The Morgue

Considering all things, it was relatively a brief corridor in time that Uncle Gene and I shared together.  During most of this time he talked and I listened while he painted his stories into my memory.  One such account was his time in the morgue.  Certainly, not something most nine year old have given much thought.  At any rate it was one of those stories Uncle Gene told of his time in the army posted on an island called Okinawa.  Now I had never heard of  Okinawa, but I figured it really existed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean never to be the same after Uncle Gene had been there.

Now I knew that a morgue had to do with dead people, but Uncle Gene gave me to understand that his place had to do with those who had been killed in Korea, and whose bodies needed to be identified before burial.   From "driving tanks" to a "morgue in Okinawa" seemed a little unbelievable, but hey... Uncle Gene could convince you of his facts.

It again was not until years later that the following patch in Uncle Gene's collection was understood.

It was worn by those of the U.S. Army garrison on Okinawa which is the largest Island of the Ryukyus chain.  The figure on the insignia is a torii which is the gate to a Shinto Temple.  The patch was adopted after WWII, certainly in time for the Koren War.  It must have been one of the least favorite of Uncle Gene's memories.

Driving Tanks

Telling stories was part of our families' activities.   Uncle Gene had more than his share.  One of his favorite was driving tanks.  He explained a number of techniques, with his hands doing most of the talking.  Fort Knox was the location, and hitting bumps with your teeth grinding about was often the focus.  Now I knew that Fort Knox was the place that all that gold was supposed to be held...but tanks...well not real sure about this.  At any rate, one of the patches I came to own, past down to me from Uncle Gene, was the following.

The 6th Armored Division it is.  Some years later, my study revealed that this division was deactivated after WWII.  However, it was reactivated during the Korean War and was used primarily as a training organization.  In 1957 it was again deactivated.  Hum...driving tanks it must have been.  Fort Knox...well I guess George Patton might have something to say about that!