Just was talking to my BIL, a Vietnam veteran.

[HughBeaumont]

9. My grandfather was a Pearl Harbor Survivor.

He went to the Air Force to be a mechanic. He ended up spending his 19th year of life one December morning getting blown out of his bunk and down the stairs thanks to Japanese bombs. Had he been in the wrong place at the wrong time, I wouldn't be sitting here typing this today. He later flew missions in Europe and the Pacific Theater.

I never really talked to him about WWII, and it wasn't until I talked to an IWV in recent years that I fully grasped why. There's no nobility or badge of honor when it comes to the horridity of war. There are only ruined lives, nightmares, PTSD and sadness. In the few times that I did get to see him later on in life, before he died in 2004, I only wanted to see the happy side of Grandpa and I'm sure he felt the same way. So it was best just to leave it like that between us.