Photo By Sgt. Wesley Landrum | Commander G. Michael Pettinger, of Norfolk, Va., shows off his daughter's baby slipper...... read more read more
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By Wesley Landrum
50th Public Affairs Detachment
KUWAIT - Pilots traditionally carry good luck mementos with them on sorties. Before Burt left for duty, he found a pair of his infant daughter's pink slippers. As a good luck memento from home, he carried one to Europe with him. Now more than 60 years later, a family tradition is continuing in the desert sands of Kuwait.
Commander G. Michael Pettinger, a Navy Reservist from Norfolk, Va., received orders to be involuntarily recalled to active duty in February. He said he knew what the family's reaction would be.
"My wife, Karin, was understandably upset with this turn of events," Pettinger said.
Then fate intervened.
"Karin happened to find a pair of yellow bootie slippers, hand knit by her grandmother upon the birth of our daughter seven years ago," Pettinger said. "Remembering the stories that Burt, Isabel (grandmother) and Amy (mother) had cherished, and told to Karin for so many years, my wife lifted the slippers out of the drawer."
Pettinger said his wife came up to him, slippers in hand, and asked him to take one with him. He said he would. When Pettinger left for Kuwait, the slipper was tucked inside his left pocket. It remains there today.
"When my orders came through, my daughter's own pair of slippers were discovered shortly thereafter. Neither of us could escape the parallels," Pettinger said. "Call it a good luck token, a personal reminder, or the embodiment of a promise, all of these things help me realize I'm here because I need to be and that I will one day return home."
Karin Pettinger said her husband cherished the idea of him carrying the slipper.
"When I came across the slippers and explained the story to Mike about Grandpa's slipper, he was immediately enthusiastic about carrying one of Meg's," Karin said. "I think the story of Grandpa coming home safely and the connection to the family tradition just resonated with both of us."
McIntosh, who now resides in the Phoenix, Ariz., area, and Pettinger say carrying the slippers shows a bond and a promise that is made between father and child. Pettinger said a broken promise is something that will be remembered for a long time to come.
"It's not possible to be a perfect parent, but it is possible to keep your word to your kids," Pettinger said. "If you can prove to them that integrity is important to you, it will rub off on them."
Karin said carrying the slipper connects the present with the past. Though the battlefield has shifted from the skies of Europe to the sands of the Middle East, the same concerns that resonated in the 1940s continue today.
"Mike is no different than Grandpa was in so many ways – he worries about the family he leaves behind, about the milestones his children will pass while he is away from them and about coming home safely to the people he loves," Karin said. "Kuwait, Iraq, Vietnam, Korea, Europe and Japan – no matter where or when we stand and fight, there are always simply just men with Families who want them to come home."
For Isabel McIntosh, continuing the tradition means the service member is thinking of family while deployed. For her, the family is just as big a part of the military as the service member.
"The family is also a part of the military. It symbolizes that the wives and the children are a part of that too. In this situation, we are talking about four generations of family and it's all within a military family," Isabel said. "I was a part of the military family; Charlotte Amy was as both a child and a wife. [Karin] is too, both a child and a wife, and now Meg and Daniel (Pettinger's children) are a part of that as well. It is very true that for military families there is a different cohesiveness within the family. Oftentimes, how your family holds together is different from families that do not have the military connection. The slippers are an example of that. We have four generations that have lived with the military, and that is important too."
McIntosh said his slipper gave him so much luck that he named his P-47 Thunderbolt fighter plane "The Pink Slipper" and painted the name on his flight jacket. McIntosh flew 57 sorties without injury, the slipper carefully tucked into the pocket of his flight jacket on every flight.
After the war's end, Burt McIntosh returned home to Isabel and his young family, keeping a promise that the slipper embodied. More than 60 years later, the slipper is still safely tucked away inside Burt's flight jacket – a sign of his commitment.
Pettinger said he has not given much thought to what will happen to his daughter's slipper once he gets home. However, he said, looking ahead, the slipper will probably still be in the same place it is now.
"At least one of these uniforms will be saved and the slipper will stay inside it," Pettinger said. "Maybe we will put the two [sets of] slippers together and tell other people about the tradition."
| Date Taken: | 06.15.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 06.15.2008 08:29 |
| Story ID: | 20475 |
| Location: | KW |
| Web Views: | 417 |
| Downloads: | 385 |
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