Check in if your dad was in The Big One!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

DU Boomers, did your daddy serve in World War II??

Mine enlisted in the Air Force when it was part of the Army, at Ellington Field. He served in Europe as a Norden bombsight mechanic. This was the great technical achievement of the war besides radar.

His 483rd Bombardment Group won lots of awards for accuracy & bravery.

Combat records:
•Participating in the First Task Force Shuttle Mission to Russia

• Most enemy aircraft destroyed by a B-17 on one mission by one crew (13)

• Most Me-262 jets destroyed on one mission by one crew (3)

•Most Me-262 jets destroyed by one gunner on one mission (2)

•The B-17 with the greatest number of holes from combat action to return to an operating base (total 30,748)

•The most decorated combat crew for one mission in Air Force history where each of 10 crew members was awarded a Silver Star, and four wounded members, the Purple Heart Medal.

•The most jets destroyed by one Group during the entire war (7)

[mainer]

1. My dad was in the Army, served at the Battle of the Bulge

After he came home, for the rest of his life, he kept repeating for us the one piece of wisdom he'd gleaned from combat:

"Never volunteer."

[femmocrat]

57. My dad used to say that, too!

[bluemarkers]

106. Navy Volunteer 1942

If the family story is correct, he volunteered December 1942.

Never left the US though he tried really hard. "defended" Cape Canaveral and the Banana River until he got his chance to serve on a ship in port in NYC. After delays, standing room only on the train, only to get there after they sailed. Ended up working on airplanes somewhere in the west - Arizona or Nevada.

My uncle joined him in volunteering. His baby brother ended up on an air craft carrier as an Admiral's assistant. That just killed my dad.

Our family lesson was to always volunteer!

My Father in law waited, was drafted and ended up as target practice for the Axis armies. He was never injured though and ended up with the silver star. Rarely if ever talked about his experience to me. Apparently was left behind enemy lines for a while. Lived in the basement of a bombed out house. Fortunately there was enough food stored for him and his fellows sustained themselves until another allied sweep of the area. We found the silver star buried in a keepsake chest.

I think that generation felt it best to try and put it behind them and move forward.

[Boomerproud]

2. Yes-served in Panama with 1200 other Army personnel

since the Army thought the Canal would be a juicy and important target. Dad certainly never thought of himself as special, but his fellow soldiers were important to him.

[lpbk2713]

3. Mine had five kids and worked in a shipyard during WWII

He died from asbestosis as a consequence.

[flyingfysh]

8. I had an uncle who died from asbestosis

He was in the Navy in WW2, recently died from asbestos.

[geckosfeet]

4. My dad was army air corp too. All i recall was that he was an aircraft mechanic in Africa

on the push up and into Europe. He had several brothers in the war as well. One was very.close to being captured in the Battle of the Bulge.

[OriginalGeek]

183. My grandpa was as well

Went in as Army Air Corp and retired from the Air Force as a CWO. He was also a mechanic and went to France and England and many bases in the US and then went to Okinawa and was there during the Korean war.


Just had a cook-out with him yesterday!

[flyingfysh]

5. Mine spent the entire war in Arizona

His job was training pilots to fly. He kept asking to be assigned to fighter planes in Europe, but they kept him home to train more pilots.

He finally got orders to go on bombing runs over Japan, and then Japan surrendered.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. Artillery Marine.

He was all of seventeen.

[gademocrat7]

80. Semper Fi!

My Dad was also seventeen.

[Scuba]

7. My mom and dad both served during WWII.

They met and were married at what is now Randolph AFB, Tx.

[arely staircase]

9. i am a 5th generation american male

that has managed to avoid every military conflict in our nations history since the war of 1812. seriously, my 6th great grandfather fought under Andrew Jackson and we haven't seen combat since. we even avoided the civil war - granted by dying of a fever before hostilities broke out, but nevertheless.

[bike man]

10. Mine was WW1, infantry. nt

[zeemike]

77. Mine too.

A Marine that first went to Haiti and then to France....fought in the battle of Belleau Woods and was wounded and got the purple heart.

Had two older brothers in WW2...one in the army in Germany and the other in the Merchant marines.

[Historic NY]

11. Father in Pacfic ground pounder...island hopper.

field artillery.

[loli phabay]

12. both parents, grandparents and just about everyone else who could hold a weapon or carry a message.

Some in uniform, some on both sides of the fence. Lots of stories and warnings about getting out of dodge. Wifes family also similar situation.

[elleng]

14. WWII Navy legal officer @ Pearl Harbor,

after the big event, Dad passed on about a year ago at age 98.

[mainstreetonce]

15. Father in Europe WWIi

Father in Law in Korea

Uncle was at Nirmandy .

[elleng]

16. Aunt an Army (?) nurse in France,

Uncle may have been in Italy.

[Bobcat]

17. Yup

Father was a railroader. Told stories of driving trains in total darkness to avoid detection by Nazi planes. Also said he went on a three-day drunk in Paris when the war in Europe ended.

[angstlessk]

18. My father was in the Navy..and ISLANDS REALLY HAD TOPLESS MAIDENS WITH GRASS SKIRTS!

All the islands are now modern, but during WW2 there were women who were not ashamed of their mammary glands and wore grass skirts...

I saw photos from his service

[Warpy]

19. Mine kind of backed in to the whole thing

He was a US engineer working with the RAF in 1939. He traveled with them through northern Africa and up into Italy. He received his draft notice in Italy, during an air raid.

He always said it was because somebody was sick of paying his salary.

[proud2BlibKansan]

20. My dad was in the Battle of the Bulge

[lumberjack_jeff]

24. Mine too. n/t

[irisblue]

30. father in law of blessed memory was at the Bulge too.

he was young, 22/23, and would never speak of it, except to say he was cold.

[steve2470]

169. My dad was the same, "it was COLD !", and he was 27 at the time nt

[enlightenment]

21. Army Air Corps

Served as a navigator in the CBI theatre; 11 Bombardier Squadron, which was part of the China Air Task Force. They later became part of the 341st Bomb Group of the 14th AF (the Flying Tigers). They flew Mitchell Bombers (B-25s) until the last month of the conflict, when they transitioned to the A-26 Invader. Because he was selected as one of the crews to fly those brand-new aircraft back to Europe (and because none of the CBI crews had as many "points" as European air crews) he spent another year after the war ended in Germany, serving as an Inspector at the depots where they were destroying the tons of equipment and supplies left behind.

A good thing he didn't get sent home right away; he met my mom in Germany (she was American; working as a secretary to the base commander) and they were married six weeks later. Dad's subsequent military career was mostly in SAC, as a pilot (he had three ratings during the war and got his pilot wings immediately afterward); he retired after 32 years.

Their marriage lasted a good bit longer - 64 years. They died in 2011, 8 months apart.


edited for spelling

[William Seger]

22. Mine was a B-17 tail gunner

8th Army Air Force flying out of England. Shot down twice. First time was over the Channel; earned a membership card in the Gold Fish Club after floating in his Mae West lifejacket and being picked up by English fishermen. The second time was over France, where he was captured and spent over a year in a POW camp in Bremervorder, Germany.

