On my way out the door to cover the Veterans Day Parade in East Moriches last November, I remembered my dad’s World War II coat hanging in the closet. I wondered if it would fit. It was a little chilly out, and I was my father’s son, so I made my way in his warm embrace from 80 years ago.
I met a military man who described what the Naval jacket’s insignia meant. There was a gold eagle surrounded by a wreath known as the “Ruptured Duck.” It was awarded to honorably discharged personnel to show they were authorized to wear their uniforms home (during a time of clothing shortages).
He had an eagle symbol showing he was in the U.S. Navy and a service stripe or “hash mark” signifying that he served four years. A patch with lightning bolts identified him as a Radioman, while two chevrons with a rocker showed his rank as Chief Petty Officer.
The annual parade ended at Soldiers and Sailors Park, where they conducted a ceremony honoring the nation’s veterans. I shared the story of my dad’s service:
Center Moriches native Michael A. Chartuk followed in his older brother’s footsteps and joined the Coast Guard in 1939. His first duty was patrolling New York Harbor, and he was popular with the crew because he was the only one who knew how to cook. He was sent to radio school, and when World War II broke out, he was dispatched by the Navy to Hispaniola, an island in the Caribbean, to set up a radio station to intercept enemy messages.
“German Morse Code was very precise, and when I heard it, I knew it was them,” he once told me. “The hair would stand up on the back of my neck.” The transmissions consisted of only dots and dashes, but during the war, they were of significant importance to the Allies.
One day, a special attaché landed on the island and presented my dad with a Navy Commendation medal. Because he was considered a spy, they wouldn’t tell him what he did to deserve it. After the war, he found out. A message he picked up instructed a German submarine wolf pack to intercept the Queen Mary, which was being used to transport U.S. soldiers across the Atlantic for the battle in Europe. The message was decoded, and the ship was diverted. My dad saved thousands of lives.
Years later, he ran into a fellow veteran at a Memorial Day service in Bellport and told him the story. The fellow’s eyes welled up, and he clutched my dad’s hands, thanking him. “I was on that ship,” he said.