They served their country during World War II; now they continue to serve the community through the Clarkston Melody Makers.
Bob Jackson and Marvin Vest will be among those performing at the Veterans Day event Wednesday, Nov. 5 at the Independence Township Senior Center.
Both served from 1943-1946, but each has a different perspective. Jackson, 86, served in the Pacific with the U.S. Navy, while Vest, 78, was in the U.S. Army Air Corps in the European Theater.
“When they got too close to me in the draft, I figured I’d better join the Navy,” Jackson said with a wry smile.
He went through officer training at Notre Dame, then completed radar school at Harvard before being assigned to Pearl Harbor, where he joined the crew of the USS Kadashan Bay, an escort carrier (“the ones that did all the work,” he said).
As radar officer, Jackson helped keep tabs on all sorts of activity. While he doesn’t like to talk about “the lurid details” of combat, he tells of the time when a Japanese kamikaze attacked, hitting the ship starboard just under the radar shack.
Later, the ship helped ferry troops home after the war ended.
Vest, who also admitted, “I didn’t want to be drafted, so I enlisted,” had a variety of stateside stations, including Romulus Army Air Field (now the site of Detroit Metropolitan Airport), before being assigned to the air transport division as an administrative noncommissioned officer.
He went to Europe on a liberty ship, however, taking 12 long days to make the Atlantic crossing.
“It was terrible,” he said, but found something to laugh about when the ship put in at Naples and the occupants had to step off onto an overturned ship in the harbor before reaching shore.
Vest was eventually assigned to Algeria, which became the hub for transporting troops back to America after the war ended in Europe.
“I never saw so many airplanes in my life,” he said. “There was a plane taking off or landing every minute 24 hours a day.”
After project completed, however, “It was like a ghost town.”
Along the way, Vest was assigned to tour places such as Casablanca, Brussels, Paris and London, where he helped check airfields for damage.
He easily summarized his feelings about wartime. “Some of us had it really rough. Some of us had it pretty good. But it took a whole lot of people.”
Now, the men would much rather talk about their music. The Clarkston Melody Makers is not exclusively a veterans group, but senior citizens are the majority of the 10-piece dance band.
“It’s just a pickup band of old guys, and one woman,” Jackson quipped. He plays tenor saxophone, and got involved several years ago after his wife died.
He wasn’t sure if it was a very good idea, but a son-in-law encouraged him.
“I hadn’t played my horn for 50 years. I was raising three kids,” he said.
Vest, who plays organ, piano, banjo, mandolin and harmonica, found the group through “a little ad in the paper” and was motivated to join.
“I never look for stuff like this,” he said. “It just happened to catch my eye.”
Vest said the group plays a lot of different styles of music (“anything but rock and roll”) and meets each Tuesday afternoon for what Jackson calls “a jam session” at the Carriage House at Clintonwood Township Park.
“We don’t rehearse,” Vest said. “We just play.”
While the group does occasional public performances (such as the Veterans Day event), the primary purpose seems to be self-gratification.
“Think of it as therapy, with pay once in awhile,” Vest said.
“I’d be dead if I didn’t do it,” Jackson said.
The group is always looking for additional talent, and those with instruments to be dusted off may call the senior center at (248) 625-8231 for more information.