thedrifter
12-11-08, 08:00 AM
What's Hot:Whatever happened to our war hero?
By Tim Grobaty, columnist
Posted: 12/10/2008 09:05:21 PM PST
WHATEVER HAPPENED II: One of our first Whatever Happened To subjects was Joe Britt, a young Long Beach boy from Wilson High who joined the Marines and went off to fight in the Korean War when he was 18. He fought, was captured and eventually was released and received a hero's parade along Ocean Boulevard in downtown Long Beach in June 1953.
By Christmas he had fallen into disfavor of some superior officers at our local Navy Base and, after showing up "two minutes late" for an assignment, he was reduced in grade from corporal to private and his superior officers termed him "a problem child" whose publicity had "gone to his head" and, finally, a Maj. A.H. Wunderly said Britt "doesn't have the right attitude for a Marine" and another officer wondered to a Press-Telegram reporter, "Why is a man a hero just because he's been captured? It's ridiculous!"
And that's where we left it, until hearing from his son, Bill, now 50, and still living in Long Beach.
"When I read your article, I just had to respond," Bill told us. And we can see why.
Joe's son told us about how his dad had become separated from his unit in the battle for Vegas Hill in Korea and "had to crawl to safety as fire from U.S. battleships exploded around him. Disoriented, he crawled for several miles until he was picked up by the enemy and taken prisoner."
He received the Bronze and Silver stars and a Purple Heart.
Joe's son expressed curiosity about why his dad's superior officers treated him so badly, but he guessed it was maybe because he reported late back to base a time or two, "and rules are rules."
He mentioned that shortly after his return, Joe "met a pretty Wilson High student named Susan Hughes and fell in love. It was on a date with her that resulted in him returning to base late. Hughes would become Bill's mother; the couple also had a daughter, Jerri.
"They eventually divorced and Dad moved to Sunset Beach," reports Bill.
"He spent the rest of his life there between bartending and making regular trips to Baja California.
"My dad was proud to be a Marine, and he considered himself a Marine until the day he died."
Many Sunset Beachers, particularly veterans, remember Joe Britt for his many years working at the legendary military hangout at Dick Harrison's King Neptune Seafood in Sunset Beach.
"In solidarity with Vietnam veterans and other disabled vets that have been ignored and neglected by military officials and commanders like Maj. Wunderly, Dad joined a group of veterans that threw some of their medals into the ocean as a protest. To him, soldiers were more important than medals."
We talked to Joe Britt's ex-wife Susan Hughes - she went back to her maiden name because "I'm happily single."
She says she and her ex-husband always got along great. "I can truly say we were best friends for more than 30 years."
She laughed: "He was a lousy husband though.
"We were married for just 10 years. He had a lot of girlfriends, and I was married twice, and through all that we were best friends all our lives.
"In fact, he called me on the day he died," she said.
"It was Mother's Day in 1996. "He called and said `Happy Mother's Day,' and two hours later, he died."
He was 62. We're gonna go ahead and call Joe Britt a war hero, even if his bosses didn't.
PAIR O' PARADES: Another pre-Christmas Saturday, another parade or two: This time, the Daisy Christmas Tree Lane Parade runs head-to-head on Saturday against the Naples Boat Parade.
We shan't be attending the latter because didn't nobody give us a boat. Oh, there were the usual offers for us to tag along on someone else's yacht, but we pretty much need our own. If you've got a boat to give us with no strings attached, you may approach. Elsewise, we'll be motoring over to the Wrigley District for our favorite homespun Xmas cavalcade, with the headquarters being the house of our friends Russ and Kathy Parsons.
Russ, as you know, is a hall of fame food guy and makes the best polenta we've ever had. They provide some sort of wine and beer; otherwise, it's a BYO thang, and we're wondering what you think of this: It used to be served to us by the mean-seeming but heart-of-gold-having ladies who ran the P-T cafeteria back in the early '80s whenever we whined about having a hangover.
You take you a jigger (1.5 ozzes) of Tuaca (an orange-vanilla-brandy Italian-made liqueur) and 6 ozzes of hot apple cider. That is all. You can name it whatever you want and decorate it gaudily with whipped cream, nutmeg, cinnamon sticks, peppermint - whatever.
