My Eisenhower story
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My dad was an Army helicopter pilot. In the spring 1960, he got transferred to Nellingen, Germany and reported there leaving my mom and us kids behind in the U.S. so we could finish the school year at which point we would join him for a 3-year tour. There was a Summit Conference scheduled to take place in Paris in May with leaders from the U.S., Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France.
The movie Bridge of Spies (2015) is about the U-2 spy incident that made the conference fall apart. Anyhow, my dad was one of the pilots who flew Secretary of State, Dean Rusk along with other government dignitaries on the journey to the conference. As a thank you, President Eisenhower gave the pilots a presidential medal which is now considered to be a cold war artifact. My dad was so honored and proud to receive it that he packaged it up and sent it my mom while we were still in Wichita. I was in the 3rd grade and my teacher had been my dad's teacher when HE was a kid. I took the medal to school for show-and-tell. While I was at recess... someone stole the medal out of my desk. I was so upset that I cried for the rest of the day. I was afraid to go home after school. I just knew my mom was gonna give me a spanking I'd never forget.
I walked into the house with a tree limb I'd found in the yard so she could give me what I had coming. I could barely get out what happened I was crying so hard. My mom was not happy. She was sympathetic. We went back up to the school and looked everywhere for the medal. We talked to the principal, the custodian, other teachers. Of course, nobody had seen it. When we got back home, I asked if maybe I could write a letter to President Eisenhower asking him to replace the medal which had been stolen. My mom said;... it doesn't hurt to try. I wrote a letter addressed to President Eisenhower at the White House and told him what happened and how important that medal was to my dad. My letter was about 3 pages long so my mom helped me shorten it. About a month later, I got a letter from President Eisenhower on White House stationery, signed by him... with another medal! OH HAPPY DAY!! My mom said.. This medal does not leave the house again and for the next 50 years, it never did. . My dad had his medal back, but I had the letter from President Eisenhower and it became my most prized possession.
When I was in college, I lived with my grandparents for a time. I got a summer job working at a camp in Massachusetts and stored all my stuff in their basement: mementos, scrapbooks, yearbooks, diaries, important papers, etc. While I was away, their basement flooded and, ... you guessed it, the letter from President Eisenhower was destroyed and could not be salvaged. I was sick. Still am.
There was nothing I could do about it. Nothing. Years later, my dad came down with lung cancer and his health was failing. During one of my visits to see him, he presented me with the medal. My dad told me that he wanted me to have the medal because of my part in what it took to get it. My dad died in Aug. 2013. That medal had a special meaning to me and my dad that my brothers and sister just wouldn't have.
I treasure it now more than ever and keep it under lock and key. Here's a pic of it.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/09/2024 06:48AM by MamaRAMa.
The movie Bridge of Spies (2015) is about the U-2 spy incident that made the conference fall apart. Anyhow, my dad was one of the pilots who flew Secretary of State, Dean Rusk along with other government dignitaries on the journey to the conference. As a thank you, President Eisenhower gave the pilots a presidential medal which is now considered to be a cold war artifact. My dad was so honored and proud to receive it that he packaged it up and sent it my mom while we were still in Wichita. I was in the 3rd grade and my teacher had been my dad's teacher when HE was a kid. I took the medal to school for show-and-tell. While I was at recess... someone stole the medal out of my desk. I was so upset that I cried for the rest of the day. I was afraid to go home after school. I just knew my mom was gonna give me a spanking I'd never forget.
I walked into the house with a tree limb I'd found in the yard so she could give me what I had coming. I could barely get out what happened I was crying so hard. My mom was not happy. She was sympathetic. We went back up to the school and looked everywhere for the medal. We talked to the principal, the custodian, other teachers. Of course, nobody had seen it. When we got back home, I asked if maybe I could write a letter to President Eisenhower asking him to replace the medal which had been stolen. My mom said;... it doesn't hurt to try. I wrote a letter addressed to President Eisenhower at the White House and told him what happened and how important that medal was to my dad. My letter was about 3 pages long so my mom helped me shorten it. About a month later, I got a letter from President Eisenhower on White House stationery, signed by him... with another medal! OH HAPPY DAY!! My mom said.. This medal does not leave the house again and for the next 50 years, it never did. . My dad had his medal back, but I had the letter from President Eisenhower and it became my most prized possession.
When I was in college, I lived with my grandparents for a time. I got a summer job working at a camp in Massachusetts and stored all my stuff in their basement: mementos, scrapbooks, yearbooks, diaries, important papers, etc. While I was away, their basement flooded and, ... you guessed it, the letter from President Eisenhower was destroyed and could not be salvaged. I was sick. Still am.
There was nothing I could do about it. Nothing. Years later, my dad came down with lung cancer and his health was failing. During one of my visits to see him, he presented me with the medal. My dad told me that he wanted me to have the medal because of my part in what it took to get it. My dad died in Aug. 2013. That medal had a special meaning to me and my dad that my brothers and sister just wouldn't have.
I treasure it now more than ever and keep it under lock and key. Here's a pic of it.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/09/2024 06:48AM by MamaRAMa.
