I looked up the criteria for the Distinguished Service Cross, as it is the individual equivalent of the Presidential Unit Commendation, which Dad and his unit had received.

The Service Cross is the second highest honor that can be given, after the Medal Of Honor.
"3-7. Distinguished Service Cross

a. The Distinguished Service Cross, section 3742, title 10, United States Code (10 USC 3742), was established by Act of Congress 9 July 1918 (amended by act of 25 July 1963).

b. The Distinguished Service Cross is awarded to a person who while serving in any capacity with the Army, distinguished himself or herself by extraordinary heroism not justifying the award of a Medal of Honor; while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States; while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing or foreign force; or while serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing Armed Force in which the United States is not a belligerent party. The act or acts of heroism must have been so notable and have involved risk of life so extraordinary as to set the individual apart from his or her comrades.

Webmaster's Note: Prior awards of the DSC are under review for possible upgrade to the Medal "

So Dad and his Band of Brothers were indeed great heroes, though it saddens me that we might never know why. :(

One of the things we found was my father's dress uniform from World War 2. We also found his discharge papers and ribbons/medals. One of my coworkers helped me with these items last night, and here is the letter I sent to my sisters and some cousins about it:

I took Dad's discharge papers with me to work last night and blew them up with the copier, trying to get them in legible form. It was only a partial success. I will try to get to a professional copying place sometime in the next few weeks, to see if they can do better with better equipment. You can read a few lines now, and also pick up a word here and there. Luckily I was working with a man who has just retired from the Army Reserve after twenty years, who had taken a lot of army history classes as part of his rank training (he had been a colonel when he retired) and he was able to provide a great deal of help...

Dad was honorably discharged from the US Army.
His name was Robinett, William K
his number was 35 654 777
his last rank was corporal
then come a couple of unreadable spots, but it looks like one answer is MD and the next might be AUS
his last unit was 124 1st M P CO
he was discharged on 9 MAR 1946
he was discharged at FT GEO G MEADE MD
again, some unreadable questions, but here are the answers:
S P M Panther McDowell CO W VA
16 DEC 1922 (that is his birthdate, so I think this whole line of unreadable questions was questions dealing with his place of origin)
LITWAR W VA
an unreadable smudge starts off the next line, then:
eye color: blue
hair color: blonde
height: 5'10"
weight: 180 pounds
then a lot more unreadable things...
then an answer, but can't read the question:
fireman stationary boiler
date of service entry: 17 Mar 1943
another date (we couldn't make out the question) 24 Mar 1943
another unreadable question: FT THOMAS KY (maybe this is where he had basic?)
then a whole unreadable line, though there is one answer that says McDowell W VA
then a line where the questions are unreadable, but you can sort of read the answers:
Fire Fighter (then a smudge that might be numbers)
then a smudge that MIGHT say: new carriage or new cartridge
then it lists his service awards:
Good Conduct Medal
European African Middle Eastern Theater Ribbon
American Theater Ribbon
World War II Victory Ribbon
the rest of it is too smudged up to read, though you can make out aword here and there.
FEB 44 Africa
1? FEB 46 United States
and then at the very bottom the words yellow fever (which I hope is an immunization!)

according to Dad's dog tags he was blood type A...I am an A+...

My reserve friend also went through the insignia and ribbons with me...Dad must have had a very interesting military career, as he served in two branches of the army, and he had some awards that were not listed in his discharge papers...

Branch Insignia:
Air Defense Artillery
Aviation (that would have been for the Air Force, which was part of the army in WW2)

Medals/Ribbons:
Good Conduct Medal
(three years of peace time service, or one year of wartime service)
World War 2 Victory Medal
(for serving during the war)
Army of Occupation of Germany & Japan Medal
(this came for serving 30 or more days in the occupying forces in either Japan or Germany)
American Campaign Medal
(at some point Dad must have been involved in homeland defense, possibly when he was with the Air Defense Artillery, because this medal was given to National Guard, Coast Guard, and others who served in the USA as defenders at home during the War years)
the one that really impressed the Colonel was a little blue one with gold metallic frame - he said it is rarely given...
Presidential Unit Citation

