Edward J. Thomas - World War II
Edward Thomas – War Years
Edward Thomas was the oldest of four children born to John Tomaszewski and Victoria Zagorski on Oct. 24, 1909. He was born in Detroit, and after living in several locations was 32 years old, living on Filer Avenue in Detroit, that fateful Dec. 7, 1941 day.
He and my father Harry were in their basement mixing mink food. You see he and my dad had seen a short film, the kind you used to see before the main feature when going to the theater back in the olden days.
Even I remember this from my boyhood days, the short features shown before the hour and a half, or more likely two and a half hour movie. But for us it usually was a cartoon, which broke the monotony of fidgety preteen and teenage youngsters, chatting and laughing at the comradely we had every Friday or Saturday night.
On that fateful December evening, President Roosevelt came on the air an announced that the world had changed forever! My uncle and dad knew then that their lives would also change.
One year later: Feb. 1943, my uncle now 33 years old receives a notice from his Draft Board; the country has a job for him. But he already has one, he raises mink. It doesn’t matter, come March, he will be issued his new set of clothes, be given room and board, and he will even be paid by the American people.
There starts the stage for this story about one of America’s forgotten heroes, the men who gave their time and effort to fight one of the worst enemies of modern time.
