Sharing the reason why I'm here

[Lance Dean]

Well guys, after a year of work, I have something I'd like to share with you all.  This is very much a bandwidth hog, so if you have dialup you might be out of luck.

http://blalock.lancedean.com/

You'll be most interested in the WWII Years page.

This is the first place I've shared these pages, you guys are guinea pigs.

[MWALLEN]

Hey Lance...that's some cool stuff...lots and lots of history.

I just browsed the WW2 section and found it very interesting with cool photos.

[Lance Dean]

Thank you.  While my grandfather passed away over 10 years ago, my grandmother passed away only a year ago (to the day yesterday).  Everything on those pages was found and assembled.  And man, I had NOTHING to go on with a lot of that stuff.  As far as the submarine stuff goes, a year ago right now, I knew nothing about submarines, period.  I've learned a lot, and I'll have something to share with the family and share with the world.

[Mark Sarsfield]

A lot of nice stuff that you put together.  It's nice to look at photos that have never been published in a book before.  Great work.

[Travis McLain]

That was very nice Lance.

For Christmas, I made my grandpa a collage/shadow box of his Navy years 1945-1948, and he really liked it. He serve on the U.S.S. Maumee (the Navy's first diesel ship, and first en route tanker, also Nimitz was her first engineering officer, and my grandpa was the last engineering officer's yeoman; he helped the Chinese get acquainted with the ship when we gave it to them on lend lease) Then he served on the P.C.E. 886 (not too much known on it).



Not  trying to steal the glory from your post Lance, I just wanted to say I did something kind of like you did.

[Lance Dean]

Travis, I think that is wonderful.  I wish I'd done the same for my grandfather while he was still here.  I'm attaching a pic of what I've managed to put together.  Half of the stuff in it is from the era but wasn't his.  eBay, while such a great place, can also be a sad place.  I just don't see how people can sell some of the things they sell on there.  I've given the stuff a great home though.

[Fred Tannenbaum]

That's really wonderful, Lance!! Your grandfather would be proud and I hope the rest of your family is as well.

The Sand Lance really took some serious punishment during a very short period of time. And the Tambor was in it from the beginning.

[Travis McLain]

Your shadow box is really cool, even though some is not his, it still gets the point across.

[Rick]

Seems how we are sharing sad stories i will share mine.  My grandpa was WWII pacific Army.  He was a cook.   I never got to hear his stories about this time.  Grandpa Dennis never really talked about it(like all vets).   The only story I have is the story of him taking a meatball off a jap Generals Jeep.  My oldest brother still has this flag.  He is still alive, but has sever cancer and is not expected to live out the year.  He lives in Lander WY.  I am hopeing to work out a way to go when he passes.  I have always looked up to Grandpa and is just one of the reasons that I am here doing what I do now. 

Rick

[Mark Sarsfield]

Does your brother have high-speed internet?  Tell him to watch the US feed on www.god.tv.  It doesn't matter if it sounds kookie or not.  Lots of terminal cancer patients have been healed in the past 40 days at this meeting in Lakeland, FL, which they televise every night starting at 6 p.m. Eastern.  Even people watching over the internet or TV have been healed.  He has everything to gain and nothing to lose.  So, he may as well tune in and get the rest of the fam. praying, too.

[Lance Dean]

Well, since I put this up public and told others about it, I've received some feedback.  It seems I have errors, but I knew that I did and am glad that I'll get to make corrections soon.

Robert (Bob) Hunt has a book coming out that will be a great read.

http://www.robertschultz.us/nonfiction_wwp.htm

Forum member Peter Jorgensen ("hpj42") keeps in close contact with Bob and keeps me up to date on the book and such.  He's sending me a copy of Bob's diary so I can get dates and locations down proper.

[Lance Dean]

Seems how we are sharing sad stories i will share mine.  My grandpa was WWII pacific Army.  He was a cook.   I never got to hear his stories about this time.  Grandpa Dennis never really talked about it(like all vets).   The only story I have is the story of him taking a meatball off a jap Generals Jeep.  My oldest brother still has this flag.  He is still alive, but has sever cancer and is not expected to live out the year.  He lives in Lander WY.  I am hopeing to work out a way to go when he passes.  I have always looked up to Grandpa and is just one of the reasons that I am here doing what I do now. 

Rick

Sorry to hear that Rick.  It seems that if we live long enough, cancer likely finds us.  My paternal grandfather was in the Army Air Corps in Panama the day Pearl Harbor was attacked.  He was a drill sergeant and worked on the guns on airplanes.  I don't really know much about his service at all.

[Lance Dean]

Added some new pictures that my mother recently found.

I'm particularly proud of this one:



That's my grandfather on the right, but I have no idea who the man on the left is.

[Rick]

OK.  long story short.  I have always had a fondness for history and WWII.   My oldest brother is an advid WWII colector (potential resource) and my Grandfather (who just passed away) served in the army in the pacific during WWII.  I also very patriotic and am proud of the military (though I was never cut out for it).   I applied for this job last year after moving here to make one last try to keep my family together.   To keep a long story short she drove me insane,  I gave up on here,  I got the job (big supris here) and I have been hooked on my 15 ton 65 year old girl freind ever since. 

[Lance Dean]

"Papaw" would have been 87 years old today.   

It's scary to think that in less than 10 years we could have no more living WWII submarine veterans.