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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday: Seaman Charles Guokas III, WWII

This is my maternal uncle, Charles Peter Guokas III (1927-1999).  My mother tells me he enlisted in the Navy shortly after he graduated from high school in the spring of 1944, when he was 17 years old.  After doing his basic training in San Diego, he spent the rest of the war in Nevada at the Naval Ammunition Depot Hawthorne (now the Hawthorne Army Depot). 

After the war, he attended the University of Texas in Austin for a while (at least during 1947-1948, as I found him in the yearbook), but ultimately graduated from what was then North Texas State College in Denton (now the University of North Texas).

© Amanda Pape - 2012 - click here to e-mail me.

2 comments:

  1. It's a great photo. I thought you might be interested to hear my Uncle Joseph's story, who also enlisted to the (British) RAF at the age of 18 in 1943. He flew Lancaster Bombers til the end of the war, and died tragically at 22 in 1947. I have begun the serialisation of his letters home throughout this entire period on my blog... you might find them interesting (if a little heartbreaking)....Regards, Helen http://saveeverystep.wordpress.com/writing-home-wwii-letters-series/

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  2. So great that you are sharing them, Helen! I'm subscribing to the series.

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