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| Each bond you buy is a bullet in the barrel of your best guy's gun! |
I had a great time working on last week's blog. Thanks go out to Amy for the shout-out in the e-mails everyone got for #52Ancestors this week. I try to be entertaining and informative. It's how I did my videos and I like continuing the trend here. Thanks for all the support! Now it's time to move on. Or rather: higher, further, faster. Wow. Two Marvel Cinematic Universe references in one blog so far. Not bad. However, these things tend to come in threes. ;-)
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| Tech Sargent Robert Eugene Hamel, U.S. Air Force |
This week's blog is all about transportation and what stood out to me about this week's prompt was the word "planes". To me, that meant I HAD to dedicate this blog to my maternal grandfather, Robert Eugene Hamel. I think I may have talked about him a little bit before. But, now is the time to toss him into the spotlight because planes was his life.
Robert was born on June 5th, 1923 in Newburyport, Massachusetts to Alfred Francis Hamel and Clara Laplante. In World War II, he served in the Army Air Corps, the organization which eventually gave rise to the United States Air Force. I discussed all of this back in Week 21. However, I did leave out a few details about his life.
Since my grandfather served, he naturally traveled to many different places around the world. This was evident by all the stories of Italy and North Africa he told my brother and I growing up. There were often pictures to go along with them because, again, photography was a hobby of his. When you tell stories, it's always a good idea to photographic evidence to support you. That was all during the war.
After the war and after my mother and her siblings were born, the Hamel family spent a lot of time living on various airbases all over the country because my grandfather was still in the service. In fact, he was flying the day my mother was born! From Newburyport, Massachusetts to Sacramento, California, the family stayed at the finest accommodations Uncle Sam could provide. Of course this meant that my mother, my aunts and uncles were effectively Air Force brats.
My grandfather was stationed in Saudi Arabia and Japan and served as an adviser to their military branches as well as the Air National Guard in this country. Due to him serving in different countries and flying over their airspace, he must of gotten a real feel for the people and customs there. Because of that he was very worldly.
He told me plenty of stories about how he flew planes and what kinds of planes he flew. But, the birth of my mother permanently clipped his wings as a private pilot. =) He still kept various models of planes and cars around the house, though. When I was growing up, he would tell me what kind of car or plane it was. I would listen intently and he certainly didn't mind me playing with them which was strange. Why trust a six year old with your models?!
Robert Hamel passed away in 2017 and left behind six children, ten grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. We're all grateful for his excellent stories and photographs. My brother put it best at his funeral. He was the ultimate grandfather. Never raised his voice. Always had a great story. He'll be missed. But, his legacy will live on.
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