The “Lucky” Hat
Posted: Sat Jun 08, 2019 9:07 pm
Attended funeral services today for Joseph Walter Stone, a ninety-four year old WWII Navy vet and the father of a good friend.
Heard this story for the first time:
The thirteen men in the photo below were all high school classmates at Woodlawn High School in Birmingham.
After Pearl Harbor was attacked and they graduated high school in 1943, they each enlisted, over time, in various branches of service; Navy, USMC, Army and Army Air Corps.
Mr. Stone is the individual over who they are holding the hat. The man to his immediate left was the first to leave. He departed Birmingham for The Great Lakes Naval Training Station. As they were bidding him goodbye at the train station, he stated that he had forgotten his hat. Mr Stone removed his hat, put it on his head and told him to just send it back to his parents when he was settled in at Great Lakes.
He sent it back, but he had written his name on the hat.
In turn, the other twelve men all wore the hat to their various training stations. They all wrote their names on the hat.
All thirteen men returned safely from the war.
Korea came and went without the hat being used, but when the sons of these men started shipping out for service during Vietnam, their fathers insisted they wear the hat to their initial training camps, put their names on the hat and send it back.
Fourteen men did that. They all returned home safely.
Then, the grandsons of the original thirteen started off to serve in Desert Storm and subsequent post 9/11 conflicts.
In all, somewhere between thirty-five and forty men have worn the hat, signed it and sent it back to Mr Stone.
All have come home safely.
The thirteen men remained fast friends throughout their lives.
Mr. Stone’s brother, Robert, who I met today, is the last man living of the original thirteen.
The photo is from a newspaper article published in the 1950’s.
Heard this story for the first time:
The thirteen men in the photo below were all high school classmates at Woodlawn High School in Birmingham.
After Pearl Harbor was attacked and they graduated high school in 1943, they each enlisted, over time, in various branches of service; Navy, USMC, Army and Army Air Corps.
Mr. Stone is the individual over who they are holding the hat. The man to his immediate left was the first to leave. He departed Birmingham for The Great Lakes Naval Training Station. As they were bidding him goodbye at the train station, he stated that he had forgotten his hat. Mr Stone removed his hat, put it on his head and told him to just send it back to his parents when he was settled in at Great Lakes.
He sent it back, but he had written his name on the hat.
In turn, the other twelve men all wore the hat to their various training stations. They all wrote their names on the hat.
All thirteen men returned safely from the war.
Korea came and went without the hat being used, but when the sons of these men started shipping out for service during Vietnam, their fathers insisted they wear the hat to their initial training camps, put their names on the hat and send it back.
Fourteen men did that. They all returned home safely.
Then, the grandsons of the original thirteen started off to serve in Desert Storm and subsequent post 9/11 conflicts.
In all, somewhere between thirty-five and forty men have worn the hat, signed it and sent it back to Mr Stone.
All have come home safely.
The thirteen men remained fast friends throughout their lives.
Mr. Stone’s brother, Robert, who I met today, is the last man living of the original thirteen.
The photo is from a newspaper article published in the 1950’s.