Dave printed out the criteria for it...
"The Presidential Unit Citation is awarded to units of the Armed  Forces of the United States and co-belligerant nations for extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy occurring on or after 7 December 1941. The unit must display such gallantry, determination, and esprit de corps in accomplishing its mission under extremely difficult and hazardous conditions as to set it apart and above other units participating in the same campaign. The degree of heroism required is the same as that which would warrant award of a Distinguished Service Cross to an individual. Extended periods of combat duty or participation in a large number of operational missions, either ground or air, is not sufficient. This award will normally be earned by units that have participated in single or successive actions covering relatively brief time spans. It is not reasonable to presume that entire units can sustain Distinguished Service Cross Performance for extended time periods except under the most unusual circumstances. Only on rare occasions will a unit larger than battalion qualify for award of this decoration."

So, those of us who thought that Dad would not talk of the military and of the War because he had seen terrible things were probably correct in that. His unit must have literally walked through the gates of Hell at some point during the War, and proved themselves to be great heroes while there...

We looked for his shoulder patch on the internet, but we couldn't find it...I will continue to try to figure it out...and if I can get better copies of his discharge papers, I will mail them out.

 

 

I'm not quite sure where to start about the trip, so I guess I will cut and paste a letter I sent to three good friends to start things off:

It was an interesting experience. Among other things, there was 12 inches of rain in 2 days! There was some flooding. My sister and younger son went out for a walk with the dogs after the rain finally stopped. We wanted to get back to our rental condo to take showers, so we drove out to look for them. The first two creeks over the road, we were able to drive through in the big truck. The third one looked so deep we were afraid to even try it, and decided that there was no way they came walking that way...later it turns out that they did walk there. The people walked across and the dogs had to swim. It had been waist deep on Stevie. So he had a sort of cool country adventure that his overprotective parents would not have allowed him.

The house was filthy, as you would expect since it had been closed since my father got sick in the middle of December. We had seven adults, plus my children, and we got the house mostly clean, and never really got into the garage or the huge shed, other than pull the obviously valuable power tools out (a brand new lawn tractor, a chipper, stuff like that). We did God only knows how many dump runs with the trucks. My parents had cancelled checks and paperwork going back into the 1950's...they were Depression children, so they never threw out anything. The weirdest thing we found was a dead armadillo on top of the freezer out in the garage.

The only things I had wanted were my father's WW2 uniform and perhaps his desk, but we ended up bringing back two trucks filled with antique furniture and boxes of knick knacks no one else wanted and were too valuable to leave. On the last day we were there, my Dad's best friend dropped by and we let him take whatever he wanted that was left. We were going to have to pay the realtor to have it all hauled away anyway. He knew a young newly married couple who had no furniture and not a lot of money, so they will now have a kitchen table and chairs, a living room set, a dresser, three bookcases, a tv, some small kitchen appliances, etc. He got one of the rototillers, some hand tools, and the canoe...I think my Dad would have pleased by that. My Dad had a nearly new truck that we brought home. No one else wanted it, and now it will be my older son's as soon as he turns 16 next fall. So the little truck (Chevy S-10) that will be my son's, and Dan's big work truck were filled with antiques, and we rented a U-Haul for the lawn tractor and some other large power tools that my sister up in Waterford wanted (though we will be taking the chipper)...

The worst thing was expecting my Dad to walk in any minute from one of his walks. I guess I mentally know he is gone, but perhaps it hasn't emotionally sunk in yet.

Well, we made it home from Arkansas last night, and I worked tonight, and am exhausted. I will try to get details from our trip typed in over the next few days. But now its shower and bedtime!

One very good thing happened today...a robin had built a nest rather low in a pine tree very close to our back door. When you open the door and look out throug hthe screen door, you can see into the nest...well, this morning, she had laid three lovely blue eggs in the nest.

Cat boxes are changed, time for a showerand bed.

