Vets or relative of vets

[TerryinMD]

My dad worked in the steel mills during the war which allowed him an exemption. I know that he took a lot of flack from my uncles. Was that a good or bad thing? Don't know, but he took his reasoning with him to his grave.

One of my uncles and a neighbor fought in the Battle of the Bulge and lived through that mess. The neighbors son went to Nam, had his buddy killed, escorted his buddy's body back to the states, went back to Nam and was killed a week later. My uncle and our neighbor cried their eyes out at the funeral.

About 5 years ago, my father-in-law (an airplane nut) found out that a friend of his was a tail-gunner on a B25 during WWII. They found out that the plane was still flying in the Confederate Air Force. So what a bunch of my father-in-laws friends did was to get the B25 to come to Somerset, PA for a 4th of July parade fly-over and to have this old airman fly on his plane some 50 years later. Can you image!!!! In was one of neatest things I have ever witnessed. There wasn't a dry eye around.....

 

[ERNIEB]

Kubmech, what I meant was as many relatives as I had in the war and most were in combat, it's amazing they all came back alive.
My uncle who was in the 8th AF was with one of those B17 crews. He was wounded over Germany, and when he got out of the hospital, they grounded him, and stuck him in Admin. He somehow managed to stay in, and retired from the Air Force.

Ernie

 

[scruffy]

I think that if given the opportunity to have been in WWII or Korea, over 'Nam', I would have accepted either. At least they had 'lines' of demarcation so to speak. Nam? Where you stood, is essentially what you owned, and there was a dispute over that! The others had 'troop' movements, Nam had individual movements to and from incountry. I know I was out in the field one day, and two days later standing curbside in the world....what a trip! Had a car backfire, and found myself rather sheepishly crawling out from under a 4X4 a few moments later! Darn near killed the wife a few times from 1. Branch scraping on window pain in middle of the night.
2. Siren going off at local fire station in the middle of the night....she learned NOT to sleep on the outside of the bed!

 

[ERNIEB]

My uncle who was in the 101st was also in the battle of the bulge, When I was in I was a medic, and he use to get a big kick out of telling me about a medic that was with them in Bastogne. It seems this guy had got a hold of a 45, and straped it on. As soon as he did he began swaggering around like gen. Patton. Well, when it looked like they were going to be over run by the Germans, the guy started to think it might not be such a good idea to be carring a weapon if he was captured. To the great amusement of the airborne troopers, he started trying desperately to get rid of it. "You better hang on to that" they kidded him "You might need it before the day is over". Here the story takes a sad turn, that evening the medic found what he thought was peppermint candy. Turned out to be horse sedative. A strange way to die in a war.

Ernie

 

[Hillbilly]

That is a shame,that things end up like that,I would never part with my fathers stuff,I have many items that belonged to him and I hold them dearly to my heart.

 

[Hillbilly]

Doc,
Sorry to hear about your father, how old were you when he died?

 

[Hillbilly]

An old friend of mine who is about 84 years old was in the service before and during WWII served was in the service for about 13 years and served on a sub for about 7 years as a diesel mechanic,has told me many stories,the ones I find the most interesting was sitting low and trying to avoid Japanese sonar,he said they would shut everything down(that was possible to shut down) and walk around in there bare feet to be quiet,he said there had been times depth charges were dropped and the insulation on the inside of the sub would come off the walls and it would look like a (flower factory as he said) because of all the dust in the air.
I had another old friend who passed on and was over in Europe and he flew some type of glider that was used to land jeeps,small dozers and etc in the field.He told me one time they were landing and the Germans had figured out somehow about there impending approach and put poles up all over the fields,and of course once they were released there was no turning back,he said they were dodging those poles and crash landing into ditches etc,a lot of men were hurt and crushed because of the cargo going forward in the gliders upon there rough landings and impact.

 

[Boondox]

I met the best friend I ever had while we were serving as corpsmen with a Marine infantry company. Dave and I quickly became inseparable, and had many excellent times together. We used to kid each other about the sort of women we would someday marry, but always there was the certainty that we would grow old together, that our wives would like each other if they wanted to stay married to us.

We were only 19 when we saw combat. I came home; he didn't. And to this day I cry on the anniversary of his death.

Pete

www.GatewayToVermont.com

 

[kubmech]

Ernie, my punctuation may have been off. Maybe should have said, speaking of amazed they made it back alive!!!!???
holy cow what about...........And definitely not to take anything away from the rest of the heros in all the conflicts we've faced. When I think of the dedication to duty of all our vets, those bomber crews really stand out in my mind. Maybe because I can relate to them, flying pretty much defenseless through the flack and overwhelming onslaught of fighters , holding
formation and getting the job done, similiar to the airdrop missions I train for in the C-130. I have to believe the way we fight our conflicts today our crews will never have to fly against the odds they did. Hope you did'nt take me wrong, definitely was'nt taking a shot at you.
Kubmech

 

[Tdog]

I've enjoyed reading about the various stories in this thread. My wife's uncle was in the 3rd Army during WWII and he also served in occuupied Japan - - and later in Korea. He had an incredible memory & seemed to enjoy talking about his experiences. Later in life, after his wife of many years died, he remarried. One of his new wife's no-good sons sold off much of his war memoribelia [sp?] to support his drug habit. Really ticked off my wife, whose father was killed in the Phillipines.

If you are into WWII history, I encourage you to visit the D-Day Museum in New Orleans. They've done a 1st rate job there. It grew out of the Eisenhower Center, run by Steven Ambrose when he was on the faculty of the University of New Orleans. Ambrose had been collecting 'oral history' for years, by tape recording veterans. Of course, vets are dying off now at at quickening rate, so that sort of 1st hand account of events will no longer be available. These oral accounts are used throughout the Museum. It's worth the visit to New Orleans! It was something to see the opening day festivities June 6, 2000. There were flyovers [P-51's, B-17's & others], bands, and my favorite - - truckloads of vets riding in the parade with the crowd cheering & waving flags. Those guys were beaming!

Here's the website:

http://www.ddaymuseum.org/