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Nearly every day, Rep. Dan Beiser, D-Alton, thinks about his deceased father, John, but recently he had a reason to truly go back down memory lane about his dad.
Rep. Beiser received a surprising phone call from an elderly man nearly Chicago who said he was close friends with Dan’s father, John, on the U.S.S. Alabama at the close of World War II.
Rep. Beiser helped pass a piece of legislation that states the Food and Drug Administration recommends anyone over the age of 60 get a shingles vaccination and if someone had an insurance policy that is under the authority of the Illinois Department of Insurance and followed guidelines they could get a shot. A few months passed and out of the blue after a press release from Beiser’s office, he received a call from near Chicago.
“The person said he saw in the local weekly newspaper that Dan had been instrumental in helping pass legislation on the shingles vaccination,” Beiser said. “That wasn’t the reason he called. He said I saw you are Daniel Beiser from Alton. He asked if I was any relation to John Beiser.”
Dan was shocked by the question, and responded that he was related and was John’s son and that he had died of throat cancer in 1996.
The man said he hated to hear that and said, he and John Beiser were close acquaintenances, working in the boilerroom of the U.S.S. Alabama.
“We served shoulder to shoulder in the boilerroom of the U.S.S. Alabama,” the man told Beiser.
Rep. Beiser said he and his brother, John, and sister, Elaine, are extremely proud of his late father, who died in 1996, for his time he spent on the U.S.S. Alabama, and his service to his country.
Rep. Beiser informed the man he had taken his dad multiple times to where the U.S.S. Alabama sits in Mobile, Ala.
“I didn’t have any pictures of my dad in the Navy,” Rep. Beiser said. “The man told me he had one of his dad getting his letter date of when he was getting out of the Navy. The other photos were with just other guys.”
Now each day Rep. Beiser is in his Alton office, he looks up at the photo of his dad during his time on the U.S.S. Alabama.
“Dad was very proud of being on the Alabama,” Rep. Beiser said. “We went down there with my mother, dad, sister and myself to ship reunions. It was a monster of a ship. The first year there were pretty well wide open areas on the battle ship and he showed us exactly where he worked.”
Rep. Beiser said when his father was healthy and they toured the U.S.S. Alabama, he showed the family where he bunked. The Alton representative said with its mammoth size, it was mind-boggling that the Alabama could even float.
“Dad went right out of high school when World War II was winding down in 1945,” Dan Beiser said. “I think my dad serving of the U.S.S. Alabama is one of the things I remember most about him as an accomplishment.”
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