Ran around doing errands all day. Left the hosue early this morning, got home in time to brush my teeth and go to work. Did manage to meet Dan for lunch at Chili's...its always good to meet him for lunch. He usually only eats breakfast and dinner, and when we meet for lunch I can see him feeling better as he eats...he gets more energy and just looks like he's feeling so much better. Gets a bit of color in his cheeks, and doesn't look quite so harried as when he walks into the restaurant.

But, as a result, I got no packing done.

Tomorrow I must do all of the packing, though as it is only for five days hopefully it won't be too bad. Clothes, medicine, toiletries, a book or two for each of us, the portable dvd player and a few dvds for the children to watch in the truck, food and water and dishes for the dog...

Only two errands tomorrow -- go to the bank and have some papers notarized for my sister, and drop off the car to be looked at while we are gone...make sure it is fit to be driven way out to New Mexico if it comes to that...

Tonight I am frantically doing last minute things like change the cat litter boxes, water the plants, and anything else I can think of to do without waking anyone up.

One more day to start packing (better finish packing, too!!)...one more night of work...the kids have one more day of school before they get a little break...

Thunderstorms tronight, nearly had to pull of the road once coming home because it was raining so hard. It'll be great for the garden and the flowers!

I am looking forward to the southern Illinois hills on Thursday. We'll be stopping for the night in Mount Vernon. The dogwood and redbud should be very pretty. Looks while we'll be getting a lot of rain when we're in Arkansas...I hope Stevie and my asthma won't act up too much, we always get sick in my parents' house. They never opened the windows, no matter how hot it was, and with all of that smoke from the woodstove and the dust...May the good Lord help us both while that house is being cleaned if we can't open up the windows!

Two more days and we will be going...I have now been having my period since the weekend before Easter. Dan thinks it is because of stress because of the trip to pack up my parents' house. I am tired of having my period, of feeling like a water balloon, of having cramps, and of being terminally grouchy. Not to mention just plain physically tired and worn out.. I hope this time next week, when I am sitting in a hotel room in the pretty rolling hills of southern Illinois, I will be relieved, relaxed, and not losing any more blood! I'm starting to wonder how much a person can lose and still function OK...

The truck is in the shop being checked before our trip. Dan has my car and had to drop me off and pick me up at work today. I always feel bad for him when he has to come get me at midnight...it really wears him out as he leaves the house so early most mornings. We did sneak in a quick fast food lunch at Boston Market, though. Chicken pot pie , mac & cheese, cornbread...

Work also continues to be stressful. Now one of my favorite people is seriously considering leaving because of all the weirdness going on with the schedules.

It was a lovely day -- made it up in the 80's and was very sunny. The spring flowers are blooming and lovely. We have hyacinths (I love the hot pink ones), grape hyacinths, daffodills, miniature daffodills, crocuses, tulips, Siberian squill, some little soft blue and white flowers whose name I do not know, and bright yellow forsynthia. Soon to come: our magnolia, dogwood, and redbud trees are in bud, and the violets are popping up everywhere in the backyard. We have large patches of chives growing well intermixed with the grass in the front yard, and the peonies and some other perrenniels are popping up in the beds. A deer broke into the garden to paw up some onion bulbs, and the squirrels figured out how to break into the latest high tech bird feeder.

I wasn't able to enjoy any of this, however, as I was busy doing housework all day until it was time to go to work. The kids got out, though, and practiced golf swings in the backyard. Dan worked burning leaves all day in the burn barrel and puttered around in the yard.

In four days we will be going to Arkansas. We will stop for the night in southern Illinois to break up the trip down...I still have to pack the clothes (and wash Bill's), though I have picked out which books and dvd's to take with us. It will be the first time we'll have used the little portable dvd player...I had bought it for the long drive out to New Mexico, but it will suffice for the long drive to Arkansas, too. We are hoping to get some time for ourselves down there...nest in our rental condo...I bet my sisters will have other plans for us, though...no one ever seems to understand how little time we have together...I work Sunday through Thursday afternoons and Dan works Monday through Saturdays days, and the kids have so many sporting evemts and practices...and when we ever do get time together, we are all tired and emotionally burned out...the wonder is not that our marriage has crumbled so badly, but that it has lasted as long as it has under the schedules we maintain...

