Just came out a week ago.
Just came out a week ago.
"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer
75 Years.
Hard to believe (many of) our grandparents were participants of this war.
Most people in society today view this as just stuff of action/drama movies and old history stuff.
Thank You for posting this.
Thanks for sharing, I'll have to make time to watch it.
My grandfather served in the 36th Infantry, hauling field artillery all over Italy.
He didn't talk a lot about the war but he would if asked. The only things I remember him talking about are trying to hit a German motorcycle scout with a howitzer, and shelling a church where the Germans were holed up even though they weren't supposed to. I've never confirmed it but I suspect the church was probably at Monte Cassino.
He was a tough SOB. My dad said he saw him once beat his own brother almost unrecognizable over some disagreement where the brother pulled a knife (that whole side of the family was apparently violence prone [emoji41] )
Here's a pic along with his medals and such.
He traded some gas off his truck for the knife, so no cool story there.
The Purple Heart was for being a little too close to an artillery impact. Granddad said he got a bloody nose and maybe a concussion, "no big deal" in his mind.
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My uncle was in the Marines. He was in gun crews on ships transiting the Atlantic. After a few years of that, he asked if he could be sent ashore for a spell.
The Marines had a twisted sense of humor. He got to go ashore on Okinawa and Iwo Jima.
If we have to march off into the next world, let us walk there on the bodies of our enemies.
My dad was a WW2 Infantryman in Europe. He can no longer live alone and mom has passed - when I cleaned out the family home I brought to my house his Uniform, his Purple Heart, some WW2 pictures and a small jewelry box with the MG34/42 bullet they removed from his leg.
Truly - the Greatest Generation.
No one i know of in my family served in ww2. When i had clinicals in nursing homes id look for a vet and just hang out all day with them. Heard some great stories and they loved hearing about Iraq.
My grandfather started off as a china marine in the late 30's. He got out just before the war started and then joined back up after Pearl Harbor. He was one of the original marine raiders and fought with the 1st raider battalion on Guadalcanal. He also fought on Guam and Okinawa with the 6th marine division after the raiders were disbanded and was stabbed in the leg with a bayonet on Okinawa and was sent home after that.
He never liked to talk about it, but I'm a history nut and pried it out of him piece by piece. I didn't recognize it at the time but having now served myself and been around a lot of combat vets he had that look of someone who saw and experienced a bunch of stuff he wished he could forget. I think that kind of shaped the rest of his life because he loathed any form of conflict. I barely even saw him raise his voice. He had a simple life after that, working as a drywall man until he was in his late 70's but he was content and he would give the shirt off his back to anyone in need.
He brought back a couple of arisaka rifles and the bayonet he got stuck with but they all were stolen shortly after his death by some unscrupulous family members with addiction issues.
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Last edited by VT1032; 11-25-2019 at 10:40 PM.
Wow...wow.
God bless our soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and guardsmen...
It makes my heart hurt.....
pat
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