My dad's mother passed when he was 15. At 16 he came home from school to find the house locked up, his belongings in the yard, and his father gone. Dad was taken in by his best buddy's family. When they were old enough, they both enlisted in the Army. Despite the recruiter's promise that they would stay together, dad was assigned to a coastal artillery unit in Panama, and his best friend, George, to the infantry. George was killed crossing the Rhine in 1945. It wasn't until after dad had passed in 1988, that I learned that they were half brothers.
