I tell his story every year on Memorial Day. This was a Hunt shot from some collage maker.
Meet my Dad and #1 hero, John Alden Custer. He quit high school to join the service after Pearl Harbor. He joined the navy only to end up being a tail gunner in an airplane. My grandmother used to tell a story about him being shot down which one Sunday he jumped in and said never happened. But he never flew after the war. He was a quiet man by nature, and he couldn't get a word in edgewise with Anna Jane anyway, and he never talked about the war. My grandmother had all 3 of her sons serving and never knowing where they were. Thankfully, they all came home.
Dad went to school on the GI bill and became a watchmaker - horologist. I used to love to tell folks what my Dad did for a living. He also went back to high school taking classes at night and graduated from Norwood when I was in Kindergarten because he valued education. When I was in high school the man that owned the jewelry store where my Dad worked died. The family closed the store so he was out of work. He found a new job at KDI making typewriters. We all know what happened to that. They retooled and started making precision instruments. My Dad ended his career making the firing mechanism for our Hellfire missile systems. He had a government clearance and used to fuss at me not to get him in trouble! You can probably guess what happened there, says the woman that married the guy with the VW painted like an American flag.
My Dad was always there for me and for my boys. He was an awesome role model for them when they really needed one. He fit his own definition of being a "fine" man. He had no higher compliment. I will always miss him. I was, and remain, Daddy's girl.
