Michael Braden

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Names of living persons have been removed to protect the innocent or guilty as the case may be, in my case I just don't care if you see my full data or not;

Biography

Father: Edger Olney ( Toby ) Braden Born: November 4, 1920 Place: Novinger, Missouri Death: June 26, 1957 Eureka, Humboldt County, California

Mother: Dawn Adele Emerson Born: February 19, 1930 Place: Loveland, Colorado Death: January 3, 2008 Bremerton, Kitsap County, Washington

Michael Braden Born: September 8, 1948 12:48 am Place Port Angeles, Clallam County, Washington

A lot of what I will write here about my early years is what I have been told and what I can remember some of the dates may be off by a bit but the facts are correct. Memories do tend to fade with time so with that in mind here goes.

From what I was told, When I was born I had club feet, a very common thing, but my biological father said " I will not have a cripple for a son " and deserted my mother and myself shortly after my birth.

My mother after Divorcing Edger for Abandonment/Desertion and moving to El Centro California to be with my Grandfather's family. I know that we lived there for about 3 or 4 years as I do remember stepping on a broken beer bottle in the sandy alley behind the house where we lived and cutting my foot open quite badly requiring a trip to the hospital for stitches. I did not remember getting my picture taken in 1950 or 1951 on a pony until my Uncle Glendel (Glenn) Emerson let me know that he had the picture and sent me the picture (a copy of which is now in file in the Edwin Townsend Emerson Family Site on Myheritage.com and other genealogical sites)

It must have been about this time that my mother met Richard Thomas Fellis, a Navy Diver stationed at El Centro Navel Station. They fell in love and married, when Richard ( Dick ) was transferred to San Francisco Dawn and new family followed, I do not remember this time but do remember the second time we were at Hunters Point Naval station and was assigned base housing. Then to San Diego Naval Station and a small apartment in National City. I can remember all 3 of my half siblings being born, Richard Thomas Fellis Jr. being born in the San Diego Naval Hospital in 1954, my Sister Dawn Adele in 1956 being born in San Diego also and my Little Brother Anthony (Tony) in 1957 being born at the Naval Hospital at Hunters Point San Francisco. I am not sure what Dick's job was at the time but I know that he said on several occasions that he wished he could have more dive time. So I expect that he was working on the removal of the Submarine and Torpedo nets that were used to close the bay during WW2. I do know that he was going to some sort of school while stationed there and several of his classes were at Moffett Field in San Jose California.

From there we were transferred to the San Diego area and were living in Military housing close to Miramar Naval Air Station or what is commonly known as Fightertown USA. I do not remember much about this time period except that I wanted something out of the trunk of the car and the trunk lid came down and hit me just above the right eye and had to be rushed to the hospital for x rays and stitches losing the sinus over that eye and that sometime during this time frame Little Richard got a hold of a bottle of Benadryl allergy prescription strength capsules and we rushed to the Naval Hospital in San Diego, we were told to wait and after about a half hour he started to have hallucinations. One of the Doctors there noticed him picking at things in the air and giggling. The Doctor asked what the problem was, mom just handed him the empty bottle of pills and said he ate them all like candy. He was immediately taken into a room and had his stomach pumped and was given a couple of shots to counteract the effects of the medications eaten. I also remember the Corpsman being chewed out and being relieved of duty in the emergency room.

Well the military sent us back to San Francisco in the summer of 1955, I do remember this time as I had to ride a school bus to school. I also remember my Aunt Audrey (Emerson) Christian sending a newspaper clipping about Edger Olney Braden ( My Biological Father ) being killed in a logging accident. Shortly after this we were moved to Long Beach Calif. I know that in the late 1950's or very early 60's we were living in Long Beach again in a rented house right on Ocean Beach Blvd. I had to walk to the Catholic School a couple of miles away, no transportation to the school, simply because we lived 2 houses outside the public school district, with the Public school less than 6 blocks away and they would not allow us to go there. While Dick was on sea duty for two years, I do not remember how or exactly when but sometime in the early 1960's we got a house in Huntington Beach, off Bolsa Chica Ave between Edinger Ave. and Heil Ave. I remember this because during the summer all of us kids in the neighborhood would ride their bikes down to Balsa Chica State Beach for the day which was only about 2.5 or 3 miles away and during school all of the neighborhood kids walked to Village View Elementary School .

