Tribute for Cap't Jack - The 5 Qualities

Preface: This post and the previous two posts represent a reprinted version of the speech given on April 6, 2013 at  the service for Jack W. Siulinski. 

     There are five qualities, to speak of, that really defined my Dad. The first quality was his love for animals. You may know that he loved dogs and was devoted to our family dog, Buffy, even though he seemed to yell at her a lot. Buffy did have a mind of her own! Dad would befriend dogs out in public every chance he got. He also loved birds and horses, which he was able to enjoy in his final years. His favorite activity at the Veteran’s Home was, no doubt, the horseback riding they offered there.

     The second quality was his humor. Dad had a pervasive sense of humor throughout his life as Paula shared. Some examples of his humor from the interviews in 2007: He was asked about school life in Rochester to which he replied, “I lived in a dormitory with a bunch of other schmucks!” When asked if he had an original plan for the size of his family, he said that he wanted a basketball team (5 on a team). I reminded him that he had more than a basketball team, and he responded: “well, more or less; I had a spare.” 

     The next quality that defined my Dad was his love of nature and being outdoors. I am glad that his service is in the spring. He was definitely an outdoor enthusiast.The short list of his preferred active passions is tennis, skiing, boating, camping, and biking. He also loved to BBQ.

The fourth quality was his love of travel, and Dad did a fair share of it, especially with his kids living in so many places.  During the interviews, he gave a thumbs-up for cruises, and particularly the food on the cruises.  Did you know he also traveled to Hawaii and Europe?  The picture to the left was taken in Heidelberg, Germany in 1996.  Two of the most fascinating experiences he ever had was flying over the Aleutian Islands when he was in the Navy, and flying in a helicopter over "The Grand Canyon of the Pacific", Waimea Canyon, on Kauai's West Side with Mom in 1994.  It was great that he got to see this beautiful place. 

Waimea Canyon
http://www.kauai.name/kauais-waimea-canyon/

     
     The last quality and the one that defined Dad the most, for lack of a better word, was his sociability.  His social nature of connecting so easily with others was true in both his personal and work life.  As a child, I remember getting the impression that he was so important and well liked which made me feel important as well. 

     Dad's social skills never faltered even to his last days. The caretakers at the Veteran's Home in Scarborough, Maine, would often say they loved my Dad. When we would stroll along the halls and grounds, they would stop us to say hi, to whom they called Cap’t Jack, and sometimes gave him a hug.  I believe this quality of sociability got passed on to all of the Siulinski kids, and what I suspect is that it will also be highlighted in our services when our time is up.

Closing thoughts: Having moved back to the east coast for a new job last fall, I was able to spend much time visiting my Dad during his last months. Speaking on behalf of my siblings: by being there for him, we were able to give back a little to the Dad who was always there for us.  No matter how different we were as kids and as adults, he always wanted us to be happy. During the family history interviews back in 2007, I asked my Dad how he would like to be remembered.  His response was: ”just being a nice guy..."

    
Click below to see a slideshow tribute:

Military Life post World War II

Jack's military life took him to faraway remote places including the Mariana Islands (Guam) and the Aleutian Islands (Adak, Alaska). He entered the Navy in August 1946 as a Construction Electrician. He did his basic training in Bainbridge, Maryland, then went on what he called a "troop train" to California. At Port Hueneme in Ventura County, he attended a Radio and Communications school for twelve weeks (the Seabees program described in an earlier post) before boarding a ship for a five-day cruise to Hawaii via San Francisco. Although in Hawaii for only one day, this provided enough time for checking out the beach and taking some pictures including the image below of Diamond Head on Oahu Island.
From here, he went on to his first major duty assignment that lasted almost two years - the 103rd NCB (Naval Construction Battalion) in Guam in the South Pacific. He lived in a tent for over a year then upgraded to a Quonset hut shown below.

YEAR	LOCATION	ASSIGNMENT
August 1946	Bainbridge, MD	Basic Training
Oct 1946	Port Hueneme, CA	Radio and Communication School
Jan 1947	Guam, Mariana Islands 103rd NCB	Duty Assignment 1
Apr 1949	Adak, Aleutian Islands	Duty Assignment 2
July 1950	Seattle, WA	Discharge

Even though Jack studied communications in the Port Hueneme training program, he ended up operating a power plant in Guam and later in Alaska as well. Besides the extreme heat, the living conditions in the South Pacific offered unusual and frequent visitors in and around the tents, in Jack's own words: rats the size of tomcats. Although, his service in Guam might have been considered a hardship, his experience in Alaska offered a contrast and clearly a different flavor.

Jack's second major duty assignment while serving in the Navy was in the Aleutian Islands at the southern Bering Sea. He was assigned to Adak Island which sits on Kuluk Bay, 1,300 miles southwest of Anchorage on the latitude of Vancouver Island in Canada. It has a population of 320 (source of stats: navy history). Jack may hold the distinction in the Siulinski family to have traveled to the area where man first walked onto the American continent via the Bering Land Bridge. Ages ago, much of the Earth's water supply was locked up in huge ice masses. Eventually, the sea level fell exposing vast areas of land (previously underwater) creating a continuous land bridge that stretched between Siberia and Alaska. Most archaeologists agree that it was across this Bering Land Bridge, also called Beringia, that humans first passed from Asia to populate the Americas. 

Source for the map: worldatlas
Source for the text describing the Bering Land Bridge: PBS
One of the most vivid images that Jack offered during numerous hours of being interviewed for his life story was when he flew over the Aleutian Islands.

"We flew practically to the end of the Aleutian chain.  We were flying a route above the mountaintops, you could see the craters of active mountains [volcanoes]."

Mt Edgecumbe outside of Sitka

Image source: AlaskaPride Blog

While serving in Alaska, possibly brought on by the elements and stress of work, Jack suffered a collapsed lung in June of 1950. While hospitalized in Alaska for diagnosis and observation, the Korean War flared up. He was sent to Seattle on a ship where he was then discharged on July 26, 1950j, and sent back to Maine on a train. Ironically and fortunately, the illness may have prevented a tour of duty in Korea. Unfortunately, though, the July discharge in Seattle was processed just one month prior to Jack completing his full tour of duty. HE would later have problems re-enlisting into the Navy Reserves which he tried to do before meeting his future wife. This issue may have also affected Jack not receiving a full disability upon discharge which would have provided living benefits for him and his family during the time of convalescence. Although his condition was later deemed to be  "service-connected", he was only entitled to the medical benefits necessary to treat the condition. These facts made life difficult for a while but he persevered through the time of marriage and a new family. (source: Oct 1952 VA letter from personal archives of Jack Siulinski)

Although Jack did not face combat in his service years, he did serve in the Navy during the time that the World War II Victory Medal was awarded to servicemen.

Endnote: Much of the material for this post was taken from a recorded interview with Jack in 2007. Also, many documents and pictures saved from his military days were used to create the story of his military life beginning in 1946 to the time period after his discharge and when he met his wife in 1950.