WW 2 Veterans

[Gary Stevens]

I was on my way to the BOD meeting this past weekend in Phonenix and had a lay over in Houston. Just by accident I sat down across from an elderly gentleman who was wearing a hat and windbreaker with the U.S.S. Washington on it. I was sitting there looking at this hat and trying to remember what was significant about the Washington. Then it hit me that it was the last battleship to be engaged in a battleship on battleship slug fest at Guadalcanal in November of 1942. The Washington survived and sunk at least two Japanese ships one believed to be a battleship and one believed to be a destroyer. This gentleman was also aboard the Washington when she escorted the largest convoy ever sent to Russia during early 1942 traveling through the ever dangerous North Atlantic to Murmansk and Archangle Russia.

She was sold for scrap in 1946.

This fine gentleman and I talked for a few minutes until our plane started loading. I remembered something he said about the Guadalcanal battle. He was talking about being a scared to death 20 year old kid at the time, and I thought I bet he wasn't alone. I shook his hand and thanked him for his service to our country. I think it embarassed him a bit.

I asked him if anyone in his home sate of North Carolina had ever sat down and recorded his experiences. He said they had not.

As I was boarding the plane I was thinking about this gentleman and how much historical knowledge will be lost when he passes on.

I'm glad I got to meet him before that time comes.

Gary

Edited November 6, 2007 by Gary Stevens

[bierman]

I was fortunate enough that I was able to spend quite a bit of time with my great uncle, Ben Varner. He was my father's uncle and he served in WWII, Korea and Vietnam as an Army Air Corp and then Air Force pilot. He retired in 1974 as a Colonel and spent the remainder of his life as a cattle rancher. He never really discussed his service much, but if you were really curious he would talk. He flew 54 missions over Europe as a B-17 pilot, bombing Berlin, Ploesti, and many other places I can't remember. When he passed away in 1996, I was given many of his medals, one of which was the Distinguished Flying Cross. I consider it an honor to share his blood.

[CDRODA396]

I also love talking to any member of the "Greatest Generation." I served in the 82nd Airborne Division for almost 10 years, and spent almost all of my 20 year career stationed at Fort Bragg, Home of the 82nd. Every year during the last week of May, Fort Bragg hosts All American Week, where they invite all the old Paratroopers to come back to their old stomping grounds and hang out with the current generation of Paratroopers. Because their wives and children have heard all their stories until they really dont pay attention to them anymore, these guys are really in their element...the next generation of Paratroopers wanting to hear every tale and hanging on their every word. Its really an awesome week just hanging out, buying beer and listening to some of the humblest men tell the most remarkable stories. Its a sad day whenever one of them passes, and we owe them all a heartfelt thanks.

[Scout454]

Both of my parents and my grandfather served in WWII. My dad was in the Army Air Corps and my mom was a WASP. My grandfather was a Marine and he spent time on Guadalcanal and numerous other islands in the Pacific. My grandfather is gone now but I cherish the time I spent with him and the stories he told (he was the reason I enlisted in the Corps in 1965). Both of my parents are still with us and when the WWII memorial was set up I enrolled them both. It was truly a great generation.

[Neomet]

I am blessed to have a father who was an infantryman with the 34th Division landing with the first troops in North Africa and fighting until they were just north of Rome when he was injured badly enough to be pulled from front line combat. The stories he has told of largely forgotten places like Hill 609, Cassino and Anzio are chilling and almost beyond belief. When people ask me why I don't get upset by much I usually respond that, unlike my father, I have never had a day where someone has told me to fix bayonets and charge up a heavily fortified hill while I watched my friends die around me. Gives one a great sense of perspective if ya know what I mean.

[jasmap]

The greatest man I ever knew.......my grandfather, was in the 90th. He served part of WWII under Patton and part under James Van Fleet. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge and also in Normandy.

[Coach]

I have been lucky and known several veterans of WWII. My grandfather served on Iwo Jima and survived two gunshot wounds. This past spring he wanted to go to the new Marine Corp Museum and my brother and I took him. While going through the interactive part from Iwo , which is a simulation of approaching the island of Iwo on a landing craft with video and audio roaring, he turned around and walked out. The lady working the display asked what the trouble was, and he replied I was there the first time I have seen this. She had no response.

It is difficult to get my grandfather to talk much about the war.

Mr. Bob Dickens lived in my hometown and served under Patton in the Third Army from June 25, 1944 till the end of the war and had great stories. He was quite proud of his combat infantrymen's badge, and a caputred Nazi bayonet. Bob has passed on but I will always remember his stories and treasure his friendship.

I think the term the greatest generation fits this groups nicely.

[Hank Ellis]

If you know a WWII vet, family, friend, whatever, do this. Get them to put their story down on tape and submit it to an oral history organization. The National WWII Museum (formally the D-Day Museum) has such a program. Because once this generation is gone the personal stories are gone also.

The accounts from the guys who were there on the series Dogfights or the new Ken Burns documentary The War are priceless and reason enough to put the effort to get the stories down.

I just happened to be talking with my wife the other day about getting uncle Ike to the museum to get his take on it. And oh by the way would you mind talking to this fine young man about your missions in a B-24 over Germany as a flight engineer. Ignore the video recorder in the corner.