In 1964 Dick was transferred back to San Diego and was assigned to sea duty again. we had a 3 bedroom apartment in military quarters, I don't remember where exactly but I do remember we kids rode buses to school. Rickey ( Richard ), ( Cissy ) Dawn and Tony ( Anthony ) all rode the same bus to the elementary school and I rode the bus to the Jr. High. In 1964 Dick and Dawn bought a house in Spring Valley, California. Brothers and Sister rode the bus to school but because of the bus system I had to either drive ( not acceptable ) or walk 1 hour each way not to bad except when it rained (not very often in Southern California).

I dropped out of School in September 1966 and joined the Army at the ripe old age of 18. I was sent to Fort Ord, California just outside of Monterey California, for basic training while there,

I was also trained as a light/medium/heavy truck driver that means I could drive anything from 1/4 ton Jeeps to 50 Ton Heavy Haul Trucks, for those that do not understand the military terms I was trained to drive everything on the road, from there I was sent to South East Asia, Vietnam, to the 4th Infantry Division, Supply & Transportation Company. My unit was stationed at the small village of Dau Tieng, roughly in the middle of what was know as the Michelin Rubber Plantation . About half way between Cu Che and Tay Ninh.

I drove a dirt road almost every day for a little over a year. In the dry season the dust was so thick you could cut it and move it, in the monsoon season the mud was knee deep in places. While stationed at this base the entire post was transferred from the 4th Infantry Division to the 25th Infantry Division making me eligible to wear 2 combat patches. During my time in Viet Nam I participated in 3 major operations, the 1967 Tet upraising in Saigon, this was actually a communist controlled riot, ( now Ho Chi Minh City ) which was centered around the suburb of Cholon, which is where one of the main U.S. supply points was located in Saigon, Operation Pershing 1 and 2 both centered in Tay Ninh province and out to the Cambodian boarder roughly 60 miles away.

The end of February 1968 I got orders to return to the United States and was to be sent to a replacement unit at Fort Ord , while there I got assigned to a small unit (at that time) at Hunter Liggett Military Reservation (Now Ft. Hunter Liggett) with King City California being the nearest town about 30 miles away. When I was on leave before reporting in I went home to San Diego, (actually El Cajon) and married my High School sweetheart Bonnie Lee Gregory.

In December 3 1968 we were blessed with a baby girl named Name Not Revealed LIVING, all of 7lb 9oz of her. My stay at this posting was not remarkable in any way with the exception that I was awarded with a certificate for driving 50,000 accident free miles. I processed out of the service in September 1969 and worked any job I could find just barely supporting the family so after talking it over with my wife I finally re-enlisting in the Army in February of 1970 and was assigned to Ft MacArthur in San Pedro Calif. as the driver for the Air Defense Artillery Commander for the entire Southern California area, I spent more time driving around Los Angeles and Orange Counties, I was everywhere from Santa Barbara on the north to San Diego on the south, while I did not get to San Diego often during this duty so Bonnie moved to San Pedro to be with me.

June 1970 I received orders to the 2nd Infantry Division Replacement Station Korea, While there I was stationed most of the time North of the Imjin River stationed at Camp Greaves on either Freedom Bridge or Libby Bridge, I drew 12 out of 13 months combat pay making me eligible to wear 2nd Division patch as a combat patch

I came home in July of 1971 and was stationed at Ft. MacArthur again. This time I was assigned to the Post Supply Department as the Senior Warehouseman because I cross trained in Supply while in Korea. My Civilian boss at Ft. MacArthur knew someone somewhere and I was sent TDY ( Temporary Duty ) to Ft. Lee, Va. to the Supply School for 10 weeks so I could pick up the specialty of Material Packing & Handling Specialist this covered warehousing also. I returned to Ft. MacArthur and reported back in for duty and was given orders that made me Senior Warehouse man for the post.

Yes all of this was very hard on my married life and family. April of 1972 I got orders again this time to Okinawa, I was only there for 6 months when I got word through the Red Cross that Bonnie was in the hospital and had a cancerous condition, I was granted emergency leave and headed for San Diego, I arrived and found that she was in the hospital already and had surgery to remove the problem, when I saw her she told me that it was Pre-cancer condition and had to have a hysterectomy. I requested and got an emergency transfer back to the United States, and was assigned to Yuma Proving Grounds, Arizona which is 30 to 35 miles north of Yuma, Arizona, Bonnie came and lived on base with me for about 6 months but for reasons of her own she moved back to El Cajon. While there I had several positions including Property Book for the Post Housing Office, Shuttle Bus Driver between Yuma and the base 3 trips per day on the weekends and 2 trips daily during the week, Post Vehicle Dispatcher, Headquarters Supply Clerk and a Post Mail Clerk, I don't remember exactly when but while I was stationed at Yuma I received an award for 2,000,000 accident free miles. Bonnie and I adopted a Son Name Not Revealed LIVING at birth and we are listed on the birth certificate as the parents with a birth date of December 3, 1973.

