The Adventures of Bobby O'Malley and Bandit - Trilogy

By J.W. Jacobs

This trilogy includes the first two books (Little Bobby O'Malley and The Spirit of the Conch Shell) that reflected some of the fond memories the author had of the undeveloped jungles and wooded areas of Southeast Florida in 1949. In the new third book, The Pirates of the Bermuda Triangle, the author's imagination carries the reader on an exciting adventure at sea. All three books are both educational and fun to read, and the heartwarming ending will bring tears of joy to young readers of all ages.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: May 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644712467

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The Adventures of Bobby O’Malley and Bandit

Trilogy

Written and Illustrated by

J.W. Jacobs

ISBN 978-1-64471-245-0 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64471-246-7 (Digital)

Copyright © 2019 J.W. Jacobs

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Part One

Little Bobby O’Malley

1

Daddy Comes Home

At the age of three, Bobby didn’t know anything about the world, but he already thought he must be the most important person in it. His every need was taken care of by a woman called Mommy. There were also two bigger girls who both had the title of sister. He didn’t know when he learned it, but he knew his name was Bobby and his sisters’ names were Pat and Beth. Besides Mommy, Pat, and Beth, whose job it seemed was to praise and take care of him, there were many other ladies who appeared from time to time in his world to offer praise and exclaim how adorable he was.

Suddenly one day, a man appeared in the house with a dog. Bobby had not had much experience with men or dogs before, but this man and his dog seemed very important. His mommy and sisters were hugging and kissing the man, and the house was soon filled with people showering him with attention. Finally, Bobby was lifted up by Mommy.

This is your daddy, Bobby, his mommy said with a happy smile as she handed him to this strange man. Bobby twisted his body to reach back for Mommy but turned back when Daddy began to speak.

What a handsome big boy you are. At last your daddy gets to hold you.

Here were two words Bobby never heard anyone use before when describing him: handsome and big. Everyone else used the terms cute and little.

What a cute little boy. He looks just like his daddy. Bobby heard that comment many times, but Daddy seemed to be an imaginary person. Now there was a real person to connect to the name, and Bobby suddenly became very curious about this man everyone was calling his daddy. For the next two years, Bobby would get to spend a lot of time with his father and learn a lot about this new man in his life.

To this point in his life, Bobby lived with only his mother and sisters in a housing project in Detroit. At first, auto workers and their families lived there, but now it was home to defense workers and their families or military families whose husbands and fathers were fighting in the war. Bobby gradually learned about that war and the important role his daddy played in it. He began to understand that the world was much bigger than the world he thought revolved around him. In those days, children didn’t learn about world events as they happened. No one in Bobby’s world had ever seen a television, much less owned one. Bobby was curious about the war, and although his daddy avoided talking about it, other people told Bobby stories about his father and the family dog.

2

A Story of Two Heroes

Bob O’Malley was drafted into the US Army less than a year after the United States entered World War II. He already had two daughters plus a son on the way. He applied for a special canine unit and requested to be trained with his own dog, Bandit. Bandit was the family dog, but everyone knew whom he really belonged to. He was a very smart German shepherd mixed breed that was devoted and loyal to his owner. Bob knew that his wife understood his having to leave, and she could explain it to their girls, but Bandit would not understand, and Bob could not bear the thought of having Bandit think he was abandoned by him.

Bob wrote letters to army officials, and the local newspaper wrote a story about Bob’s request to have Bandit serve with him. Much to his surprise and delight, his request was granted. The army was developing a new canine program and was looking for men and dogs to train for special reconnaissance units. Bob and Bandit were just what the army was looking for.

After six months of training, Bob and Bandit were shipped out to Europe. They had one of the most dangerous combat jobs, but they loved being together. As the German forces retreated, resistance squads dug in machine gun nests to ambush the advancing allied forces. Bob and Bandit went a mile or two ahead of the main forces to scout for German ambush posts. They were specially trained to move without being seen by the enemy.

As he had done on countless missions for nearly two years, Bob wrote a note and put it into the special pouch attached to Bandit’s collar.

Go, Bandit, Bob whispered, and Bandit sleeked off. Once out of sight of the enemy post, he ran with lightning speed back to the main unit. This was the worst part of the job—being apart from Bandit. Bandit hated to leave Bob too, but he knew what his mission was, and it was the only way the mission could be accomplished. Bob could not radio the warning to his unit because he might be heard by the enemy, or the radio transmission might be intercepted, revealing his location. This scene was repeated almost daily, and the lives of countless allied soldiers were saved by Bandit’s actions.

It was another routine mission. Bandit gave a low growl, and Bob looked up toward the direction Bandit was looking. To his surprise, they had already passed a machine gun nest before Bandit discovered it. Bob wrote a note and slipped it into Bandit’s collar. Bandit started back toward the main unit but was spotted by one of the soldiers in the nest who opened fire on him. Bandit crouched behind a large rock, out of view of the sniper. There was no need to continue back to the unit because the allied soldiers were already alerted by the gunfire. Bandit was now separated from Bob, and there was no way to safely get to him. Besides, Bandit was smart enough not to go back to Bob anyway because it would give away his position. The gunner in the nest had his machine gun trained on the rock Bandit was pinned behind, and each time Bandit tried to move, the gunner opened fire. Suddenly, Bob saw one of the men in the machine gun nest throw a hand grenade over the rock that was shielding Bandit.

Bandit, come! Bob shouted.

Bandit ran toward Bob on command as a hail of gunfire rained down in his direction. As Bandit reached his partner, Bob threw his body over him in an attempt to shield both of them with his helmet just as the grenade exploded. Bob remembered nothing after the explosion.