[lumberjack_jeff]

23. Yes. 1st Army. Shot in the head in Belgium in 1945.

He survived and got his bronze star in 1990.

[Skittles]

25. my grandfather was one of the Dunkirk soldiers

trapped by Germans by land, air and sea - all he ever said about it was, "I could dive under a jeep faster than anyone."

He also served in WW I.

[Bluenorthwest]

26. Oh yes.

The Navy.

[BainsBane]

27. My grandfather was

somewhere in the South Pacific. He was a psychiatrist while in the military and set up some of the first psychiatric treatment for veterans when he returned.

[Samurai_Writer]

189. My dad was probably stationed with your dad!

My dad was an orderly on the Section 8 ward in the big Army hospital in the Philippines.

[BainsBane]

194. my grandfather

possibly so. I don't know the specifics of his service, but I have some of his medals I can look over.

[catrose]

28. yes

Navy

[erinlough]

29. My father was a machine gunner in Patton's 3rd army.

He was in the first wave of reinforcements after the battle of the bulge began. He was a German American and actually had to get his citizenship before he could volunteer. He did a little translating, but then hid his ability because he was mistrusted for it. He ended up in Germany driving for a major at the last month of the war. He met with every grandchild and told them not to go into the service during war time, but was very supportive if they chose to. He was changed and formed by his service. I have every letter he wrote to my mother during the years he was there. I have over 600 letters. I hope to get them on a website some day soon.

[Cooley Hurd]

31. Yep. My dad was in the Second World War. 551st AAA AW Bn. Battery B.

According to an old unit narrative I was reading, they shot down a bunch of Messerschmitts. They fought with the Third Army during the Battle of the Bulge. he made it home, only to die in a drowning accident in 1968, when I was three and a half.

[cascadiance]

32. Father was in the Navy in Korean war...

...

Our family is thankful that a Japanese torpedo bounced off the hull of the ship where he was instead of exploding or some of us wouldn't have been born...

[bike man]

197. ? A Japanese torpedo in the Korean conflict confuses me.

Last edited Wed May 29, 2013, 09:01 AM - Edit history (1)

[malaise]

33. My dad wasn't but my mom's only brother

joined the British Army

[brewens]

34. VB-104, PB4Y (Navy Liberators) crewman. Long range reconnaissance and bombing

in the south pacific. Those guys were a lot like submarine crews so far as their going out on lone patrols and never being seen again.

My dad had gotten in a car accident in San Diego right before they were being deployed. The plane he was assigned to originally, went down with no survivors in transit. No one knows why or where exactly. While stationed at Guadalcanal he got in some kind of fight with his planes commander/pilot and was transferred to another crew. Shortly after that, those guys went missing and were never found.

He was wounded twice. Once in air combat with japanese fighters and another time by flak bombing a Japanese airfield. They were in that region for almost all of 1943.

[Greybnk48]

35. My Dad, Both of my FIL's, 3 of 4 uncles

Last edited Mon May 27, 2013, 08:51 PM - Edit history (1)

the other uncle had lost a leg to cancer when he was a little guy. My husband's grandfather, both of my husband's uncles. His Uncle Bill, and namesake, was lost in the South Pacific declared missing on May 2, 1944.

He and his gunner (Anderson) were lost while on a strike on Tobera Airfield near Tobera, near Keravat, East New Britian, Papua, New Guinea. His plane, a Douglas SBD5 Dauntless, was hit by anti-aircraft according to the report. Uncle Bill was USMC and my dad, my current FIL and both uncles were NAVY.

Two of my uncles, and my former FIL were Army. And one of my favorite uncles was Coast Guard, canine corps.

As I said, only one did not enlist right after Pearl Harbor and that's because he couldn't.

[chieftain]

36. My Dad was a seargent in the Marine Corps.

He was wounded while on board the USS Chicago when it was sunk off Guadalcanal during the Battle of Rennel Island. He volunteered to return to combat and was wounded in the fight for Pelileu.
He was a true hero, a loyal Democrat andan unabashed Liberal. He passed away in 1983 and I miss him everyday. Semper Fi, Dad.

[sakabatou]

37. I only know about my dad's dad.

He wasn't in the military, but was a in one of the contractors/factories.

[WinkyDink]

38. Battle of the Bulge. Silver and Bronze Stars. RIP, Daddy.

[Sherman A1]

39. Navy LST

Delivered such important items as beer and refrigerators, from what I understand. Never knew him as he left when I was very young. My Mom blamed the divorce on how the War changed him, personally I think he was a heel based upon what my genealogy research has come across of both him and my Grandfather.

[Brother Buzz]

40. Pops was drafteed into the Navy the same day he graduated from UCLA

Undistinguished service on a ocean going tugboat, although he had a grand stories about visiting China. He always talked about a porting in a 'German' city, Tsingtao.

[benld74]

41. my father was in New Guine during WwII, great grandfather fought for France in WWI

[Shrike47]

42. Father in the NAVY, Pacific theater. Intelligence.

I guess the college graduates were automatically officers. He had been a teacher.

[nadinbrzezinski]

47. It was not automatic

They were called six week wonders. It was a shortened version of OCS.

[bmbmd]

116. My dad was a college graduate, and a second year dental student when the war broke out.

He finished his finals, enlisted in the infantry, and stayed in for the duration. He stayed an enlisted man, and never trusted officers. He described his experience as "a boat ride to Africa followed by a walk to Russia". I guess he was in some serious stuff, but he never spoke of it, to my knowledge. He had a coffee can full of medals, including two silver stars and two bronze stars-but no purple heart. At the end of the war, he dropped out of dental school, went back to college, and became a college professor. His two older brothers-a doctor and a lawyer by trade-were commissioned as officers but never left the states. There was always a strain between them with my dad-cordial, but never close again. He died just before Christmas, 2003.

[nadinbrzezinski]

118. Yes, that is not an unusual

People either had to request it or were "volunteered."

As to the tension between officers and enlisted, it's as old as war I suppose. Somewhere else I was a mustang, and after 911 it would have been interesting if they took me.

Oh and it is rare for vets to talk of their experience.

Hugs.

My dad finally talked of his (and not all) after he truly realized that both Tom and I have seen combat. He still took quite a bit to the grave.

[Brother Buzz]

150. OCS was first a seventeen week school, then shortened to twelve weeks

The officers graduating from the twelve week school were called "Ninety-day wonders". OCS stands for Officer Candidate School. After graduating OCS and commissioned officers, they continued training as officers in their respective fields.

[texanwitch]

43. My Father was in the Navy.

He was injured in training so he never went over seas.

He served two years doing light duty in Texas.

[LeftInTX]

44. My grandfather was accidentally shot during basic training in WWI

His injuries were minimal and he was sent home.
He became an active member of his local VFW.
He was very proud of his military service, even though it wasn't much. (He was a brand new immigrant to the US)

My dad was an Air Force B-29 pilot in Korea and was later a Flying Boxcar pilot in Vietnam.

