Helped Father

All three of the other boys were
also to see plenty of active and ardu-
ous duty, and some were to be in
war zones even before this country
declared war. I always felt that Fa-
ther’s subconscious reason for un-
- wittingly hurting the feelings of his
other sons was the old disappoint-
ment over his inability to get himself
transferred from what he felt was in-
active duty as Assistant Secretary of
the Navy to active duty on board a
naval vessel.

. In 1918, there was great excitement
among us because Father was going
to Europe on an inspection trip, and
was traveling on a destroyer—a type
of ship known for its speed and abil-
ity to toss itself through ocean waves
like a corkscrew.

From the parts of his letters which
Mother read to us, it was obvious that
Father was enjoying every bit of the
“tossing.” He bragged about his “sea-

•	legs” and wrote a breath-taking tale
about someone who was swept over-
board by a huge wave in the English

•	Channel. But in the midst of all this

•	he remembered to continue his job of
educating his children by also writ-
ing Mother: “Tell Anna and James

to look up these Azores places on the
map!”

It was on this trip that Father met
Marie Jose, the oldest daughter of
King Albert and Queen Elizabeth of
Belgium, the little European country
which was so terribly trampled by the
Germans in the early stages of World
War I. Father wrote me that he en-
joyed Marie Jose so much because she
was just my age and looked so much
like me that it made him homesick.
Perhaps because Father was so busy
with public life during many years
of my childhood, I treasured such lit-
tle incidents more than most children
would.

Early in 1919, Father was on his
way again to Europe, this time ac-
companied by Mother, on an ocean
liner, the George Washington. This
event stuck in my mind chiefly be-
cause my parents chose this trip to
tell me that, as I was then twelve
years old, I was old enough to accept
the responsibility for our household
during their absence. I was very
proud and most serious about it in
fact, much more concerned about liv-
ing up to their expectations of me
than I was interested in the Peace