Today marked the beginning of the travel soccer season. Steven had a home game against Ypsilanti. He played the whole game, and made several good defensive plays. After his game we went to Big Boy and got sandwiches.

Bill then had a late night home game under the lights, against a team from Monroe. He played his usual chippy game, knocking people flat on their butts all over the place. Steven got very hungry during the game, so we walked up to one of the pizza places in town. He ate half of a large pizza all by himself. The growth spurt continues.

It gave me this vision of the long drive to New Mexico, and having to call my friend John every couple of hours on my cell phone "Can we stop again at the next exit? Steven's hungry!!!"

I have been doing laundry like a crazy woman all weekend, so I have clothes to pack to take down south...I need to do at least a couple more loads, then I can hopefully start packing. We are taking the truck down to Arkansas, so it's going in to be looked at on Monday. My car will go in to be looked at when we are gone -- there's just so many miles on it, I want to get the brakes and engine checked before we take it out to New Mexico (as it looks like we might). I did get to see the two soccer games, and got to take the dog for a nice, long walk today, but most of the weekend was spent working here at home (along with the fruitless trip to Pontiac). As usual, I will return to work tomorrow exhausted.

Got about three hours of sleep last night before heading out this morning for Pontiac and the Oakland County Courthouse. Luckily, Dan was willing to take the morning off, and drove, as I was pretty out of it. Unfortunately, the will I remember my parents making is not on file at the courthouse. The probate court clerks told me that it is pretty common for people of thier generation (Depression kids) to not want to pay the extra money to get a will filed with the county, and that they usually just leave a copy with the lawyer. Since I was only about ten when it was done, and have no idea who the lawyer was, other than his office was in Rochester, and the only people who might know in our family are both dead, there probably is no point in pursuing the will any any further. So, in order to save the money to file the thing, my parents basicly wasted their money in having it done at all. Sometimes being cheap ends up costing more money than in doing things correctly i nthe first place. (rolls eyes).

At least I got breakfast at a bagel shop out of it.

Poor Steven's allergies are really acting up today. His poor beloved face is all swollen up, and his beautiful green eyes are swollen nearly shut. Its the pollen...he really shouldn't be playing soccer and spending so much time outside, but have you ever tried to tell his father anything? :(

Had a good long talk with my friend in New Mexico today. I am looking even more forward to going out there now, if possible. (grins) It will be wonderful.

The kids were in school today...I feel tired and a bit out of sorts. I am glad that the weekend is almost here. Work was unhappy, one of the pharmacists I work with and consider a good friend is having problems at work, and might well have to visit the union soon. There seems to be a lot of that these days.

I am going to head up to Pontiac on Friday to see if I can track down my parents' will. I can remember them doing a will when I was a child. I can remember having to wait in the lobby of the office of a lawyer in Rochester at least twice while they were meeting with the lawyer. I remember how boring it was. I can even remember what they told me was in the will -- everything to be split evenly between all of their children, and that if they died while I was still a child, I would be raised by my Aunt Nadine and Uncle Bob. My guess is that the will is probably on file in Oakland County, as they were living in Lake Orion at the time, and their lawyer was in Rochester. My oldest sister is handling the estate, and that is perfectly fine with me, as she is responsible and very competant. But if I can save money for her and for the estate by finding the will, I feel that I should do so. My friends have been giving me horror stories about how much money lawyers and probate can suck up if there is no will...

They have also been telling me stories of Depression era relatives, and the bizarre places they hide money and jewelry...some of the ones that amaze me most are sewing money in the sleeves of sweaters and hanging them in the closet, inside the covers of heat ducts, sewn in to the hems of the backs of curtains, taped to the bottom of the second to last piece of tupperware in a pile, and frozen in the bottom of an old fashioned metal ice tray. And then of course, there are stashes under the carpeting, pinned to the back of a couch,taped to the back of heavy pieces of furniture, and little pockets filled with money sewn onto the sides of sofa cushions.

