My late father was a #WWII US Navy vet. He joined the #Navy when he turned 17 in 1943, and served on #LST658 in four major island invasions: #Palau, #Leyte, #LingayenGulf, and #Okinawa.

After the war, his LST was used to ferry defeated Japanese troops back from Shanghai China to Japan, seeing service in China until late May 1946.

When he came home in 1947, his uncle Sam, who owned a grocery store, presented him with an entire "bunch" of bananas, still on the stalk.