Jack Haley

This is what my grandpa did when he worked. (I created this picture on Ink Art.)

My grandpa, Jack Haley, did a lot of amazing things in his lifetime - a lot of things only some people do. Well, I am sure you are ready to hear what was so great about him. Not only is he my awesome grandpa, but he also fought in World War II. That's not all, my grandpa also was a great police officer. He was also a very brave firefighter. Remember that horrible hurricane, Katrina? Well, my grandpa was able to fly to our house just before the hurricane hit. Wow, he was a busy person when he was young, but it was all for a good cause!

First, my grandpa was in World War II. During the war, he was a Machinest Mate. He was in the war for three years (from 1943-1946). He was not drafted in the war, he freely joined. My grandpa was going to join the war when he was 16 and his dad was going to sign the papers to let him go, but his mom wanted him to wait one more year. So he did, and he joined the war when he was 17.

When you are a soldier fighting in the war, you travel to lots of places. Sometimes you go back to a place you have already been. My grandpa remembers all of the places where he went, but there are too many to type them all. Here are just a few: He started out in San Francisco. Then, he sailed out on a boat called the Monticello and went to Port Moresby. From there he went down to Sydney, Australia. Then, he traveled to the Fiji Islands, back up to San Francisco, and then on to Pearl Harbor. His travels took him to Honolulu, and then back to the Fiji Islands many more times later on.

After my grandpa was out of the war, he worked as a firefighter. He was a firefighter for 17 years (from 1955-1972)! That's a long time! He was a firefighter in New Orleans, which is in the State of Louisiana. My grandpa's favorite memory of being a firefighter was when one time there was a fire in an apartment building. Everybody was working hard putting out the fire and so my grandpa and two other men went upstairs to see if there was anybody that they needed to get out of the apartment complex. There they found a small infant in a crib - all alone! The mom had run out to safety and left the baby, as many others did. My grandpa took the baby to the roof of the building next door and performed CPR for a while until the medics came. The good news is that the baby was fine and well after the medics came! My grandpa was honored by the Mayor of the City of New Orleans for bravery and for saving the baby's life. He received a Medal of Honor. But, then he had to retire from the department because, when he was rescuing the infant, he damaged his lungs from inhaling smoke and could no longer perform his duties. It takes a very certain type of person to be a firefighter -- you must be very brave. You must also like to help and protect people. So, he decided to be a police officer. This was another way he could help and protect people.

My grandpa was a policeman for 17 years -- just as long as he was a fireman! He worked a night shift from 12:00am to 8:00am. His duty was to be a patrol officer with a partner. They only patrolled certain parts of Saint Bernard Parish. They would rotate the places around to patrol so the police officers would get used to the different parts of Saint Bernard Parish. My grandpa had to do a lot of things to keep the people of New Orleans safe. One important thing that he did was he guarded the owner of a large popular restaurant each night after the restaurant closed. The restaurant made thousands of dollars each night. My grandpa would take the owner to the bank to safely deposit his money after closing the restaurant each night. This was because the owner had been robbed several times before at gunpoint. He knew it would happen again, so he needed my grandpa to protect him and his restaurant income from robbers.

Not only was my grandpa a soldier, a fireman, and a police officer, he was also a citizen of New Orleans. We all remember that one bad hurricane, Hurricane Katrina. Well, Katrina just happened to hit my grandpa's house. My family and I had been watching the weather and saw that the hurricane was coming. We called and made sure that we got my grandpa on the first plane to Atlanta. We got him to Atlanta safely, but his house was destroyed. The levee in the river broke and a 30-foot wave of water swept through his subdivision. The city flooded, the water sat for 3 weeks and it was as high as his roof. He lost everything. Two months later my parents took him to see what was left of his home and my grandma's grave, which was also there. There was 3 feet of wet, sloppy mud inside his house. The roof was gone. There were snakes and all the grass and trees were dead from the salt water. My mom said that it looked like a war zone.

Now, my grandpa lives with me in my house. My family and I are so proud of all of the accomplishments and things that my grandpa has lived through and done in his life! He is amazing! He is my hero!