Glad to be home from work...after a day like today-- holding my sick child in my lap for hours watching movies and feeling how hot he was from the fever, going in to work was just not a good thing to have to do. But I am home now, and that is good. Everyone is alseep, so hopefully the little one is feeling better...

I have started bringing home empty boxes to take to Arkansas with me. I sort of forced myself to do so...I have been dreading the whole thing, and do not want to think about it, much less get ready for it.

Got a call very early this morning from the middle school...Stevie was throwing up. It was so early that Dan was still home, so he went and got the poor little guy. He was fine when he left the house this morning, but started throwing up very energetically when he got to school, and Dan said he even threw up twice on his way to the car from the office. When he got home, I discovered he was running a fever, but, of course, couldn't give him anything, because he was vomiting. Early this afternoon I finally got some tylenol in him, and some cold water...I will be going in to work a bit late, as I do not want to leave him alone...so when Bill gets home from high school, I will head in...

Just ort of waiting for it to hit me and Bill now... Knowing my luck it will hit me on Friday, when I am off of work...

Got to drive home just now in the snow.It was snowing pretty hard, too. At least all of the things I planted the other day will get a good watering out of it...

Yesterday I cooked up a nice big dinner -- salad, garlic bread, lasagna, key lime pie -- before going in to work a midnight. Worked afternoons today. I was a bit foggy mentally, but I made it through (the exhaustion will hit on Thursday, I think).

We will have another bird nest in the little pine tree closest to our back door this year. Last year a mourning dove made her nest there and raised two babies. This year a robin has built her nest, but has not yet laid any eggs. It amazes me that birds keep choosing that tree -- so close to a heavily used door -- to make their nests in...

I worked on the garden and yard all day today. For the garden, I planted things that love to be cool and wet, and do well in the Michigan springtime. So we will have snow peas, lettuces, radishes, and green onions. When it gets warmer we will add tomatos, herbs, and a variety of peppers, both sweet and hot.

I planted some pansies in pots on the porch, put up yet another supposedly squirrel proof  bird feeder to try, planted some pretty blue and white violas...and some dormant perreniel roots including tall phlox in bright red, soft blue, and amethyst purple, some blue clematis vines, and Dan is supposed to planting some Japanese painted ferns and lillies of the valley, but he keeps sneaking inside to watch golf. We also picked up all of the garbage that had blown into the yard over the winter (Steven took care of that), picked up all of the big sticks that had blown down fro mthe trees, and Bill burned sticks and leaves in the burn barrel all day...so we got a ton of work done!

Next weekend if the weather is nice, I will finish planting Dad's plants -- two kinds of hosta, and day lillies in many colors. The weekend after we will be down south to clean out my parents' house, which I am not looking forward to at all.

Today we refinanced the mortgage on the little apartment building in Dexter. This will save us quite a bit of money. To celebrate we went out to lunch at a wonderful little place called the Prickly Pear, which had absolutely superb food. I first had corn chowder. They had put a big glob of lobster butter on top, and as the soup was very hot, the butter melted into it as I ate. Sinfully good! Then I had a black bean wrap, which was filled both with the beans and other fresh vegetables. and it came with a mountain of wonderful pink cole slaw (pink from the sweet red onions) and a bowl of rice and black beans. Dan got a salad that had dried sweet cherries and big hunks of cheese in it, and buffalo meat enchiladas, made with blue corn. The meat was so tender it broke apart with a fork. Now that was a truly fine lunch.If I can eat like that when I am out west in June I will be a very happy person.

I am so glad the work week is over. It was busy and nasty tonight...not what you need with a tummy freshly stuffed to bursting with delicious food, and all exhausted anyway. Now I can concentrate on my children and my flowers for three days. And baking. I am in the mood to bake -- lasagna, bread, cookies, maybe a cake...I just feel this strong urge to bake good things!

