on my own. I love the outdoors and travel because he does. But my own connection goes far further than this: My love of airplanes was derived from his I love machines, craftsmanship and tools because he did first I became a motorhead because he was first. He made everything we have done, going to college, getting married, you name it, much easier to do by the simple example of doing all of these things first. He is also the eldest of all of the cousins. This is a good analogy to express my brother’s leadership position as the pathfinder in our family. He is the leading edge of our family and I am the trailing. He is nine-and-a-half years older than me. My brother has been the largest influence in my life steering me into the mechanical world, and he has demonstrated by example how goals in life are to be accomplished. Although few of the aircraft builders we work with have met him in person, I can make a very good case that all Corvair builders are direct beneficiaries of his. Friends, Today, my brother, Michael Wynne, turns 60.
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