[texanwitch]

48. A lot of people were injured in training or killed.

My father was in a plane that crashed, a cadet was flying the plane.

It was PBY's, the planes that landed on water.

The plane landed really hard.

He was thrown around, spent time in and out of the hospital.

He told stories about Marines who were wounded, they would have terrible nightmares.

He did light duty in the hospital.

He saw a heard a lot.

[edbermac]

45. Served in Patton's army.

Said he was nuts.

[Awknid]

104. My Father always said the same thing

He was a radioman in the Army Air Corp, served in China and India under Patton. I remember the look on his face when he spoke about the horrible conditions in India. I believe he saw bad stuff. But he identified with being a WWII vet and was so very proud. Needless to say, he did not want my brother going to Vietnam and worried himself sick the entire time he was there. Luckily my brother came back in one piece (physically).

[nadinbrzezinski]

46. Dad was in the polish resistance, later in the Army

After liberation.

Record...there is no stinking record. Suffice it to say, he told me and my husband a lot, but how they got from Warsaw to Paris in 1947... He never did tell the story

Oh and my uncle, he died well before I was born, was in Intel in the Pacific

[Elwood P Dowd]

49. Dad and 4 uncles served in the Army.

He suffered a broken arm and damaged shoulder during a training exercise, and spent the rest of the war as an Army mail clerk in the States. A few years after the war, the VA discovered he also suffered a damaged hip, so he did receive a little disability check until he left us.

[YarnAddict]

50. Second Armored Division

Dad drove a half track. He was in N. Africa, Sicily, was at Normandy a few days after D-Day, W. Europe, and was wounded 24 hours after arriving in Germany. He spent months in the hospital at Battle Creek, MI before going home and picking up his life. The world had changed drastically in the four years he had been gone. His dad had died, and his mom and little sister were no longer on the farm. My mom's mother had died, and my mom had moved into town and become a "career woman." I can't imagine the culture shock he must have felt.

Unlike the fathers of many of my friends, Dad talked about his war experiences--but only things like having the best spaghetti dinner he had ever eaten, when he was in Sicily, or being able to speak the local language when he was in Holland, or the time they captured a German payroll. It wasn't until after he had died that I realized how much he hadn't told us.

[treestar]

51. No, too young

And grandfather too old by then, and too young for WWI. A lucky bunch, my family, there are many children born but none seem to be of age at any given wartime.

[lamp_shade]

52. My father - Army - D-Day +1, Utah Beach.

[TexasTowelie]

53. Yes, my father was in the Navy during 1944-45.

Saw the action at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

[Cleita]

54. My dad served in WWI, but my cousin served in WWII.

I don't remember what he did other than he was in the air force part of the army, the part that would later become the Air Force and that he was ground personnel, not a flier.

[marybourg]

55. How about if your spouse was? Mine was.

[femmocrat]

56. My dad served in the Pacific.

I don't know much about it though, because he would never talk about it.

He and his five brothers were all in the service at the same time. One was at D-day (which I learned reading his obituary.)

My mom was one of seven girls and most of her sisters were married to WW II vets. One lost her fiance in the war and never married. The youngest one married a Korean War vet. Her brother was killed in the war and is buried in the Philippines.

Our family has a long tradition of military service. My grandfather served in WW I and was gassed in the trenches in France.

[PasadenaTrudy]

58. Mine did!

He helped liberate the camps. He never wanted to talk about it. He passed away in 1987..

[shanti]

59. No, but grandpa was

He was 35 when he signed up after Pearl Harbor. I don't believe he saw combat, he was trained as a barber. His son, my father, did see combat as a Marine during the Korean War tho...

[tnlurker]

60. Mine was in both WWII and Korea

He was among the few that stayed in the service between the wars. He was in the European theater in WWII and was in Pyongyang Korea when the Chinese overrun the city after they joined the war. He claimed that he was on the last flight out before the airport fell to the Chinese.

He was a private in the infantry (Bradley's Army group) during WWII but got promoted to Sgt in the Air Force by switching services between the wars. He stayed in a total of ten years.

In WWII he was attached to Patton's Army during the Battle of the Bulge and helped recover from that.

[Mr.Bill]

61. My dad was in the Army Air Corps

Top turrett gunner and flight engineer on a B24. Based in Italy with the 449th and flew 50 missions.

Never talked about it much until late in life when he went to a few reunions. He just didn't think it was that big of a deal is the best way I can describe his attitude about it. He would be the first to tell you he was no hero. He actually said he joined the Army because in 1943 you couldn't get a girl without having a uniform on. It must have worked, he married my mom right after the war ended.

He worked as a mechanic for United Airlines until he retired in 1984.

[Imalittleteapot]

62. 1st Marines

WWII. He never talked about the Pacific, even if asked. Those guys came back changed according to my Mom.

[starroute]

63. Navy - oil tanker and then a mine sweeper

He never saw action, but the mine sweeping duty was potentially as dangerous as if he had. It was our own mines, too -- the one's we'd laid down along the Atlantic coast in the early days of the war and then had to get back up again.

One of his brothers broke a leg while in England and invaded Normandy in a walking cast. The other was in the South Seas.

[spinbaby]

64. My father was on the other side

Both eastern and western front. He never talked about it but was a pacifist until the day he died.

[Raine]

65. Mine was drafted and ended up in the Pacific. Was such an awful

experience he would never discuss it at all.

[socalgal58]

66. USMC

Guadalcanal and other So Pacific hotspots. After that, China Marine, after that Korea (Chosin Reservoir) after that 2 tours of Viet Nam- he's 87 and still a Marine!

[mrmpa]

154. My Dad, Marines............

he didn't serve in WWII, but he was a China Marine (Shanghai) and at Chosin Reservoir. He enlisted in 1947 and stayed in until 1961. he died in 2000, 3 weeks short of his 71 birthday.

Semper FI

[socalgal58]

171. I'm so sorry for your loss...

Wonder if they knew each other as my dad was in Shanghai and Chosin as well..... he still has scars from the frost bite he endured at Chosin... He just turned 87 and had 27 years in the Corps. Once a Marine, always a Marine. Semper Fi.

[mrmpa]

180. Thank you.......

I was wondering too, if they might have know each other. Ask your Dad if he knew Walter Monahan(sp). Dad served with him in China & Korea. Walter was awarded the Medal of Honor at Soso RI, Dad was with him when he earned it. Always figured that he saved my Dad's life.

Take care of your Dad. Semper Fi.

[socalgal58]

196. I will ask......

Not many China Marines left these days.... dad always tries to hit the reunions and he's the youngest!!!! Will see him on Thursday and ask. Hoorah!

[secondwind]

67. my dad was a Merchant Marine during WW2... He is buried in the veterans cemetery in

Ocala, FL.

[narnian60]

68. My dad was an army corporal.

He was a survivor of the USS LST-342 which was struck by a Japanese torpedo off the Soloman Islands in 1943. He never spoke about this until he was in his 80s.

