Irradiated Merc, Silver War Nickels And And 2 American Heros

Long story short. My dad met my mom and dated for about two weeks before he shipped out to Camp Rucker, Alabama headed to the "Big One", WWII. After a short time at Camp Rucker he went AWOL on a Friday, hitched back to Birmingham, Alabama and married my mother on Saturday; remember, they had only known each other for a couple of weeks. He hitched back to Camp Rucker on Sunday and a few days later left for New York where he climbed aboard the USS Wakefield for the trip to England. Dad got to France shortly after D-Day. He spent the next 28 months carrying a 60 pound mortar around France, Germany and Belgium. He was wounded once. While my dad was gone, my mother went to Oak Ridge, Tennessee and worked on the bomb; well, actually she didn't know what she was working on because she could only go into the dorm in which she lived and the one building she worked in, she and others were not allowed in any other building at the facility. She did remember this "weird green paint" that she worked with/around. Whatever it was, it was thought highly of since none of it could leave the building. She recalled having to clean her fingernails before leaving every day to assure that the "green paint" didn't get away. Anyway, not to bore you but I thought it is a pretty good story. Lost my mom in December, my 90 year old dad now lives with my wife and I. The shadowbox below we put together has a pic of my mom and dad and their wedding picture, his discharge papers, a Western Union telegram informing my dad's mother that he had been wounded, a clipping from the local newspaper listing him as a casuality, his purple heart, an irradiated Mercury dime from the American Museum of Science and Energy and two sets of silver War Nickels. Be thankful to the men and women who put their lives on the line every day so you and I can sit around and enjoy our coin addiction.