Please excuse the personal nature of this posting. It has nothing to do with the Armed Guard or Merchant Marine or World War II or anything official. It is just me being a proud dad.
My 21-year-old daughter, Lisa, graduated cum laude from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, last Friday. She did it in three years rather than the usual four, and immediately begins a one-year masters program next week. She wants to become an elementary school teacher and I think she'll be great at it. My wife and I had a wonderful time with our daughter last weekend and we are very proud of her. Our son, her brother, who graduated three years ago from Maritime College in New York City and is now a merchant marine officer, was with us as well.
Lisa has a soft spot in her heart for World War II veterans, as my dad, her grandfather, is one, a former infantryman who served in the South Pacific. And she has an interest in and a great deal of knowledge about World War II. With the rest of her family she serves as a crew member aboard Liberty ship SS JOHN W. BROWN in Baltimore, having started volunteering at the age of eight. She is a part of the deck department and I have related on this message board her skill in steering the ship, even better than her old dad. She was a member of Sea Scouts, a branch of Boy Scouts but which is for older youth up to the age of 21, and is co-ed. (I like to confuse people by saying my daughter is a member of the Boy Scouts.) She was elected bosun of her unit, the highest Sea Scout elected position in a local unit. During her year as bosun her unit was named to the Sea Scout "Flagship Fleet," meaning it was one of the top four Sea Scout units in the country. She will continue in Sea Scouts as an adult leader. And while at school in Norfolk she works as a deckhand on two tour boats, the three-masted schooner AMERICAN ROVER and the motor launch, VICTORY ROVER, that takes guided tours by water to the Norfolk naval base. She may not be as much a sailor as you Armed Guard and merchant marine veterans, but she's close.
Thanks for indulging me by reading this. If you'd like to congratulate her yourself, her e-mail is lisacarlson93@gmail.com. Tell her I sent you.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled message board.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster
Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website
www.armed-guard.com
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