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Hello and welcome to a new series of family stories, the podcast written by you, our listeners.

This week's family stories feature miraculous escapes from colliding convoys off the coast of Newfoundland

and a parachute mishap caused by a poorly time distraction from a beautiful woman.

This week we're starting with a story from Andrew. Andrew writes,

My grandfather was born in the Bronx to Jewish immigrants in the 1920s. He dropped out of

university after Pearl Harbor to volunteer for service and given his partial college education

was given an officer's commission.

His goal was to become a naval aviator, but he was rejected as a potential pilot by the Navy,

Air Force and Marines, because he was colourblind. Instead, he joined the army in 1942 and was

assigned to the Sea Coast Artillery Unit as a gunnery officer, with the logic

that he must have learned sufficient math in college to aim the guns.

He was later transferred to an anti-aircraft unit stationed in El Paso, Texas.

He considered this a plumb assignment on account of the lack of aerial threat from Mexico.

His quiet journey through the war didn't last long.

He remembered that many men in his unit were from the American South and had never met a

Jewish man before. Anti-Semitic remarks were a common occurrence, and eventually my grandfather

...