A Tourist Destination Can Bring Family History to Life

The ghost of my father’s military service walks with me through the corridors of the ship.

My father, before being sent overseas during WWII. Photo provided by the author.

Currently, I am sitting in my cabin on the Queen Mary, in Long Beach, California. Before and after World War II, it was a passenger liner. During the war, it was a troop transport.

In 1967 the ship moved to Long Beach, California as a tourist destination. Some of the First-Class cabins were converted into hotel rooms. Mine has a view of the harbor.

I am sharing the cabin with a good friend. I have complained under my breath about the lack of convenient electrical outlets. My laptop power cord won’t reach from the available outlet to the only table in the cabin.

Other issues involve our bathroom only having one small soap. There are two sinks and a tub/shower in this cabin. Three small soaps would have seemed more normal.

Another look around the cabin pushes those complaints to the side. It is cool to stay in a First-Class cabin on the ship that hauled my father across the Atlantic during The War.

You can bet my accommodations are better than the cot he was assigned. He slept on it in shifts. There were two other soldiers he shared it with. They each had it for eight hours in a…