Grandpa's Stories
posted on: 2004-08-04 13:13
He always finished a story with a saying like, “and then I returned home to your grandma, your daddy was born, and the rest is history.” I have fond memories of when my Grandpa and Grandma would come to our home for a visit on holidays or a birthday. My brothers and sisters would gather in a circle around my Grandpa as he rocked in our old recliner. He would look around at our eager faces, and with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye, he would tell us stories from his youth. We would sit and listen to him talk until late into the night.
One of the stories he would tell was about his life in the military. “I had just turned 25, and World War 2 had begun. I felt convicted to support my country, so I enlisted into the U.S. Armed Forces. I felt proud to be joining one of the strongest military forces in the world.”
Grandpa was a physically and mentally strong young man, with sharp, steady, blue eyes and a handsome face. He also had a head for math, and because of this he was assigned to the 5th Army base headquarters in Chicago, IL. This was a center for army cryptology, the coding and decoding of secret messages. The biggest difficulty of encrypting messages was some of the complicated math that was involved, and because there were no advanced computers to do these computations, it took men with a good education to do these jobs.
“There was this feeling of importance and excitement I felt handling messages that sometimes controlled the fates of soldiers out in the field. There was a constant urgency, a carefulness, I felt when I worked. We were always on our toes; our superior officers were always there watching us. My squad was always required to stay in fresh uniform, and keep the base in top shape. The floors had to be kept polished, and the rooms clean and spotless. But all this was considered worth it; there was also a sense of pride that we shared: no country in history had ever broken the code system of the United States. The code system we developed and used.”
“I missed your Grandmother very much while I was there.” He told us, and winked over at Grandma. “I wrote her every chance I could get, and we both looked forward to the time when I could come home. It was hard being away from each other for so long.”
“One of the base officer’s, Sargent Tarnarsky, had to be discharged from the army. I spoke to him a little before he left. I said, ‘Will you re-enlist later?’ He answered enthusiastically, ‘No! I’m going back home to North Dakota to stay.’ I talked with him a little before he left for his train.”
The Army had to decide who would take Sargent Tarnarsky’s place. Because of the respect my grandfather had earned as an officer, he was promoted to Sargent from Private. He was now in charge of a group of cryptographers at the base.
One of the soldiers under Grandpa’s command had a cocky attitude, and little respect for his commanding officers. On one occasion the soldier physically confronted my grandfather. “I had to show him who had control, and keep the confidence of my men that I was a strong leader,” Grandpa related to us, “so I took one good swing with my arm, knocked out one of his teeth, and from that day on he had complete confidence and respect for me. I didn’t like using violence, but it was the only thing that he could understand.”
Finally the time came when Grandpa’s term of service was over, and he could go home. “When I returned home, I became a Methodist minister, and at the first meeting of my new church I was able to meet and get to know the elders, deacons, and leaders of my church. I was of course nervous. Each person in the room took turns introducing themselves. One man introduces himself as Deacon Al Tarnarsky. My memory clicked. Where had I heard that name before? ‘Al Tarnarsky! Sargent Tarnarsky, right? 5th Army headquarters ,the one who was discharged from the army.’ I blurted this out so fast, I didn’t realize until after I had said what an embarrassing thing I had just said. ‘Um, yes, I was Sargent Tarnarsky at 5th Army headquarters.’ He replied nervously. I was so embarrassed by that, I could hardly speak the whole meeting. Well, afterwards I apologized to him, and we even became good friends, but I will never forget the way I felt, stupid and alone, in that meeting. It was quite a humbling experience.”
Soon, Grandpa’s story would be done. It would be really late, and the littlest kids would be asleep and had to be carried to bed. Grandpa would give us each a hug, and say goodnight. We always loved to hear his stories. He would put life into everything he said, and you could always learn a lot from him. Of course, he would always add, “and then I returned home to your grandma, your daddy was born, and the rest is history.”
