Adam Shumovich of Pittsburgh, PA was drafted into the US Navy during WW II and sailed aboard the submarine tender, USS Sperry (As-12).

A submarine rigging accident and a bout with a rare form of malaria eventually sent him to Pearl Harbor and then home before the war ended. Instead of being welcomed home, some people made him feel as though he were imposing on their lucrative wartime job opportunities.  “You should have stayed away,” he was told, “you’re taking up somebody else’s job.”

When the war ended in the Pacific, “I don’t remember any celebrations here in Pittsburgh of the Japanese surrender.  I think a lot of civilians that had jobs were afraid that they’d be out of a job.”

Eventually Mr. Shumovich used the GI Bill “to become something in my life,” he says.   After studying photography he started a studio in the West End.