[VPStoltz]

69. Electrical maintenance in the Navy.

[revolution breeze]

70. Dad was in Navy

aboard an escort ship with the USS Mobile battle group and another uncle sat on the beach while they tested the atomic bomb overhead. Aunt was a WAC, another a WAVE. Lots of illness came back with them, both physical and mental. Uncle who served in San Diego was the only one who talked about it, but never in front of his brothers, and he told us of the horrors he saw shipped home. It was very surreal for me as I was born when my father was 45 and WWII seemed like a different time and place.

[TlalocW]

71. Dad turned 18 in 1945 and enlisted in the Navy

I know he was on a ship. Don't know if he saw any action, but he was honorably discharged the same year after the war ended.

Then he got drafted into the army for the Korean War because he hadn't served enough time in WWII to not be drafted.

TlalocW

[rury]

72. My late dad was in the European Theatre during World War II

He was in an engineering company building bridges and participated in battles and campaigns at Normandy, Ardennes, The Rhineland, Northern France and Central Europe.
Returned to the United States on July 4, 1945.
Transitioned from this physical life in June of 2011 at age 91.

[DesertFlower]

73. my dad was in the navy.

[CBHagman]

74. My father was an Army medic.

He was in the PTO, wound up on Okinawa. He came safely home, finished college, did all the things men of his generation were supposed to, but he must have seen something of hell on earth during his service.

[dsharp88]

75. My dad was an army sergeant in the Philippines. n/t

[kiva]

131. Mine too!

He was one of the troops that retook the Philippines and he didn't say a lot either...and he was a sergeant too...are you one of my brothers?

[watrwefitinfor]

76. 356 Fighter Group, 8th Army Air Corps

Stationed near Dover, England on the channel, 1943-1945. Master Sergeant, he maintained maintenance records on the planes at the base.

He told me he regretted not becoming a pilot until he saw the guys limping back in from the raids - the ones who came back. It was awful beyond words, and he never attempted to describe it - you could just tell he had seen hell.

Wat

[rrneck]

78. Yep. Navy signal core. Served on an LST. nt

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

79. My father was lost at sea when the USS Langley was sunk

off Java in the first two months of the war. I have his purple heart.
My step-father landed at Normandy and went all the way to Germany in advanced re-con, where he helped liberate the death camps. He had his demons.

[hopemountain]

81. my dad & uncle were both in the army

my uncle was a paratrooper for wwll and continued on to the korean theatre. there, he made a fateful jump. his parachute failed to open.

my dad enlisted at the age of 17 to follow his brother into wwll. he was trained as a printer and photographer and never saw any fighting.

[wial]

82. My dad was a conscientious objector in England, and dug up unexploded bombs.

Because he was a historically and philosophically informed intellectual he just didn't believe killing young men to make old men richer was a good cause. For his bravery, gangs of nasty English schoolgirls would give him white feathers, implying he was a coward. When he was told to march right, he would march left and get weeks of KP for his insolence. He was given a true/false test to see if he qualified for clerk duty, but he felt that would aid the war effort, so he got every single answer deliberately wrong. He said the examiner gave him a long look but couldn't do anything.

Canadian infantry were billeted near where he was. When they too questioned his courage, he would fight them vastly outnumbered back to back with my uncle after whom I am named, who later died in Burma after he was spurned by the family of the Jewish girl he had fallen for, and subsequently enlisted out of a broken heart.

One thing though, you couldn't pop balloons around my dad. After bomb disposal, loud noises like that would make him jump out of his skin.

Although I honor the spirit of service that makes people risk their lives in combat roles, I'm damned proud to be my father's son.

[sarge43]

83. My dad helped make tank engines

Mom told me he often worked 14 hour days, six days a week.

The people in US war production worked miracles.

Salute to their memory, too.

[texanwitch]

121. My Father worked in a shipyard before going into the Navy.

He helped make Liberty ships.

[Playinghardball]

84. My father was a flight engineer on a PBY in the Pacific theater

[southernyankeebelle]

85. My dad was in the old Army Air Corp and switched when they went to the Air Force.

He was in WWII in the African campaign, Europe also. He got shot up the leg with a machine gun fire. He loved the military and stayed in and retired 22 yrs. My father-in-law was also in WWII. He was a grunt and served 24 yrs. I don't remember what my dad did. Both were also in Korea and my dad went to VN before the build up and my father-in-law fought in VN and got wounded there. My husband retired from the Army with 21 yrs. So I am very proud of all the men in my family that served and their families who followed them around the world support what they did.

[wellstone dem]

86. Yesterday my 93 year old WWII vet dad told me this story about how he went around the world

My dad, never made his service in World War II sound like a big deal in comparison to that of other soldiers. He more often talked about his brother's service in Europe as meriting respect. So when he ended a story yesterday about how he traveled from North Dakota to where he was stationed in India with "and that's how I got one of my battle stars," I was really surprised. I didn't know he had a battle star. He has two.

He traveled from North Dakota to a number of bases in the United States including Florida, but departed from Los Angeles. That ship took them to the South Pacific, with a stop in Tasmania, and another stop in Perth, Australia. The ship then took the men to India. When they got to the base, it was late in the day. The base had been attacked that morning. Anyone on the base that day got a battle star. That was his first.

Later, the squadron that he was assigned to bombed Japan. He was a weatherman, so remained in India providing information to those in the air, he got his second star because his squadron got one. As a result of having two stars, he was able to get home earlier at the end of the war. Dad says he was never shot at during the war, "Not like what my brother went through." (His brother once had to drop from a bridge into the Rhine because the Germans were shooting at him.)

Dad circled the globe in his service to his country. On his return home nearly 4 years later (with no leave, no visit home during that whole time) the ship went across the Indian Ocean and then up to the Mediterranean Sea. Two soldiers had to sit at the front of the ship and shoot mines out of the water. They traveled across the Atlandtic Ocean and landed in New York Harbor. They were deloused in NY. The soldiers went to a base in Wisconsin where they were discharged, and he finally returned to North Dakota.

[derby378]

87. My father-in-law was a survivor of the Bataan Death March

Louis was an Army Sergeant. Born in 1920, died in 2011. Rest in peace.

[tularetom]

88. 1st Marine Division, Guadalcanal, New Britain, Peleliu, Okinawa

My mom, too. Navy nurse.

[Auggie]

89. I have a cousin whose ship was torpedoed

while on sub patrol near Finschaven, Papua New Guinea. He survived.

[patrice]

90. My dad was a MSgt airplane engine mechanic, who rode a Harley all over Europe in order to

keep the crew of mechanics he managed up with the leading edge of the allied air-offensive.

He saw the most horrific things and though I saw him struggle with his faith frequently (practically every Sunday), he NEVER gave up his hope for humanity, I think in part, because he found an appropriate medium to manifest that hope in, the post war Labor movement. He was one of those who came together with a few others to start the first Pipefitters' local in the state of Kansas. He didn't like to talk about the war, EVER, but used to tell us stories at the dinner table (when he was home for a while) about the struggles and problems of workers on the enormous construction projects in which he was once again a foreman for one of the crews of pipefitters.