Following the explosion, the machine gun nest grew silent as Bob lay motionless. The gunners peered out from the nest, but in the confusion following the blast, Bandit had already slipped out from under Bob and was approaching the machine gun nest from the rear. The two gunners in the nest were taken by surprise as Bandit attacked. Each tried to save himself by climbing out of the nest. Bandit mauled and captured one as the other ran down the hill. Unarmed, he was captured by a squad of American soldiers sent ahead to help Bob and Bandit after the first shots were heard.

Loud barks from Bandit led the soldiers to the nest where they found the German soldier Bandit had pinned face down, with his hands covering the back of his head. Bandit led medics to Bob where they began working to save his life. A piece of metal shrapnel had torn through Bob’s right forearm, shattering the bone between his elbow and wrist.

The war was over for Bob and Bandit. Bob spent the next six months in a hospital in England, and Bandit refused to leave his side. It looked as though Bob’s arm would have to be amputated, but because of his heroism, the doctors decided to make a drastic attempt to save it. They attached a metal rod to what bone was left above the wrist and below the elbow. This new medical procedure and Bob and Bandit’s heroic acts made headline news.

This was the man and dog that suddenly came into three-year-old Bobby’s life and changed it in so many ways.

3

The Move

Before the war, Bobby’s dad worked in the automobile industry as a painter. During the first winter in Detroit after returning home, he discovered that the metal rod in his arm became extremely painful in cold weather. After the second winter, Bobby’s dad knew he could not bear another winter in Detroit. The only solution was to move to a southern state.

A former soldier named Jack, who served with Bob in Germany, was from a small town on the southeast coast of Florida called Dania. Jack and his father happened to own the only paint and body shop in Dania, and he offered Bob a job. In June of that year, the family moved to South Florida where the weather was warm all year.

Dania was so different than the big city project where Bobby was used to living. The town was settled only fifty years earlier by a group of Danish farmers to take advantage of the new railroad that had recently been built to provide a transportation route to the small town of Miami.

Dania still wasn’t very populated in 1949. Downtown, which stretched for six blocks along US 1, was comprised of a 5 and 10 cent store, drug store with a lunch counter, hardware store, bank, bakery, butcher shop, and a general store. Other small businesses, like the paint and body shop, auto mechanic garage, and various repair shops, were a block off the main highway on each side. The large, two-story schoolhouse, in which all grade levels were taught, was on the south side of town, as were the residences that extended for another eight blocks along US 1, and two blocks on each side of the highway. Several souvenir shops and motels dotted the highway further south to the neighboring town of Hollywood, but most were closed during the summer months.

Bobby’s dad only got paid for the work he completed, so when there weren’t any jobs to be done, he didn’t earn any money. Although they lived in an old and very small house (Bobby had to share a bedroom with his two older sisters), Bobby felt happier than ever before. On days that Bobby’s dad wasn’t working (there were many such days during that summer), he often took the family to the beach. In those days, much of the beach was open and undeveloped. The beach was separated from the road by a jungle of sea grape trees and coconut palms. Beyond the trees were sand dunes capped with sea oats.

There was no air conditioning in the houses, and the nights were so hot in the summer that the family often brought blankets and pillows with them and slept on the beach. On those nights, they built small campfires in the sand and cooked hotdogs, roasted marshmallows, and used the saltwater from the ocean to boil corn on the cob. Bobby didn’t know that his family was poor. He didn’t know that other kids and their families were away on vacation during the summer. During that first summer in Florida, Bobby felt like his whole life was a vacation.

On most mornings, Bobby left his house early to experience all the wonders of his new world. On some mornings, he walked the two miles to the beach. He marveled at the nature he never experienced before and spent most of the journey studying the animal life he encountered. Opossums, armadillos, and raccoons were some of the many animals that inhabited the dense jungle area on both sides of the only road leading to the beach from Dania. This wooded jungle soon gave way to mangrove swamps that were home to other animals such as snakes, lizards, crabs, and alligators.

On other mornings, Bobby ventured west from the narrow strip of civilization along US 1. Barely a mile past the tomato fields that were cultivated by the first inhabitants, Bobby discovered entirely different natural environments and habitats. In some areas, the ground beneath the plants was pure white sand; in other places, solid coral rock. The coral rock was so porous that the plants and trees grew right up from them, their roots penetrating deep into the rocky ground.

These wooded hammocks on the higher coral ridges, consisting mainly of oak and banyan trees, were inhabited by gopher tortoises, rabbits, squirrels, and small deer. The large expanses of land between the hammocks were covered with palmetto plants, palm trees, and pine forests. In some areas, the ground sunk so low that the water from the aquifer below formed shallow sawgrass marshes and ponds that were surrounded by water plants and cypress trees.

Bobby spent every day studying the animals he encountered in the beautiful natural world he was discovering. He helped animals in distress whenever he could and often brought injured animals home to nurture back to health. Some of the animals Bobby brought home were dangerous, and his father began to be concerned about his safety. He explained to Bobby about the food chain, survival of the fittest, and the balance of nature. In the coming years, Bobby began to be concerned about how man was disrupting that balance.

4

School Starts

Bobby was excited about starting school and meeting other kids. There were fifteen children in his class, the most kids he had ever seen in one place before. They had all been in kindergarten together the year before, so Bobby was the new kid and the center of attention. From his earliest memory, he had always been called cute, and he loved being the center of attention. He thought Bobby must be the best name in the world. That feeling and his