I figured you folks might like to know this little bit of news.
This morning, at around 0830 hours, we lost another veteran.
Major Joe Lynch, USMC (Retired) was a very good friend and a squadronmate of my grandfather. They both served aboard the USS Sicily during the Korean War in VMF-323 "Death Rattlers" flying F4U4 Corsairs. Maj. Lynch passed away of natural causes at Arlington Memorial Hospital this morning. He was 88 years old.
The number 12 always had a very special meaning to Maj. Lynch and my grandfather. On January 12, 1952, Maj. Lynch was shot down while flying a mission with my grandfather. He bailed out of the wreck and ended up in a rice paddy. My grandfather always, until the day he died, ragged on Maj. Lynch because of this. It was somewhat of a joke to them in their later years. He would say "there was Joe, water up to his ankles just wavin' up at us as we flew overhead." It was a serious situation back then, but after the war, they joked about it constantly. He and my grandfather always had a friendly rivalry going. When he made lieutenant colonel and Maj. Lynch didn't, he always said that he "one upped" his good friend.
Maj. Lynch suffered from severe back pain later in life and always walked hunched over supported by a cane. A exceedingly friendly man, he was well liked by everyone in my family.
My mother said that my grandfather was most likely waiting for him, asking, "What took you so long?"
He will be missed greatly.
<S> Major Lynch. Clear skies and tail winds forever.
