Comments by "Colonel K" (@Paladin1873) on "The U.S. Coast Guard in the Great War: USCGC Tampa" video.

  1. I'm a regular viewer of your program, but this one touched me in a personal way and brought back memories from my early youth. It's hard to believe it has now been over a century since WWI ended. I say this because I can clearly remember, as a small boy, visiting my grandparents in Tampa, Florida every summer. During The Big One my Grandpa had served aboard a Navy minesweeper as a boatswain's mate. After the war he joined the American Legion, serving in a variety of capacities, including Post Commander. Forty years later he remained quite active and still served as a committee member at American Legion Post 5, USS Tampa, on Bay Shore Boulevard. The Post was named after the USS Tampa, in honor of a Coast Guard cutter which was sunk with all hands to a German U-boat in WWI. This was the largest loss of life of US Navy personnel to known enemy action in WWI, and because so many of the crew were Coast Guard, this tiny service suffered the greatest loss of life per size of any branch of service. Being a Navy veteran of the same war, Grandpa always tried to honor and remember these men. Almost every day would find us at the Post, where there was always something exciting for a kid to do. I pretty much had free run of the place, so at any given moment I might be sitting on the old torpedo near the flag pole, helping scrape old paint off the building, shooting pool and sharing a "short" beer with Grandpa (I was about five years old), or watching a few veterans play cards and chat with Grandpa, whom they called Sam. At the end of the day I'd help him fold the American flag and put it away. He was always very serious when we did this, and he taught me how to properly fold and respect the flag, and why it was so important. On membership night I'd help out in the bar (I got pretty good at working the tap and sliding long neck bottles of Budweiser and Busch-Bavarian beer down the slick waxed surface of the bar). Each month the wives prepared large dinners for the great hall, and entire families would show up to participate in the always popular BINGO night, with everyone sitting below the beautifully haunting stained glass memorial of the USS Tampa. On quieter evenings, I would sit on the Post 5 veranda with my grandparents, slowly swaying in the rocking chairs, while watching the lights of ships as they entered and left the harbor, the smell of salt air strong in the warm evening breeze. I loved that old Legion Hall, and each visit there brought a new experience to my young eyes. About the only place I recall being off limits was the second floor, so naturally curiosity got the better of me, and not yet able to read and heed the sign chained across the creaky old staircase, I once sneaked upstairs to discover a musty room full of WWI era parade rifles sitting in wooden racks. Next to them were two old machine guns that now lay silent, coated with years of dust. Like the torpedo, the machine guns were defunct and forgotten relics, but the rifles still performed a solemn duty whenever the Legionnaires were asked to provide an honor guard for the funeral of a comrade, and during Memorial Day services, where they would thunder loudly as a volley of blanks was discharged to salute the fallen. They're all gone now, the veterans, their wives, even the old post itself. Another post was built some years later in a new location. Presumably, they still have the torpedo and the memorial. As for me, I will always have the memories. Thanks, Grandpa.
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