[frenchwrench]

Scout454, Except for Grandfather's, we had the same parents experiences. My father did 49 missions piloting B26s in Europe, he also flew missions in Korea in A26s. My mother was a WASP durring WW11 and later worked for several manufacturers writing flight manuals. My grandfather was a mortar platoon commander durring WWI. The Greatest Generation by far. When my father and mother met, she had more flight time than he did.

[XRe]

My grandfather on my dad's side was a top turret gunner on a B-24 stationed out of England. Long after the war, he became friends with Tom Griffin, who was a Doolittle Raider (navigator, plane 9). Between the two of them, I've heard so many stories - and good natured ribbing about whether the B-25 was better than the B-24... Incredible men...

Truly, adversity and calamity create incredible character... and in some ways, the efforts that those gentlemen made to prevent us from having to experience what they went through has had a negative effect, now, two to three generations later (that is, we have it too easy, and we're acting like it).

[tightloop]

I have a friend who is now 85 yrs old and was in WWII, Battle of the Bulge and was captured and a POW for about 2 yrs....What a guy...so humble, so generous with his praises of his fellow troops, commanders, just his fellow man...While he is a generation and a little bit ahead of me age wise, you can still feel the emotion in his voice when you can get him to talk about it...

Yes we have sat and told each other War stories, his from a real war and mine from Viet Nam...the Police Action after Korea...I don't really have the words to tell you how his stories differ from mine except to say they are honest, forthright, and he is proud of his government and country and proud of the fact that he did what he had to do...fought the fight noone wanted to fight...in comparison, mine to him feel pathetic, seem tragically overblown and he can tell I don't have the same resounding pride in doing what I did compared to what he did...

It just breaks my heart that that entire generation is on the verge of passing...and for the most part without anyone but maybe their immediate family knowing the things they did for their country and themselves...

He told me he thought the differences in our service were best identified by how the vets from his war look at the monuments about that action...and how the vets from my war look at The Wall...he thinks that says it all...I guess it does.

Edited November 6, 2007 by tightloop

[dajarrel]

I have talked to several uncles, my wife's grandfather and my Dad over the years about their service in WWII. Most all of them were quite ready to tell you the funny things that happened and some of the hardships. But it seemed very difficult for them to talk of actual battle. My wife's granddad, when he was in his latter years, would sometimes talk of battle, but I think they were mentally blocking the memory of losing so many friends and companions in such a short time. Not only would they lose them, they usually had very little time to mourn their dead.

I had two uncles that were shot down in bombers and spent a couple of years in POW camps. One in Germany the other in Japan. Another uncle was an enlisted bombardier in the back seat of a dive bomber in the Pacific and had his carrier kamikazied. Their memory's of those events haunted them the rest of their lives.

I was humbled when any of them would entrust a story with me.

My Dad never could.

dj

[Neomet]

It took my dad until the 1980s before he would talk at all about the war. One of the more horrific things to me was that while he liked, like serveral others here have mentioned, to tell the funny tales of his comrades it quickly dawned on me that every tale ended with "and he was killed when.....". By the time they reached the Po valley he was one of only eight out of 200 in his company that had origionally landed in North Africa. It is no wonder to me how now at 85 with most of his memory lost to Parkinsons it is the war which he still remembers and where his nightmares still take him.

[CenTX]

My uncle served in WW II, two tours in Korea and in Viet Nam, he joined the reserves in 1933 and was called up in 1940 and retired in 1977. He did not like to talk about what he did and when questioned usually tallked of others. When I went to California for the service there, he was later buried in Arlinton National, Oliver North called to give his condolences. Uncle Mike had been interviewed for the War Stories TV segment on Tarawa.

Then in the June 2005 Guns & Ammo, Jeff Cooper said of him "As the bell tolls, we learn of the demise of Mike Ryan, Major General USMC. Mike and his family were old friends from Quantico, but he distinguished himself before we knew him. He was the bearer of two Navy Crosses, which is probably more remarkable than one Medal of Honor. The Medal of Honor may be awarded for an act of almost hysterical excitement, and a Navy Cross may be similar in the case of one issue. Doubling on it would indicate a continuous demonstration of unusual valor."

The remaining brave men and women who served in WW II won't be with us too much longer and with many of them die some remarkable stories.

[Keith]

Like most of the other vets it took my grandfather years to talk about his experiences in the Philippines. In fact, only within the last few years has he brought it up.

He was with the 1st Cavalry and told me a little about the Battle of Manila. He once told me, with tears in his eyes, about when they had to clear out the baseball stadium in Manila. He says he can still see the Japs shooting at them from the dugouts and stands. I found this newsreel a little later... http://www.archive.org/details/1945-03-22_...nese_Domination

He took a small fragment in his arm when a Zero strafed them when they were landing on a beach. He dove under a halftrack and a piece of shrapnel bounced of the truck and hit him. He just bandaged it and went on. Never even got treated for it so no purple heart.

He's getting ready to turn 90.

Not bad for someone that grew up an orphan during the depression.

[bountyhunter]

like serveral others here have mentioned, to tell the funny tales of his comrades it quickly dawned on me that every tale ended with "and he was killed when.....". By the time they reached the Po valley he was one of only eight out of 200 in his company that had origionally landed in North Africa.

My dad was stationed at Schoefield Barracks when Pearl harbor was bombed, in the army serving in an infantry company. He was one of less than 20 of the originals who were still in that company at the end of the war. Not all KIA, more were wounded and shipped out than killed. But fighting in the pacific Theater was definitely hazardous to your health.