The work week is winding down. One more night to go...I don't feel quite as bad about having to go to the union now, as someone whom I work with who has been with the government for over 25 years, and who has never been in trouble or caused any trouble, is now finding himself in need of a bit of help...we also got in the new pyxis machines, which will take a finger print instead of a password...the nurses on one of the patient units thought the little fingerprint reader was a camera and were waving into it. We had all thought that it read thumbprints, but were told today that is HAS to be the middle finger..."How appropriate!" we all thought!

Oh, is has been SO GOOD having the kids home this week!! This might be the best I have felt since the middle of December when all of those bad things started happening...the fact that the sun has been out every day this week has been helping...and one more workday to go and then I have my kids for THREE WHOLE DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!

This is just an experiment to see if I could bring in a picture...it looks as if it will work. This is a picture I took of the Chicago Harbor lighthouse two summers ago...

My garden is starting to bloom...I have blue grape hyacinths, bright yellow crocuses, and darling little bright yellow miniature daffodills, just a couple of inches high...I got a book for Michigan gardens, that breaks the year down week by week, telling you what you can do for your garden, and for your houseplants through out the year. It sounds as if I can start planting the dormant vines and perrenniels for my father at any time, as they are all very hardy. Perhaps I can get started this weekend, Easter weekend, as I have Friday and Saturday off, and am working midnights on Sunday, so will have plenty of time. Hopefully the weather will cooperate...

It's so nice having the children home. I am so glad I can see them every day this week! Stevie keeps coming up to me to get hugs...

The moon has been so bright the last three nights, and the sky so clear (and cold) that it has been hard to sleep. Its amazing how bright the moon has been, like a spotlight in the sky. If it is this clear on Thursday night, when my workweek is over, I will try to set up our telescope so I can look at the moon...

Got to meet a friend's baby last night. He was so cute! So precious! Just an absolutely darling little baby! My friend has been off from work since shortly before he was born (he's a Valentine's baby), so it was great seeing both her and him when she dropped in last night to say hello. :)

Yesterday afternoon Dan and the boys got to go to the second birthday party for his cute little niece...I had to miss it because of work, but heard it went fine.  :) Sometimes working straight second shift can be trying...you have to miss all sorts of family functions...but if I were to try to get on day shifts I would then have to rotate through all three shifts (right now I am pretty much only afternoons, with only an occasional midnight) as well as weekends (right now I get to work the same days of the week on a consistent basis, so I can actually plan my life...)

Still exhausted. Went to Borders today and picked up a couple of CDs and a couple of books. Then went grocery shopping...but with both of the boys having growth spurts right now, I am sure I will have to go again VERY soon. ;)

This afternoon they wanted me to go to the wrestling tournament in Manchester, so off I went. It took hours, as most of these things do. Steven took a very solid ssecond, going 3-1 on the night, and bringing his season record up to something like 21 or 22-6. Poor Bill hurt his knee in practice last night, and probably shouldn't have wrestled, but managed to make it through his two matches. Only one child was taken off in an ambulance tonight, so it wasn't so bad...

I think I'm going to eat some dinner and take a long, hot bath now...tomorrow I hope to rest all day...

End of the work week. I am exhausted, and glad to have the next two days off. In fact, the kids will be out of school for a week next week, and that makes me very happy. :)

No date for me this week...Dan and the boys are heading out for wrestling, so I will stay at home with the cats and the dog with my feet up, listening to some soothing music. I really need that!

I keep thinking about my father and feeling so bad. He had such a difficult life. I had so wanted him to move in with us...thought he would enjoy the children and seeing their sporting events and like living in a warm house filled with music and soft cuddly lap cats...I wish he was here now...sitting in the big blue comfortable chair, watching basketball on TV, with a purring cat in his lap...I've got to stop, though, just typing this is making me cry my eyes out...

I had to drive home in the snow tonight -- and I'm NOT April fooling. Disgusting! I'll have to look at the weather in a moment and see how much we are supposed to be getting.

Tonight Dan had the wrestling banquet for the middle school team. I haven't had a chance to talk to him, though, to see how it went. Hopefully he had enough food. He was worried about that! All of those preteen/early teen boys and girls (not to mention their big brothers and sisters) can really pack away a lot of pizza!