My parents were Clyde W. ("Blackie") Myles & Mary A. (Ozmun) Myles.  They were married on 7/23/32 in San Diego, California. They had a long marriage that lasted the rest of their  lives. They both passed away in 1988.

    Clyde Wesley Myles was born on 6/10/09, in Harrison, Arkansas. He was the oldest son of Charles ("Charley") Wade & Tennessee ("Tennie") Ethel (Belamy) Myles. He had a sister, Hazel (3 years younger) & a brother Orville (6 years younger). They were orphaned in the 1918 flu epidemic. At the time, Dad was 9, Aunt Hazel was 6, and Uncle Orville was 3.
     They were "farmed out" to various relatives' houses. Hazel & Orville mostly lived with the Belamys & Dad mostly lived with the Myles. As a result, as children, they often lived apart. Life was pretty tough then in the Ozark mountains of Arkansas. Dad grew up determined to become independent as soon as possible. He dropped out of school in order to work & try to get enough money for his siblings to live with him. He didn't like the name "Clyde", so after he left Arkansas, he told people his name was "Wesley" or "Wes", his middle name. After he joined the Navy, for a few years he supported Hazel & Orville, who lived with him.
     Dad joined the US Navy in 1927 when he was just shy of his 18th birthday. His Navy Career lasted 30 years. He retired in 1957, just before his 48th birthday. He started at the lowest Seaman rank & worked his way up, achieving Master Chief, one of the highest enlisted ranks. Sometime during this period, he passed his GED & received his high school diploma. In World War II, he was commissioned a low ranking officer, Lieutenant, Junior Grade. Before he retired, he worked his way up to the rank of Lieutenant Commander.
    Over his Navy career, Dad worked in submarines as a sonar operator and in aviation as a radar & radio operator. At the end of this career, in 1957, he was working in the Naval Guided Missle Program, which was very new at the time. He was stationed in many different places in the US and, in World War II, he spent 18 months on various islands in the South Pacific. It was there that he picked up the nickname "Blackie", which stuck with him for the rest of his life. Part of his Navy record is on the Navy Memorial Foundation website: Here. Some is also on the World War II Memorial website: Here & Here. Some details of his WWII squadron, VJ-1, are Here. The latter page has a group picture at the bottom, in which my Dad & my Uncle Orville appear.
    In 1957, Dad retired from the Navy and took a job at what was then McDonnell Aircraft (now a part of Boeing) in St. Louis, Missouri. We settled in Kirkwood, a St. Louis suburb. He started as an engineer for McDonnell, working on one of their missle programs. He worked his way up in the company. When he retired in 1974 at the age of 65, he was a working in their defense electronics division as high ranking supervisor of dozens of people.
    After retirement from McDonnell, he still didn't stop working! He ran consulting & electronic component sales businesses under the name Myles Enterprises, Inc. 

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    Here are some pages of some pictures of my parents & others.

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