[ErikJ]

91. Medic in Battle of the Bulge.

Became an anaesthesiologist after.

[handmade34]

92. proud of all the men in my life

always enjoy the opportunity to share photos of them (Civil War, WWI, WWII, Vietnam...)

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]



[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[Adsos Letter]

152. Mine too, same wars.

My GGG and GG grandfathers were father and son who enlisted in the Fourth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the winter of 1861/62. The father was invalided out at Vicksburg in 1863. The son served til the end of the war.

My great-uncle was an artilleryman in France during WWI, and lived his whole life with the effects of a mustard gas shelling on his battery; my wife's grandfather was a religious conscientious objector during WWI, but was drafted as a male nurse in the 88th Division, and was sent to the trenches in France.

My wife's uncle was a co-pilot on a B-17 in the 8th air force; his plane was shot up on a mission over Germany. They made it back, but he was missing a softball-sized chunk out of his leg which left him with a major limp.

My dad served in Korea during the war.

Three of my uncles served; two in the army, and one in the Marines. The Marine was a grunt in Vietnam during the 1968 Tet offensive.

And I served in an armored cavalry regiment on the Czech-West German border in 74-75.

[deutsey]

93. Not dad but grand dads

One at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed, the other in Iraq during WWII.

My relatives who served in combat go back to the Revolutionary War. The one fatality I know about was at the end of the Civil War when an ancestor died on the last day of the siege of Richmond. He was killed on the last day of the siege, gunshot to the heart.

[Awknid]

136. Me too - DAR

Makes me feel as if I should be able to do more about the wrong direction the country has gone!

[needledriver]

94. Navigator on a B-24

8th Air Force, USAAF. He was in a top secret bomber squadron that flew supplies and spies to the Resistance forces in occupied Europe.

http://www.801492.org/index.html|

[Thor_MN]

95. Very tail end of the baby boom...

Dad's dad, WWI. Mom's Dad, WWII. Dad, Korea, but served in Germany.

Mom's dad said to be in Battle of the Bulge, time of his service was correct, but haven't been able to find anything about his service, other than date's of enlistment and discharge.

Me, too young for Viet Nam, and Mr. Raygun didn't manage to get anything started before I was in college.

[kiranon]

96. My Dad was in the Navy and with the first troops into Japan

and my mother's brother served in Europe as a medic throughout the war.

[dionysus]

97. not my Dad, but my Uncle was signalman on the ship that the Japanese signed the surrender on.

[wilsonbooks]

98. Recon outfit

was a replacement for troops lost in the battle of the Bulge. He did not like to talk about it and we never had a gun in the house.

[DevonRex]

99. My dad was a Marine Corps fighter pilot in the Pacific theater.nt

[lapfog_1]

100. My Dad, Navy destroyer, fire control chief

North Atlantic escort, supported Anzio invasion.

One odd thing... awarded American Theater Battle Ribbon.

[annabanana]

101. He was a Tech Staff Seargent... Went into France D-day +5. .

He helped re-establish the local civic governments that had been usurped by the nazis.

[CincyDem]

102. My dad was off Omaha Beach

Assigned to a "rescue and recover" dingy that recovered bodies of fallen soldiers that were washing out to sea.

Spent his entire navy time out on the water and had 3 ships shot out from under him. No idea how he survived but he's one tough old man.

[graywarrior]

103. Machine Gunner, Btry "D", 462d Prcht FA Bn

Dutch New Guinea, Philippines. Several bronze service stars.

His was one of the records that were destroyed in a fire so I can barely make out what is typed on his enlisted and discharge report.

He was 17 going in, 21 when he got out. He was a mad man.

[JustinBulletin]

105. My dad was a bombardier on a B-17

He was stationed in England and then spent time in Paris toward the end of the war. He received a purple heart for getting a piece of Flak in his behind during a bombing run over Germany. He dropped out of high school at 17, lied about his age and signed up for the Army Air Corps in 1941. His father fought in World War I.

[tomg]

107. Army - in the Pacific.

Drafted in 1939, released three weeks before Pearl Harbor, went back in and to OCS a couple of days after the war started, and was among the first into Japan after the surrender. always said one of the hardest things he ever had to do was write letters home to next of kin, particularly when the guy was new to the outfit.

[azurnoir]

108. Dad was Army Corp of Engineers 1942-1945

and my brother Vietnam/Cambodia 1967-1970

[rdking647]

109. my dad was in korea

[Poiuyt]

110. USAAF - B25 pilot

He flew 72 missions in North Africa and Italy.

[ashling]

111. My dad went through med school and was a Navy Doctor

but graduated in 1945 - he was on duty in the emergency room at Breckenridge hospital in Austin TX on VJ day.

My mom was a field director for the Red Cross in Burma and India in 1944 - 45 and was stationed on the Ledo Road which connected India to the Burma Road and China as the Japanese had possession of Burma.

[Liberal In Red State]

112. My Dad served in the Army . . . The Philipines! An 18 year old who had never been away from North

Dakota until he enlisted. My Father-in-law was a B17 pilot stationed in Rougham AFB in England - part of the 94th. My uncle served in the Navy on the Alabama. All returned to live what most would consider unextraordinary lives . . . Except that what they did before the age of 30 was beyond extraordinary! Love and miss them all!

[Harry Monroe]

113. Dad was in the Merchant Marines WWII

And had a German U-Boat sink his ship. He spent 9 days in a lifeboat before being rescued.

A year after the war, the government reported that 5,638 merchant seamen and officers were dead or missing and 581 were taken prisoner. In fact, the Merchant Marine death rate was 1 in 26, the highest rate among the services in World War II, according to USMM.org, the Merchant Marine history and advocacy site.

These veterans still living, my Dad among them, are still fighting for official veteran status and a few of the benefits from the government. I doubt that many men my Dad's age, (86) would use the GI Bill or buy a house with a low interest loan, but a $1,000/month stipend they are currently fighting for would surely supplement their incomes. My Dad is retired and on a fixed income, the extra money would surely help. Thank God his mortgage has long been paid off.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has estimated that there are between 8,000 and 10,000 merchant mariners still living and World War II veterans are dying at a rate of between 800 and 1,100 a day. Without these brave men manning the merchant ships delivering the essential cargoes to keep the war effort going in the European and Pacific Theaters and continually putting themselves in harm's way and the constant threat of being torpedoed and sunk by German U-Boats or Japanese submarines, the war would have had a far different outcome.

[marybourg]

139. What $1000/month stipend is that? My WWII vet

hubby sure doesn't get that. All he got was all his molars (probably perfectly good) removed before embarking on a tiny boat in the Pacific at age 18. Has had to buy his own partials ever since!

[snort]

114. Mine joined the Navy in 1943

went to Korea as an Air Force fighter pilot then served in Viet Nam. He'll be 88 in June.

[FarPoint]

115. My dad was in WWII

Army Sniper.

[Bennyboy]

117. My dad played football outta Farragut idaho

Faked his age, dropped out of High School and enlisted in December 41 and went off to fight the war. But he was a good football player and never left the West Coast.

