I must have met my Uncle Tanny as a boy, but I have no memory of him. 
Stanford Wheeler Kleylein (that's my Uncle Tanny) lived most
of his life in Indiana. He had met and married Harriet Copple and
Harriet and her family were from Indiana and you know how that goes.
Here's
a photograph of him from November of 1942. I can see from close
examination of his rank and rating (the insignia on his sleeve) that he
is a Machinist's Mate First Class. That means he could have worked on
anything to do with ship propulsion or any other kind of shipboard
engines that need looking after by a mechanic.
Here's
what the Machinist's Mate rating designation looks like. I guess he
could have worked on propellers too. A naval rating is like an
occupation, you can glance at anyone's sleeve and instantly tell what
their job is and what their rank is. There's no guessing in the Navy.
I
don't know why he joined the Navy. It may be because his step-father,
Avner Hoffacker Wareheim had been in the Navy. That's probably a pretty
good guess. Avner's daughter, Violet also married a Navy man, Raymond
Alt. But blind and dumb as I was when I was a kid, all this was lost on
me. I was actually surprised to learn all the Navy connections later when I got into the whole genealogy thing.
Here's Avner holding my brother Dave.
Look how stiff my brother looks. I think there's something wrong with
him (Dave I mean) and Avner's probably trying to wake him up or
something. Maybe he's in a coma, although I don't know how anyone could
ever tell.
Avner was also
a Machinist's Mate, but he was a Chief which is a higher rank than
Uncle Tanny. In civilian life, Avner was a plasterer, I guess they
didn't have too much call for plasterers on board ship. Or maybe he just
wanted to do something different.
When my brother outgrew his
little Navy suit, it got passed to me. Boy, there was a long history of
that. Here's a photograph of me in the suit with my brother Dave and our
cousin Audrey. Isn't she cute?
I guess wearing that suit as a little kid is another example of that foreshadowing thing.
I wasn't in a coma, I was scared. I thought he was a cop!
March 24, 2009 at 12:23 AM