The parade steps off at dark (call it 5p.m.) and goes up Daisy Avenue from Hill Street to Pacific Coast Highway and back.
tgrobaty@yahoo.com, 562-499-1256
Ellie
By Tim Grobaty, columnist
Posted: 12/10/2008 09:05:21 PM PST
WHATEVER HAPPENED II: One of our first Whatever Happened To subjects was Joe Britt, a young Long Beach boy from Wilson High who joined the Marines and went off to fight in the Korean War when he was 18. He fought, was captured and eventually was released and received a hero's parade along Ocean Boulevard in downtown Long Beach in June 1953.
By Christmas he had fallen into disfavor of some superior officers at our local Navy Base and, after showing up "two minutes late" for an assignment, he was reduced in grade from corporal to private and his superior officers termed him "a problem child" whose publicity had "gone to his head" and, finally, a Maj. A.H. Wunderly said Britt "doesn't have the right attitude for a Marine" and another officer wondered to a Press-Telegram reporter, "Why is a man a hero just because he's been captured? It's ridiculous!"
And that's where we left it, until hearing from his son, Bill, now 50, and still living in Long Beach.
"When I read your article, I just had to respond," Bill told us. And we can see why.
Joe's son told us about how his dad had become separated from his unit in the battle for Vegas Hill in Korea and "had to crawl to safety as fire from U.S. battleships exploded around him. Disoriented, he crawled for several miles until he was picked up by the enemy and taken prisoner."
He received the Bronze and Silver stars and a Purple Heart.
Joe's son expressed curiosity about why his dad's superior officers treated him so badly, but he guessed it was maybe because he reported late back to base a time or two, "and rules are rules."
He mentioned that shortly after his return, Joe "met a pretty Wilson High student named Susan Hughes and fell in love. It was on a date with her that resulted in him returning to base late. Hughes would become Bill's mother; the couple also had a daughter, Jerri.
"They eventually divorced and Dad moved to Sunset Beach," reports Bill.
"He spent the rest of his life there between bartending and making regular trips to Baja California.
"My dad was proud to be a Marine, and he considered himself a Marine until the day he died."
Many Sunset Beachers, particularly veterans, remember Joe Britt for his many years working at the legendary military hangout at Dick Harrison's King Neptune Seafood in Sunset Beach.
"In solidarity with Vietnam veterans and other disabled vets that have been ignored and neglected by military officials and commanders like Maj. Wunderly, Dad joined a group of veterans that threw some of their medals into the ocean as a protest. To him, soldiers were more important than medals."
We talked to Joe Britt's ex-wife Susan Hughes - she went back to her maiden name because "I'm happily single."
She says she and her ex-husband always got along great. "I can truly say we were best friends for more than 30 years."
She laughed: "He was a lousy husband though.
"We were married for just 10 years. He had a lot of girlfriends, and I was married twice, and through all that we were best friends all our lives.
"In fact, he called me on the day he died," she said.
"It was Mother's Day in 1996. "He called and said `Happy Mother's Day,' and two hours later, he died."
He was 62. We're gonna go ahead and call Joe Britt a war hero, even if his bosses didn't.
PAIR O' PARADES: Another pre-Christmas Saturday, another parade or two: This time, the Daisy Christmas Tree Lane Parade runs head-to-head on Saturday against the Naples Boat Parade.
We shan't be attending the latter because didn't nobody give us a boat. Oh, there were the usual offers for us to tag along on someone else's yacht, but we pretty much need our own. If you've got a boat to give us with no strings attached, you may approach. Elsewise, we'll be motoring over to the Wrigley District for our favorite homespun Xmas cavalcade, with the headquarters being the house of our friends Russ and Kathy Parsons.
Russ, as you know, is a hall of fame food guy and makes the best polenta we've ever had. They provide some sort of wine and beer; otherwise, it's a BYO thang, and we're wondering what you think of this: It used to be served to us by the mean-seeming but heart-of-gold-having ladies who ran the P-T cafeteria back in the early '80s whenever we whined about having a hangover.
You take you a jigger (1.5 ozzes) of Tuaca (an orange-vanilla-brandy Italian-made liqueur) and 6 ozzes of hot apple cider. That is all. You can name it whatever you want and decorate it gaudily with whipped cream, nutmeg, cinnamon sticks, peppermint - whatever.
The parade steps off at dark (call it 5p.m.) and goes up Daisy Avenue from Hill Street to Pacific Coast Highway and back.
tgrobaty@yahoo.com, 562-499-1256
Ellie