Memories of My Father Thomas Burgess Slade

Tom in his early 20s

Tom as a boy

Tom in his 60s

    

Dad as an Arizona Bushmaster

My father served with the Arizona Bushmasters prior to and during WWII. He developed close relationships with those that he served. I have included some statements from my father’s personal journal about his time serving in WW2.

“My Regiment was sent on several missions on different islands yet all the time we were slowly moving in the direction of the Philippines. I spent three years oversees and with the exception of my panama time and the five weeks in Australia I was in a combat zone and under combat conditions most of the time. I was never wounded although I was in a great deal of bombings and had men killed all around me. It would seem that I was protected at all times by someone who considered me worth saving. 

“I came back to the states on rotation the last of 1944 and was sent to Florida for 6 months to train new men. I received an honorable discharge at El Paso in July 1945.

"A great deal could be said regarding the war but in order to forget some of the awful memory’s and tragic things that happened I will merely say, I did my duty to my country and I think I did a good job.”

This proud Arizona National Guard unit, the 158th Infantry (Bushmasters), organized as theArizona Volunteer Infantry, had its motto, "Cuidado" -- Take Care.

For more information about the 158th Infantry (the Bushmasters) unit that he served in see 
http://www.history.army.mil/html/topics/hispam/bushmasters.html
I remember my mother telling me that a couple of times my dad tried to go to a Bushmaster reunion. He never actually made it to the reunion. Before he would arrive he would struggle with the memories and not be able to follow through and go. I cannot imagine what kind of horrors he must have experienced during WW2 fighting in the South Pacific. He must have been a very strong man. He was able to overcome the PTSD issues to work and make a living, raise a family and serve as a bishop. The people he served loved him which is a testimony to how good a man he was.

2014
Dad Did Not Camp
When I was a kid my dad did not go camping. We as a family did not camp but a few times when we were at family reunions we camped but my father would wait until it was time to go to bed and drive back into town. I did not understand this at the time but I have come to understand that most likely camping in the outdoors at night was probably an issue with his experiences fighting in WWII. According to my mother he struggled with memories of the War and his buddies that he fought and died with him. As the condition called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is understood more we learn that that there are triggers that bring on Stress and Anxiety and so I am fairly sure that this was why he did not camp with us.
I remember reading from Dad’s personal history that as a boy when his family moved to Durango he guided trackers and herded sheep both of which would have included camping. He made it sound in his personal history like he really enjoyed this time in Durango.

Wooden Tops Like Dad Played With

Dad's Toy Top
I made a connection today, Feb 2015, about my dad and why he had a toy top that he liked to show us. It was a crude piece of wood shaped like a top and a coarse string would be wrapped around it in a certain way and then it would be thrown and sent spinning. It is very difficult to successfully get it to stay standing when you throw it.  When I was in Panama or Honduras I saw the children using these tops and even bought one from them and tried to learn to spin them.  That was back in the 1990s that I obtained the top. However, it was not until this past week that I realized where my Father got his top and learned how to use it. It would have been when he was in Panama in 1942 while training in Jungle Warfare and guarding the Canal before going to Australia to fight in the south pacific.

Rolls of Newspaper like we used to make

Rolling Newspapers with Dad
When I was a boy and teenager I remember working with my dad doing church welfare projects or projects to raise money for church budget or building funds. One thing that we did for many years was collect newspapers. We placed bins in trailer parks and would have to collect the newspapers every week or two. Sometimes we just added them to a trailer that the ward was collecting and then sold them to recycling companies. Other times we would unfold the newspapers and lay them flat and roll them into 20 pound rolls. These would be sold to businesses that paid more money than was paid for bulk newspapers. I remember doing this in the garage. We had these wooden machines that held the flattened newspapers and would tip when the weight got to 20 pounds. I can remember my dad doing this a lot and sometimes I would do it also. As I look back on my childhood my dad was a busy man and so it seemed like when I did get to spend time with him it was working on one of these service projects. These are some fond memories of working with my father.