Hello everyone - my name is Matt Malley and I am glad to be here! My father, WW2 vet Patrick Lawrence Malley passed away in April of '03 and I must have the worst timing because I've since become a bit obsessed with WW2, watching all the documentaries, reading all the books - and now I have a million questions for him but he's gone. In 5 days from now, on Feb 3rd it would have been dad's 100th birthday. In my 20's I co-founded a successful 90's rock band "Counting Crows" as their bass player and dad was proud of me in his quiet way - one of the highlights of my life is when mom said that he wears his Counting Crows t-shirt to the bar as a conversation piece! He's from Berkeley, CA and was in the "343rd Engineer General Service Regiment". I've been going through one of his boxes this week and found some great photos from Naples Harbor, Rome, North Africa, Southern France etc. Attaching a photo - dad is the handsome devil on the right with the cigar. I'm here to meet other sons/daughters of WW2 vets - all of these vets are national treasures who fought an undeniable evil and grew up too fast - and when they're gone, there will be no more first hand accounts of the war and that will be one of this country's greatest losses. I got a very limited report of dad from the St Louis archives but his original papers were destroyed in a flood that happened in the '70's I believe. Anyway great to be here, please write and hope to connect some of the dots! Matt Malley
