War, Part 3

Jonah, Adian, and Makaena, and I (elisabeth) toured the USS Blueback Submarine at OMSI yesterday. The kids were so awestuck by how compact everything was and of course the periscope, all the switches and lights, and how cool it is that this sub had been involved in a war (Vietnam).
Plus seeing the torpedoes was really cool (about 1.2 million apiece!) Our guide asked if anyone knew the difference between a missile and a torpedo...his answer: 12 million dollars. Yikes!

Outside the partially submerged sub (we were only about 12 feet underwater).

War Part 2

My Grandpa Fred (Jonah Fredrick's namesake) served in the Navy during WWII aboard the USS Nashville CL-43 as General MacArthur's personal signalman. The bottom picture is of General MacArthur aboard the armed cruiser. There was a book published in 2007 called Humble Heroes (click on title to follow link) solely about this cruiser during the war. Needless to say, it is being shipped to us as we speak. :) Click here to read the author's blog.

Boys, Girls, and War

Jonah has been all about World War II lately. It all started with playing Battleship and reading a book for school called Twenty and Ten (fiction story about 30 children hiding from the Nazis in France). Anyway, we are now buried in books about submarines, battleships, destroyers, true stories (I threw these in more for my sake and Ava's, and to put a face on the victims of the war), activity books, and history books. I think next week we're going to try and tour the submarine at OMSI. Tonight Jon wanted him to see the movie U571 (censored) about a Nazi submarine boarded by the US Navy (Matthew McConaughey). Ava sat and watched it with us and amidst all the explaining she finally sighed and said, "I don't like this movie cuz it doesn't have any songs in it!!"
(BTW: If anyone has some tips on age-appropriate WW II info for Jonah right now, let me know in a comment! Thanks!)