About the Summer of 1974 I got a letter from a lawyer telling me that I needed to come to his office in El Cajon for a legal matter. It seemed that Bonnie had decided that she did not wish to be married to me any longer and was divorcing me. I could see no reason to try and keep the marriage as we had only lived together 1 1/2 years total for our marriage, so I agreed to let her have her divorce but kept all my rights as a member of the military and as a parent including reasonable visitation. I got the papers a couple of months later that the divorce was finalized. After that I called a couple of times to see if I could visit with my children but was told that it was not a good weekend. During the early fall of 1974, I re-met a lady that I had been introduced to a couple of years earlier, because of my job. We got very close and in the early winter of 1974 I asked Barbara (my second wife) to marry me, she excepted and we were married that year just between Thanksgiving and Christmas and we set up housekeeping with her three children from a previous marriage. Then Low and behold in 1975 the Army in its infinite wisdom decided that there were to many people in all of the specialties that I had at the time so I could either retrain in a combat arms Field Artillery or Infantry my choice or be released from active duty. Needless to say I took the retraining in Field Artillery and was sent to Fort Sill, Oklahoma to school for 6 months after that I was assigned to a unit there during this time I was promoted to Staff Sargent E-6 because of my military job at the time I took the test for and was boarded for Sgt. First Class E-7 and was given orders to report to the Replacement Center 1st Armor Division Headquarters Field Artillery Nuremberg Germany and assigned to the 1st Battalion 22nd Field Artillery for a 3 year tour of duty, I was finally stationed at the little town of Zirndorf at Pinder Barracks, just outside Furth and Nuremberg. (If you Google it now you will find it as Pinder Park, Zirndorf, Germany),

While stationed in Germany I was accompanied by my wife and step children. We lived in and set up housekeeping in the post housing area. While there we did get to tour the buildings where the famous Nuremberg Trials were held after World War 2, we also went to the stadium where Hitler held many of his rallies, It's still there and can be seen on google maps without any of the Nazi emblems, we also got to see and visit several historical places in and around Nuremberg itself, we also took several tours to surrounding areas such as Munich and Berchtesgaden (Hitler's hideaway Eagle Nest). While there we toured many of the castles and monuments in surrounding countries that I, being in the military was allowed to travel in.

I will say that I enjoyed the tour there quite a bit as during the weekends (if I wasn't on duty) we could travel and see the country. We even got to Munich during Oktoberfest, we toured all over Bavaria we took a ton of pictures ((all of which I do not have any more) after moving 11 times things tend to be misplaced or lost)) We also toured France, Belgium, Scotland and England, (yes driving on the wrong side of the road is a pain in the butt), Austria, Switzerland and upper Italy. Yes they had a tour of the house that was used in the filming of Sound of Music just outside Innsbruck Austria. When I would go out on exercises in Greater Germany I would mark down on a map where we went and taking pictures so I could take the family there to see what I saw. During this tour I was in the process of being promoted to Sgt First Class ( E-7) and lost it a couple of months later because of my own stupidness, Losing that and 1 rank back to Sgt ( E-5) other than this as I said it was an enjoyable duty. In the Summer of 1980 we got our orders to return to the United States and to report to Fort Carson Colorado at that time home of the 4th Infantry Division, and in the fall of 1981 I was in that non-promotable status again but this time I had to get out of the service, I Joined the National Guard and was placed on active duty for 2 years. During this time Barbara and I had a falling out ( I will not go into the specifics here ) but we divorced in the spring of 1982.

While waiting for my divorce to become final I met a very nice lady named Jeanette I. M. Hemingway- McDaniel's ( I found out that she was a second cousin to Ernest Hemingway) we hit it off real well, liking a lot of the same things so we moved in together. In early December of 1983 I asked her to marry me and she accepted and the date was set for December 30. I was not granted an extension to my National Guard duty and May 1983 was released from active duty from the National Guard. I worked at any job I could get from gravel truck driver to handyman around the Colorado Springs area. I finally got a position at the Property Disposal at Fort Carson, and advanced my way up 3 pay grades in less than a year. I got caught up in a reduction in work forces for all civilian personnel myself along with 6 others at our site were cut. I later found out that 256 was let go post wide. The fall of 1984 I found a job in Big Piney, Wyoming working at the LA barge Gas Project Both Jeanette and I got jobs there her as security and me as a warehouseman. We purchased a mobile home and paid it off in less than 6 months. the project started to close down in the Spring of 1985 and they let both of us go. We talked to a friend of ours and was told about work in Southern California in what was known as the Solar Field, Construction of the Solar Collection Electrical Generation.

