A date which will live in infamy

[3Ts]

My father was in Norway during the **** occupation during WWII. He didn't talk about it either. Late in his life, he shared with me a few experiences (not good). After he passed, I was talking to my mom and found out he never told her any of the stories he told me.

I find it common that folks who have served in combat don't usually talk about their experiences. I think it is because most folks just don't have a clue as to what combat is like, including a spouse. I was in Vietnam (Air Force) and the only one in my family that's been in combat. I don't discuss it with anyone in the family and even very little with my wife. My youngest son was in Iraq, it's still a different war although we've talked some, but found out he never shared any of the stories with his wife.

 

[dragoneggs]

I find it common that folks who have served in combat don't usually talk about their experiences. I think it is because most folks just don't have a clue as to what combat is like, including a spouse. I was in Vietnam (Air Force) and the only one in my family that's been in combat. I don't discuss it with anyone in the family and even very little with my wife. My youngest son was in Iraq, it's still a different war although we've talked some, but found out he never shared any of the stories with his wife.

I can't relate. I haven't experienced anything remotely comparable. But I do have great respect and sympathy for those that served and especially gave more than they deserved. :salute:

 

[weldingisfun]

Eighty years ago, today. Never forget and never, ever let down your guard.

 

[MossRoad]

I saw an interview with some of the survivors this morning. You figure if they were 18 at the time, they're 98 now. Most of them are in their 100's.

An interesting statistic. Of the more than 16million men and women that served during WWII, only about 250,000 are still alive. My dad was drafted into the Army shortly after the U.S. got involved. He would have been 101 this year.

 

[Jstpssng]

A good reminder of why we're here, and how much others gave up so that we can live the way that we do.

 

[MossRoad]

Many years ago, I was talking to my dad about some of his experiences in the south Pacific during WWII. One of the things he had to do was after a battle, they had to go through the dead Japanese soldiers pockets and personal items and such, looking for intelligence info. Many of the bodies were booby trapped, and my dad was a demolitions officer, so he had to deal with that.

He said the thing that struck him the most, was almost to a tee, every one of them had a wallet or billfold with family pictures in it. In the pictures, they were usually dressed in western style clothing, like what a typical American or European would be wearing. They were always with their families, he'd guessed parents, grand parents, sibling, etc., in front of houses, landmarks, parties, typical places and times you'd take a family photo. Those photos could have been taken anywhere in the U.S.

He said it was very disturbing to see these young guys blown to bits (on both sides), and looking at those pictures. He thought about it every day until he passed away.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

My Dad was in his 30's when the war started; I asked him once why he wasn't drafted. Besides being a bit older with 2 children, he was superintendent of an aggregate plant, producing crushed rock which just happened to be going to build runways and such. He said he might as well have been drafted, they basically controlled where he worked. I know we lived in several different places during the war.

He said the only time he balked, was when they tried to send him to Hawaii to build and run a plant there.

 

[MossRoad]

My dad was an architecture student at Notre Dame. Got drafted his sophomore year (I think). Got letters from the Governor of Indiana, and the ND president to get him into officers school. Got put in a combat engineering battalion. Got sent to Texas. They built their own training base. Got sent to small arms training. Had to train his battalion how to use small arms, but first they had to build a rifle range. Got sent to chemical weapons defense training. Had to train his battalion how to defend agains chemical attack. Got sent to demolitions training. Got sent to photography training. Had to take pictures of everything he blew up. Got sent to welding training. Got sent to Australia to build landing craft to invade New Guinea. Had to inspect welds and take pictures of everything. Invaded New Guinea. Had to blow things up, take pictures. Met some head hunters. Took pictures of them, too. Built landing strips. Got sent to the Philippines. Blew things up. Took pictures. Got hit by an army truck and broke his back. Got sent back to Philippines. Took more pictures. War ended. Came back home and finished ND on the GI bill. Stayed in Army reserves working on power plants and munitions factories into the 50s. Got married in 49. Had a pretty good career in architecture. 5 kids. Generally a very decent man, never cussed or drank. Great mentor to many young people in the community. Active in his church, Knights of Columbus, Boy Scouts, Campfire Girls. Mom died in 78 and dad got cancer and died in 95. Both too young. Both missed dearly. Man, it's dusty in here.

 

[5030]

Man, it's dusty in here.

.... and soon enough you too will be part of that dust....

 

[TractorTYMe]

My father was in Norway during the **** occupation during WWII. He didn't talk about it either. Late in his life, he shared with me a few experiences (not good). After he passed, I was talking to my mom and found out he never told her any of the stories he told me.

I'm born and raised in Norway, we have so many traces of German occupation still. We used to find old chache of ammo and potatoe masher grenades still now and then. We used to go fishin with them, a wonder we had all of our limbs left. I now live in the US, and it's my wife's birthday to boot. But I literally lived with those old guys that would sit at the local cafes telling and sharing their stories growing up.

