Monthly Archives: July 2018

George Gordon Ward, my father’s younger brother was drafted into the United States Army in 1943.  He was sworn in at Fort Ord, California and immediately sent to Camp Lee, Virginia for his basic training.  After basic he went to Fort Washington, Maryland, where he learned to operate an IBM machine.  From there he traveled to Fort Mason in San Francisco, where it appeared he would sit out the war as an office worker. One day he was walking down…..

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When I was a child of three my family moved to a different part of San Diego.  Soon after we settled into our new home I decided to go on a mission to explore my new surroundings.  It never occurred to me to inform my mother of my intention.  I just went. Several blocks from my home, I heard some interesting noises coming from a back yard.  Climbing a brick wall, I perched myself at the top.  Perhaps fifteen feet…..

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Enough was enough.  On June 18, 1812 America declared war on Great Britain.  The British were stopping our trade ships on the high seas and seizing young American merchant sailors, forcing them to serve in the Royal Navy.  They were blockading our ports to prevent us from trading with Napoleon’s France, with whom they were at war.  They were inciting Indians on the frontier to attack American settlers. America, with a fleet that could in no way match the Royal…..

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