I got a job as a electrician helper on plant 5 because of my phone and wire experience in the military. I worked this job for almost 10 months until the unit was almost completed then transferred over to the Maintenance Department with only a loss of a few bucks per month.

I worked in this position for almost 6 years and transferred over to the Power Block (where the Generation of Electricity is done) ,On the Job Training after six months I just didn't have the knowledge needed to work this position alone, so I requested to be put back in my old job, the company said that the position had been filled and I was being let go. I did get several very nice letters of recommendation from all of my managers but with the down turn in both the economy and job markets I could not find work anyplace, of course being 40 miles from the nearest city didn't help either.

In the fall 1992 I found a job in Ketchikan, Alaska as parts manager for a helicopter flight operations and repair center in Ketchikan Alaska,

A really nice little town of 11,000 people and known as the Gateway city in Alaska, I worked in the position for 4 months and took a leave of absence and went to Southern California and got Jeanette and returning to Ketchikan 2 weeks later. In the late spring of 1993 Jeanette got very ill and went to the doctor who put her in the hospital we found out that she had abnormalities in the bladder and instead of removal we tried an experimental procedure using TB cells to draw the bodies immune system to the area, it worked for a while. In the fall of 1994 Jeanette said she wanted to go home ( that being in the downriver area of Detroit) so we made arrangements and left Alaska. We got to Bellingham Washington and got a Rider Truck and packed all of our belongings into the truck put our car on a car dolly and away we went. Let me tell you at that time Interstate 90 on the east bound side from Ellensburg to Spokane Washington was one rough road for over 200 miles. I drove almost straight through from Alaska to Washington then to Michigan of course we stopped for meals and 3 times for the night the entire trip was 8 days counting ferry trip, loading our rental Ryder truck and the road trip.

We arrived in S.E. Michigan about 4:00 am and stopped at Denny's in Taylor Michigan and called Jeanette's Son in Law to meet us there and take us to our new home( he had the keys ) A piece of advice here for anyone and everyone Do Not Travel or move if you have pets ( we had 5 Maltese dogs at the time ) they can be a real pain and you have to stop every 2 - 3 hours so they can go potty.

I started my unemployment and went looking for a job and in January 1996 I got a job working for a supermarket chain(Meijer Inc.) as a midnight stock clerk at $9.25pr hour including a night differential .25 I started to put in mega hours 70 to 80 hours per week and as soon as I was eligible I obtained the company health insurance shortly after this Jeanette went to a specialist about her medical problems. Then in 1997 I started to have problems with my right shoulder so I went to see a bone and joint specialist and he had a MRI done the consensus was torn Rotator Cuff, with surgery to repair, off work for 4 weeks Short term disability then light duty for 8 more weeks. In 1998 Jeanette had to have her bladder removed, Cancer. I must back up a bit and let you know that this is not the first go-round with the big C, in 1987 she had to have a hysterectomy, Fibroid Tumors ( precancerous ) then in 1989 she felt lumps and had them checked and they needed to be removed, they were cancerous resulting in Chemo and radiation 5 days a week for 6 weeks, 100 miles one way in the desert in the summer, no air conditioning it was a very trying time for both of us. then at Christmas 1990 she started to pass blood in her urine thinking it was just a stone we waited for 3 days with her drinking nothing but cranberry juice, no good still passing blood so off we went to the hospital we went 100 miles away, our local doctor just happened to be there working a shift in the emergency room, he chewed her out for not coming into the office and he ran several tests and had a specialist come in who looked at the tests and she was admitted right then and was in surgery the next morning removal of her Left Kidney, then in 1998 she was admitted to Botsford Hospital, Farmington Hills Michigan for the lost of her bladder to cancer.

I lost Jeanette in June of 2000 to Cancer she passed peacefully in the hospital, I will say that it was a long fight for her and she fought well. She did tell me before she slipped into her coma, " Do not stay a widower, find yourself another lady, you are not meant to be single, you need someone to take care of you ". I followed her request and tried several dating sites.