 

[MossRoad]

.... and soon enough you too will be part of that dust....

Yerp!

 

[rekees4300]

 

[TCowner]

Yesterday, I asked a few of my young whipper snapper co-workers if they knew of an imporant event that took place on December 7. The responses were disappointing. When I added 1941 to the question things picked a bit as a couple of them were able to make a connection to World War II but still couldn't tie the date to Pearl Harbor. Just when I was ready to give up hope two in the group nailed it. So of the ten or so who submitted to my enterrogation two got it. And, they got it without using their phone.

 

[oosik]

My uncle came home from WW2 with a surprise for the entire family. And, I know, many of his neighbors. He brought home a German war bride. Not just German but definitely East German. I don't think it bothered my dad that much. However- my mother being full blood Norwegian - I think she always had reservations.

 

[ArlyA]

My uncle was stationed at Pearl Harbor then. He survived. He also survived the sinking of two ships later in the war.

It is sad that apparently the Pearl Harbor attack is no longer mentioned in schools.

If anyone has listened to WWII stories from there family members or acquaintances, please post them.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Family friend was in the Pacific during the war; he told this story about how ineffective he thought the M1 carbine was. Seems they had pretty much taken of this island, but still had a lot of mopping up to do. He said he and several others, including an officer, were walking down one of the unpaved roads, when a couple of trucks approached from behind. He said a Japanese soldier, who apparently thought it was a tank, burst out of the underbrush and started running away in the opposite direction.

He said one of the officers, who was carrying a M1 carbine, emptied a clip at the guy and he just kept running. One of the other guys fired one shot with their M1 and the guy went sprawling. The guy was examined, and had been hit 4 or 5 times with the carbine with little apparent effect. The M1, however, was another story.

 

[dodge man]

My dad was in the Pacific in the navy. He joined in 1944 at 17 years old. His mom wouldn’t let him sign up, you had to have a parent’s signature at 17, but his dad did. He served on a troop transport and saw Pearl Harbor probably early 1945 and said you could still see a lot of damage.

His ship took place in the landing of Okinawa. He was a signalman and had no function during the time they put troops ashore so he was given a Thompson. Combat had all moved off the beach so he didn’t see much. Kamikazes did attack the fleet while he was there but none hit his ship.

The stories he shared with me were accidents. A guy showered with burning gas and a guy whose throat was cut by a loose winch line.

We often forget, during WW2 and it’s still the case today, military service is dangerous business and a lot get hurt or killed in accidents.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Another friend who was in Italy during the war, told of shooting a sniper out of a church steeple. They recovered his body. He said the guy had a wallet, which he went through, and found a picture of him, his wife and his two little kids. He said he really, really felt bad, but finally came to grips with it, knowing the guy would have done the same to him.

 

[reb]

If anyone has listened to WWII stories from there family members or acquaintances, please post them.

A good friend told his wife (as I recall it):

He was aboard a ship right after the end of the war. They got word of a prison camp that had not been liberated yet. They headed that way, despite MacArthur's orders that he wanted his troops to liberate it later. When they arrived they talked with the prisoners. The prisoners had been forced to offload supplies for the Japanese troops. They were supervised by a Filipino. They made a deal with the Filipino to put a grain of rice in a can each trip they made. They would get back half of the rice, cooked. One day they purposely put an odd number of grains in the can and counted what they got back. The extra grain was in their share.

The Filipino insisted the rescuers share a meal with him and his family. The friend said it took all his will power to eat--the cleanliness of the meal left much to be desired.

After the war there was an effort to recognize the crew for their rescue. As he told it, MacArthur pulled political strings to quash the effort.

I posted this years ago on another forum and got an angry reply from one of the members. It seems MacArthur was one of his heroes and he did not appreciate the slam. I took it to mean MacArthur was a military genius, but had normal human failings, too.


My uncle was a Pearl Harbor survivor. Later in the war he had two ships that he was on sunk. One was during the battle of the Coral Sea. The order was to fire the guns at will, instead of synchronizing them. The idea was that synchronizing the firing made it harder for enemy submarines to find a target. They were sunk by torpedoes.

I found it interesting that I found in my mother's papers a chit he had to allow him to wear dungarees on the base after one of the sinkings. That kind of BS is one of the reasons I was glad to get out of the Navy.

 

[MossRoad]

When I was a kid, every night we'd all come to dinner at the dining room table. My dad would sit at the head of the table, and while we were waiting for mom to bring out the food, my dad would take his knife and fork and tap out this little repetitive beat quietly, but over and over until the food was on the table and my mom sat down.

He said the head hunters on New Guinea would play that beat with sticks on logs as a call to a meal.

Don't know if it's true or not, but man, what a great story to tell the kids.