... who became my dearest grandad, who adopted my mother and literally brought her back to life (she had a huge heart failure ordeal). This is after the war, my grandma remarried after losing her husband in 1941.
This is how I came to be after my mother met my father, who looked like an SS officer.
Well, here is my granddad's orders and medals with me in August 1980 after the boot in naval academy and a first liberty after almost three months. Yes, boot changes you--you become emaciated and tired. They whip you into the future officer--the first step. But it is nothing what this generation endured.
Order of the Red Star:
Medal for the Defense of Caucasus.
As a cadet he had THIS one, from Soviet-Finnish War.
He never cared for wearing this one awarded after the war.
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