Whne my Moms brother and family would talk about the war my Dad was embarrassed for never actually fighting..... What made that worse is that my Uncle gene was the first man on the beach at Normandy and told the story often. (He was a medic).

[senseandsensibility]

119. My dad was too young, but my father in law was.

He volunteered for the Big One when he was seventeen, then served tours of duty in both Korea and Vietnam. Bronze star, purple heart, the whole deal. Brave guy. I've always been able to admire that about him, although I didn't agree with Vietnam. Unlike the chickenhawks in the other party, he walked the walk. He also paid the price in ways that those who started these wars didn't have to.

[Ernesto]

120. Never met my dad.........

He died a sailor near the end of the Pacific war before I was born.

[Hoyt]

165. Sorry. Here's to your dad, and all wounded and killed soldiers.

[Chisox08]

122. My Grandfather fought in WWII and Korea

He got out right before Vietnam. He has three Purple Hearts one from WWII and two from Korea.

[MarianJack]

123. My father was a bombardier in Europe and...

...spent the Korean war at Wright-patterson Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio.

I also had 3 uncles in WWII.

PEACE!

[56miSSie]

124. Navy...Submarines

He served on USS Hardhead and USS Becuna in the Pacific.

[Spider Jerusalem]

125. Gen X here

my mother's father joined the Army 3 months after Pearl Harbor, went to Europe, and was with the Allied army that crossed the Rhine in March of '45. My father's father was also in the Army and spent the war Stateside.

[immoderate]

126. BOTH my parents!

Mom was a WAC. Dad was Army Air Corps. The best pilot in his class before he washed out because he couldn't keep his lunch down. He became a top mechanic.

--imm

[Hayabusa]

127. My grandfather

Was a cook in the army during WWII, but when Jerry came knocking in the Ardennes, he had to do some fighting.

[tabbycat31]

128. not a boomer

But both my grandfathers served in WWII.

[dflprincess]

129. Mine enlisted the day after Pearl Harbor

and wound up in the Army Air Corp. He was a rear gunner on a Mitchel Bomber (B-25) in the Pacifice Theater. He flew over 50 missions, the biggest one (as far as I know) was at Rabaul. I believe it was during that battle that Admiral Yamamoto was shot down.

Came out the war with 2 bronze stars, the Air Medal & 2 Oak Leaf Clusters and a pacifist attitude. He told his mother he would kill himself before he went to war again and if he ever had a son he would never let him go to war.

[bike man]

199. If you've never seen the cramped space the tail gunner had, check out

this site. It has some neat stuff about the B25 http://www.maam.org/airshow/b25_tailgun.htm

[dflprincess]

200. Thank you!

I saw a B-25 at an airshow a few years ago but standing on the ground looking up at the tail gunner's perch didn't give me anything close to that perspective. I've bookmarked the link so I can show it to my nieces and nephews.

[Euphoria]

130. My Dad, my 4 uncles

My Dad in the Army Signal Corps of the 101st Airborne stationed first in England then the around day three of D-day invasion drove his jeep from landing boat right onto the floating piers at Normandy. Helped Patton's Army through France and Germany. One of my uncles landed in the early hours of D-day. Later on while in Belgium, he was lucky as he got shot in the leg and thus was in the hospital as his unit was taken and shot by Germans on their way to their defeat at the Battle of the Bulge. Another uncle was in the Navy in the Pacific and only caught a glimpse of Tokyo from his aircraft carrier.
His son, my cousin, and the first of my generation, was a pilot in Vietnam and right before the Tet offensive he was shot down and killed.
I honor them all.
May we only go to war as the very last resort.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

132. My Dad was a Coal Miner with eight kids,

he tried to join the Army but they wouldn't let him!

[Jim Lane]

133. Another one with both parents having served.

Dad was with the Army, stationed in Panama. In hindsight it seems like easy duty, but he told me that everyone in the Zone was certain the Japanese would attack the Canal, because of its huge importance to the Navy. (As an aside, I wonder why they didn't. A lock canal, like Panama, is comparatively easy to disable and time-consuming to repair.)

Mom was with the SPARS (formally, the United States Coast Guard Women's Reserve). She served as a radioman (that was the term on her discharge papers). FDR created the SPARS in 1942 so that women could fill some noncombat roles.

[bvar22]

134. Here! Both Parents.

My Dad joined the Marines on Dec. 8th, 1941,
and fought his way across the Pacific with the 1st Marines.
He came out of WW2 as a Captain,
and later retired from the Reserve as a Lt Colonel.

My MOTHER joined the Women's Army Corp (WACs) in 1942,
achieved the rank of Captain,
and served throughout the war.

My mother taught us (myself and two BOOMER brothers) Close Order Drill
and the Manual of Arms when we were very young.

I'm very proud of both of my parents,
and inherited my Liberalism from them.

In our house, in the Dining Room, in a prominent place,
was a portrait of FDR,
that was later joined with the official portrait of JFK.

Thank You for this thread,
and thanks to the Greatest Generation,
and thanks for the Wealthiest, Largest, and most upwardly mobile Working Class
the World had ever seen
that they built following the policies of FDR!

[madokie]

135. Dad was born in 1897 so he missed ww2

My oldest brother joined the army right after Pearl Harbor. Never talked to him about it. He brought home a German officers pistol that he cherished is about all I remember. As far as I know he never talked about the war much if any. He settled in Willamina Oregon upon his discharge.

[barbtries]

137. my dad was in the Navy,

on the USS California during Pearl Harbor (his family thought he was dead for about 3 weeks) and on the USS Lexington when it sank in the Coral Sea.
some pages from his war diary




the second one is the last entry in the diary and was written apparently as the Lexington went down.

[Jenoch]

138. My father was nine

years old when war broke out. My grandfather was 26 and exempt from the draft when the U.S. entered WWI.

My uncle was in the Navy and had an adventure sub hunting in the Caribbean, he never saw combat. Another uncle was shot down three times in the Caribbean. He flew an A20-A, a precursor to the B-25 and B-26. The last time he was in a small two man raft with another Army Air Corp guy for two weeks before being rescued. They got shot down by a deck gun on a German submarine. They drooped a torpedo, missed, came around on another run and were hit. Their second run their torp sunk the sub. I have to try and find the paperwork on that action. My fatber was told much of the paperwork was lost in a fire at St. Louis.

[SteveG]

140. Asst. Quartermaster on a mine sweeper

in the Pacific in 1944-45

Enlisted when 17, served on a wooden hulled mine sweeper, was in the first group of Americans to go ashore in Hiroshima after the Bomb (he only talked about that experience once in depth with me when I was in my twenties it was very bad). Helped close down the Oak Ridge Plant. Died at age 59 from lung cancer, which because of it's origin point in the lungs suggested heavy particle radiation from material he inhaled at either Hiroshima or Oak Ridge, according to his attending physicians.

