A memory of my father, Curtus Elmo Pruitt

My father was born in 1915…a period of time almost like today, where there is a rich class getting richer; a poor class that has no chance of getting out of poverty and the small middle class.The family was lucky to not have lost anyone during the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918. His mother died when he was 13 years old..and the family were in dire conditions until after the Great Depression was well into it's conception. In 1936 my father joined the US Navy and spent 22 years serving his country…on old fashioned diesel burning submarines which he had duty on both oceans…and from the Aleutian Islands of Alaska into the Kurile Islands of Japan…to as far south as Austrailia and the South Pacific.

He transferred to a Ammunition Carrier Sip as an officer and participated in the Bikini Atoll testings of the A-bomb…During the Korean War he was off the coast of South Korea re-supplying ships and men of the UN forces.

After that police action, as they called it, he was an instructor in San Diego Naval Center before being transferred to his final destination in the military, Crane Naval Depot, Indiana. From Crane he was "sub-transferred" to the Jefferson Proving Grounds, north of Madison, Indiana where he quality-control check the ammunition used by the Navy…even though this was an Army base.So from 1955 to 1958 the Pruitt family…that is, my father, mother brother and myself were tied to a base…listening to explosions til 2am every night.

After his military career was over, we moved back to my mother and father's city of birth, Vincennes. He ended up buying a nice tavern on the south side of town…and eventually divorcing my mother about 6 years before his death in 1973.

My fathe died from lung cancer…whether it was from smoking too much or from the radiation he was definitely exposed to during the Bikini Atoll tests only God can say. He did a good job providing for his family, making sure not to spoil..Even though it's been more than 40 years since I lost you Dad, I retired from the US Govt only 15 miles from where you passed away. You will always be close.

Curtis Pruitt