Well I met a lady online at Match dot com, we met and dated for a full year before we decided to get married. We were married in October of 2001 and set up housekeeping in Taylor Michigan. I still worked midnight's with some overtime. Then in early summer of 2002 I got a call from my mother (Dawn Adel Emerson Fellis) that there was someone (name not revealed) was trying to find me and all she had was mom's name and located in Washington. I thought about it and talked it over with my wife at the time for a week before I called the number given and low and behold it was my long lost daughter from my first marriage whom I hadn't heard from or about in over 25 years. we talked for a bit and she told me that the reason she wanted to get in contact with me was she needed help, not monetary, but help with her two children, My wife and I talked it over and we decided to go and find out what was really happening. I took a weeks vacation and we drove to Lincolnton, Georgia and found out a lot of things all of the relatives involved, things better left unsaid here. So, I guess that its easiest to say that for many reasons my wife and I wound up with custody of both of my Grandchildren Name's withheld. We were Living in a small 2 bedroom house at the time and it was extremely cramped so in the Spring of 2003 I found position at another store that was close and transferred from the Woodhaven to the Monroe, Michigan store as afternoon dairy clerk.

We found a real nice 3 bedroom apartment and settled in. Both Grandchildren started school getting fairly decent grades with the my Grandson Graduating High School in 2007 and moved out after the spring of 2008 and my Granddaughter dropping out of High School completely moving out and getting married the winter of 2008 unbeknownst to me (she was 17 legal in Ohio to marry) this forced my wife and I to move to a smaller apartment, things went well until the summer of 2009 and for whatever reasons my wife just packed her stuff and left me. I think to could have been that I was talking about when I retired I was thinking about moving to Southern Arizona. When I found her in late December 2010 and got her divorce papers to her and divorced her. The Judge just asked if there was any possibility of reconciliation and I simply said "NO, she just packed up bag and baggage and left. No reason given.", so because of the time between her leaving and the court appearance being almost 2 years, I walked out divorced.

A friend of mine at work told me about a free dating site online and I thought "What the heck, Why not" and logged in to see what it was all about filling out a profile. In early April 2011 I was contacted by a lady about 26 miles away. She had read my online profile, we met and dated for the summer and were married October 20 2011. I have been married to Name withheld, I have been accepted by her two sons and their families, Hell all 5 of the girls even call me Grandpa every once in a while.

I need to say that I have tried to find my daughter after obtaining custody of her children (My Grandchildren), the last we or I heard she moved to Augusta and from there to Atlanta, then back to Augusta Georgia. We keep running into dead ends, guess she doesn't want to be found. My adopted son is living in a small town just outside Augusta, by roughly 30 miles Thomson, Georgia and works as a Fireman/EMT. He was married with 3 boys. I do know that he has been divorced once and remarried and has a stepson.

As for me now, I am extremely happy living in a very small town of just over 1045 people in S.E. Michigan with my wife, where we can sit outside in the summer and hear airplanes when they fly over at 25 or 30,000 feet but yet we only have to drive 30 minutes in any direction and we are in a major city for shopping or whatever.

^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ Personal recollection of events witnessed by Michael Braden as remembered 1 Feb 2018.

• First-hand information. Entered by Michael Braden at registration.

Birth information from Birth Certificate issued by the State of Washington. Dates and places while in Military were taken from Department of Defense form DD214, more commonly known as discharge papers.

I am a Member of the Van Valkenburg Families through Maternal Great Grandmother Emily Francis Van Valkenburg her family number is B-566-34D, her son Edwin Townsend Emerson, B-566-34D-6 (My Grandfather), his Daughter Dawn Adele Emerson, Braden, Fellis B-566-34D-65 (My Mother) my V V family identifier number is B-566-34D-651

http://www.navvf.org/VVgene/index.htm

Dryden Family information derived from; Dryden Family and Descendants Book 1, Book 2 by Leslie Powell Dryden 1992

Point of interest; When I entered the military in 1966, the base pay was $ 96.00 per month, before taxes, and $74.16 after taxes as a Private E-1. Accordingly in 2018 its $ 1516.00 and you need to remember that they take taxes out also, so for a Private E-1 in 1966 your take home pay was roughly $ 74.16, this is based on a 5 day per week job ( I still have the pay stubs to show anyone who asks), but the military is a 24 - 7 job, so if you break this down at today's pay the Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine and Coast Guard actually earns ($ 1516.00 / 30 / 24 = ) $ 2.10 per hour with no overtime pay. Strictly for the record, our men and women in the military do not receive enough pay for the job that they do, protecting the United States either here or abroad. Each and every member of the United States Military has written a blank check to the United States for everything up to and including his/her life.