[premium]

141. My late father served as a Navy fighter pilot

Last edited Tue May 28, 2013, 02:28 PM - Edit history (1)

aboard the U.S.S. Yorktown-CV-5, after it was sunk during the battle of Midway Island, he was then stationed aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise-CV-6.

He flew the F4F-3 Wildcat fighter.



He later transitioned to the F6F Hellcat fighter.



U.S.S. Yorktown CV-5



U.S.S. Enterprise CV-6



May he rest in peace.

[dimbear]

142. My father and his brother both tried to enlist. My father was too deaf to make it in, which

would seem to make you a natural for an artillery regiment, but he spent the war patrolling the docks at night in Portland, Oregon. I still have the gun he carried, a .32 Savage. His brother made it to the Pacific and saw the kamikazes first hand, which he admitted to be an unpleasant experience.

[csziggy]

143. Both my parents served - Dad Navy submariner, Mom Navy Nurse

He did two war time patrols on a sub in the Sea of Japan and received the Navy and Marine Medal for action on one of the patrols.

Mom was a Navy Nurse and served in Hawaii. They only met because they were both there after the end of the war.

[ohheckyeah]

144. Yes, he was in the army

and served in France, Germany, and the Philippines. My grandfather served in WWI and received a Medal of Honor.

[otohara]

145. My Letter From Iwo Jima

last year my aunt sent me the only letter my dad wrote home from a fox hole in Iwo Jima.. It broke my heart but helped me understand why he drank so much and died so young. I hardly knew him - my mom moved me and my sister to CO when we were toddlers - left him to deal with PSTD - when he moved to CO I was indifferent towards him and then he died.

PFC USMC

[Art_from_Ark]

146. The only "Big One" any relative of mine was in, that I know of,

was the Civil War, where Great-granddaddy came over from England on the promise of getting citizenship and a 160-acre spread if he fought for the Union Army.

[Zorra]

147. They wouldn't let my dad enlist because he was an engineer for Grumman

Aircraft Engineering Corporation, where they designed and built Navy fighter jets.

[Libertas1776]

148. Close...

My grandfather was, in the 94th Infantry I believe

as were some of my great uncles.

[VA_Jill]

149. My dad was in the Navy

He was a meteorologist and served on a seaplane tender, the USS St. George, in the Pacific Theater. He received the Naval Air Medal but I don't know what for because he never talked about it and I didn't even know until I was a teenager and saw a pic of him receiving it.

[Chipper Chat]

151. US Navy 1941-1945

Philippines-Guam-Midway supply ship. Always on the lookout for Japanese zeros.

[Adam-Bomb]

153. Dad was lucky

He reported for Basic on V-J Day. Regular Navy, served aboard
the USS Saint Paul with my Uncle George since the war was over.
Uncle George and my Uncle John served during the War, though,
they were my Dad's older brothers. Dad got out right before Korea.

My Nana worked at Grumman making Navy Wildcats and Hellcats.

[Pelican]

155. Just my father in law... on the German side...

Interesting only because my wife and I are in our early 30s.

Rest of the family (American side) was in Korea and I'm typing this out from Afghanistan.... again...

[handmade34]

164. ...

[joesdaughter]

156. My Dad didn't have to go.

He had a job vital to national defense and five children. He enlisted in the Army anyway. I always heard that the reason John Wayne did not serve was because he had five children. Joe served.

[SheilaT]

157. My dad is the reason your dads got paychecks.

He served in the U.S., was some kind of payroll accountant.

[Are_grits_groceries]

158. My Daddy served from 1941 through V-E Day and beyond.

He was in an army artillery unit in Old Hickory, the 30th Infantry Division. He landed D-Day +4. He was in the Battle of the Bulge and other main events. His unit was trapped one time and running out of ammunition. British Spitfires came and gave them cover while they retrieved ammo from a disabled truck not far from them.

He was wounded in a finger by a piece of shrapnel. He refused a Purple Heart because he didn't think he deserved it for that small injury.

While returning on the Queen Mary, he made a good bit of money playing poker. He never talked much about his experiences. This is all that I have gleaned.

[Princess Turandot]

159. Mine was designated an essential war worker...

and was dispatched to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, an easy commute. (He was an asbestos worker.) He helped build the ships which likely got some of the other fathers in this thread where they needed to go.

[Skidmore]

160. My dad was with the Quartermasters

and he ran lorries between the coast and the front lines in France and Germany. He came back very damaged as a human being after suffering a head injury and PTSD. He continued to fight that war at home and within his own psyche for decades and some of the collateral damage were his wife and children. I think there is a tendency to romanticize WWII as a grand and noble international project. The war was a response to one nation's sense of entitlement and an evil man who subverted that angst into destruction. He had partners from other nations with similar designs on empire. WWII was a human disaster of colossal proportions, as much a failure of civilized systems as the success of uncivilized aspirations.

[redgreenandblue]

161. My grandpa and great uncle both fought on the German side.

Does that count?

On edit: I think I have some family on the American side too, but not in direct line.

So, the big question: Am I allowed to commemorate all of them on memorial day or do I have to restrict myself to the Americans?

[OKNancy]

162. Army Air Corps- Radio operator- Shot down over Germany- POW

He and his fellow prisoners got out of camp when the Germans just abandoned the place.
They walked out until they met up with US forces.

[chelsea0011]

163. My dad, his 4 bros., and even my grandfather were in WWll

They were all in Europe (except the youngest who was deployed stateside) and a couple of bros. met up with their father in Italy.

[eridani]

166. My dad was drafted in 1944 and put in the signal corps

He had back problems, but they were scraping the bottom of the barrel by then. All his fellow draftees were either older like him, or quite a bit younger. They called him "Pops." He did island hopping in the Pacific and got out in 1946.

My grandfather died before the war, and dad always said that it was a good thing he never knew about his army service. Granddad came to the US to avoid WW I, and wouldn't even let my dad be a Boy Scout because they wore uniforms.

[steve2470]

167. My dad attained the rank of Captain in the Army, 3rd Armored Division under Patton

Last edited Tue May 28, 2013, 08:04 AM - Edit history (1)

He was artillery and came over a month after D-Day. He was in the Battle of the Bulge and was the "mayor" of a small German town at one point.

[Bonobo]

168. Proud to say mine was!

[pinboy3niner]

170. Dad served in the Navy, his brothers in the Army and Marines

We weren't a military family (no lifers), but my two brothers and I also served. One in the Marines just before Vietnam, two in the Army together in Vietnam.

[DCBob]

172. My dad served in the US Air Force on a small base on some tiny island near Okinawa.

He was a machinist repairing aircraft and other equipment. The Japanese bombed them routinely as practice on their way to larger targets.

[whathehell]

173. My Dad was a WWII Navy Vet, served in South Pacific on USS Montrose -- Survived Kamikaze attacks

Came back to become the Best Dad In The World.

[panader0]

174. My dad was career Air Force (Army Air Corp)

He had just graduated from Kelly Field in Texas when the war started. He was with the first group of B-17s to fly to England.
He flew 50 combat missions, including the first daylight bombing raid. Half of his missions were out of England and half out of North
Africa. Distinguished Flying Cross three times. Retired as a Lieutenant Colonel.

[steve2470]

175. kick nt

[no_hypocrisy]

176. Not exactly. He joined in 1946.

He thought he could get the Army GI Bill to go to college and medical school if he joined. He got 'em.

He thought he could avoid combat and just help with reorganization, feeding, and rebuilding Europe. Not exactly. Dad found himself assigned to the border of Yugoslavia where the Russia was asserting its rights and World War III could have been initiated within months of the end of WWII.

[Lebam in LA]

177. Seabee World War II n/t

I wish I had been more interested when I was young. We lost him when I was 24. I was too self-absorbed to realize how much I could have learned from him . Note to youngins: Get all the stories from your elders while you can.

[BumRushDaShow]

178. Dad in Pacific Theater WWII, Grand-dad in Great War (WWI). n/t

[customerserviceguy]

179. My dad got in at the very end

He happened to be NYC when V-E Day was announced. For a day, this Ohio farm boy was a hero, then the next day he was on a train bound for the West Coast. He guarded Japanese prisoners of war until they were either repatriated, or those found guilty of war crimes were dealt with appropriately.

[COLGATE4]

181. Mine taught Naval Air Navigation

to Navy pilot trainees at Colgate under the V-4 program, 1941-1945.

[yourout]

182. Recently deceased Father in law was in North Africa, Cicely, and Italy.

Cook in a mortar battalion I believe.

[AngryAmish]

184. My father was in Ireland, cheering on the Germans

[cilla4progress]

185. Today of all days...

Last edited Tue May 28, 2013, 12:54 PM - Edit history (2)

I stumbled upon a packet of old photos and letters between my folks during WWII. My dad was in the Air Force, my mom in the Red Cross. They met in a hospital near the front where they both were serving. My dad the handsome injured airman, my mom the social worker who tended him. Fell in love and married within just a few months. There was a sense of urgency to their love. I have had a difficult time looking at these memories since I lost them both 15 years ago. I miss them so much. But on today of all days, I want to honor their memory and their service.

[catbyte]

186. Yup. He was a Marine Raider, 1st Marine Division first wave on Guadalcanal. Dropped out of HS

on December 8, 1941 & joined the Marines. He was stationed on the Hornet, which was destroyed in the battle of Guadalcanal. Fought in various South Pacific hell holes such as Bougainville, Peleliu, New Britain, and Okinawa, came home with a whopping case of Malaria and lost almost 100 pounds. He always had a bottle of quinine water in a cupboard in our shed just in case the malaria came back. I found a bottle of it in when we were preparing their house for sale after his death from Lou Gehrig's Disease on June 5, 2000. I miss him every day. Love you, Dad.

[lapislzi]

191. Hi, friend. See #190

Same trajectory. They probably knew each other. I lost him in 2004. Semper fi.

[WillyT]

187. My Dad Flew A B-25 For The Marines In The South Pacific

[Samurai_Writer]

188. My dad was in the Army for the last 2 years of the war

He was stationed at the Army hospital in the Philippines. He was a conscientious objector, so did not fight. He was an orderly on the 'Section 8' ward, where the soldiers from the battlefield would come with cases of 'shell shock' (PTSD).

My dad told me a story of when I was about 3 or 4 years old. I saw his old Army jacket hanging in the closet. I guess the movie Sargeant York had been on recently, and I was upset that my daddy might have killed a bunch of people like Sargeant York did in the movie. Dad said he told me that he helped people during the war, he didn't kill them. When I asked him later about it, he simply said, "I could not kill another human being."

[lapislzi]

190. 6th Marine Division

Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Okinawa, occupation of China.

He could not/would not speak of it, ever except to say he did things no man should ever do to another.

[catbyte]

195. The only thing my dad ever told me was that it "was hotter than hell in the jungle."

I didn't know anything until listening to him swapping tales with his old war buddies while he was dying in the nursing home during the last 6 months of his life. I'll always remember one of his friends coming up to me in the hall of the nursing home, touching my arm and saying, "Your dad was the real deal--a real hero." Hell, I always knew that. He was always mine. Those last 6 months were priceless. Semper fi.

[Hobo]

192. My father was in south pacific in the US Navy

on the USS Cebu, ARG-6 classified as a internal combustion engine repair ship. He was in the war for 4 years, came hone it the end in 1945. He was a machinist mate.

[kaiden]

193. Operation Torch, Invastion of North Africa.

George ended up playing the alto sax in the 5th Division Army Band in Bari, Italy. Came home and became an optometrist -- Sorta like Billy Pilgrim.

[LWolf]

198. No.

My daddy was an 8th grade drop out who made his living as a truck driver. He married four times; the first 3 because he got someone pregnant. When he married my mom, another woman was also pregnant. He had to choose between the two.

He littered the region with babies (7 in all,) 2 who didn't live to adulthood and one who died in young adulthood. His favorite occupations, when not propagating himself and driving his truck, were hunting, fishing, talking on his CB, and glorying in being an ignorant, hateful redneck. He died at the age of 43 of a massive heart attack; his 2nd.

Fortunately, I rarely saw him.

[Mopar151]

201. 100th Division

Wounded in combat in the Voges Mountains in France - "BAR man" in an infantry company.

[PearliePoo2]

202. Yes, radio man in the Navy

He knew morse code because his father taught him as a railroad employee.
He knew it until the day he died. I miss him so very much.

[LynnTTT]

203. My dad was not a hero and would have laughed at the thought.

My dad was one of three brothers who all served. Oldest was a 1929' grad of the Naval Academy, at Pearl on Dec 7, who served under Nimitz, and became a Rear Admiral. Uncle was in the Navy. My dad was 31 when war broke out. He went in when he had to and because of very bad eyesight, he spent the war in Panama , manning the base library. I asked him once if he ever regretted not being in combat, as I know that he always felt his family was a little ashamed of his position.
He told me, "Not after I saw the injured coming back thru the Canal from the Pacific".
I suspect many of the guys never thought of themselves as heroes and were just doing what had to be done.

[Zen Democrat]

204. My Dad is 93. A Marine in the Pacific - Saipan, Tinian, IeShima, Okinawa, Occupation Nagasaki

[Bombero1956]

205. nobody in my family served during WWII

But my mother in law was an eight year old girl in occupied Holland. Her grandfather was a member of the Dutch underground. He used her to smuggle food to various houses where Jews were being hidden and for Allied troops making their way out of enemy territory. She almost got shot one day when a German patrol saw that she had a basket of eggs on her bike. They chased her until she got to a small bridge over a canal. She tossed the basket into the water and pedaled like crazy to get away. She heard the bolts on the rifles being pulled back and then laughter. Apparently the Germans were happy just scaring the crap out of her. She died of breast cancer in 1993.

[prairierose]

206. My Dad is 84....he got his mother to sign...

the papers so he could join the Army when he was 17. He joined right at the end of the war in Europe. He was sent to Europe and served with the military government in Italy for 2 years. Then he was sent back to the US and served in the military district of DC and the Pentagon in the military police after the war.