WWII

Mad Dog_2

Our Gov't has NEVER done enough for our veterans. There shouldn't have to be a lottery..a DD-214 should be the admission on to the plane and a nice hotel stay for two nights...good work. Mad Dog

Matt J._3

WWII

Guys I know this off the topic, but its important! a local business in Lincoln nebraska is offering veterans the opportunity to travel to the WWII memorial in D.C. I'm not asking for donations but want everone to know that the opportunity is out there to send your own state veterans on the trip of a life time! Larry the cable guy donated enough money to send a plane full of our own NE vets there,so he got the ball rolling. Call your local vets administration and they can head you in the right direction to make donation. Nebraska had to start a lottery system because we have over 900 that signed up for there free trip. I believe it was finished in 2004 (the memorial) And my dad never got to see it finished. I figured that if my dad couldnt see it that he would want one of his comrades to see it. Hundreds of our veterans are leaving this great earth everday, so dont wait if you have the urge to donate. I know that things are a bit tight for some ,but any little bit can help! Thank for your time.

Matt J. W/Biggerstaffs

joe_108

Honor Flight

All the info can be found at
www.honorflight.org

ScottMP

Great

thanks for bringing this up

I jsut finished reading Flags of our Fathers... what an amazing group of young boys saved our country. They deserve everything ...

Scott

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Wayco Wayne_2

My Dad has been to the Memorial

and liked it a lot. He was in WWII and ran 35 Bombing runs from England over France in a B24. He then switched theaters and "Flew the Hump." Flying the Hump means they flew over the Himylayan Mountains to get supplies to China who was blockaded by the Japanese. He liked China. It was the only place in his whole war experience where he could get fresh eggs instead of powdered eggs. This effort to get veterans to DC to see the Memorial is a very good idea. WW

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Darin Cook_5

WWII Vets

The Greatest Generation - These folks who lived through the great depression then went on to fight and win WWII will always deserve our gratitude and thanks. It showed what a free country- working together- could overcome.

I ran into an old couple yesterday at the gas pumps, as I was giving them a hand with the gas "puter" the old fella told me that he was in a B-17 in WWII and was shot down. He said they were "lucky" only lost one guy and were not captured. I LOVE to hear those stories. He also said he wished he could fill up the car for five bucks still!

I wonder if the country still has what it takes if we ever get into a war like that again?


BTW- Scott read "Flyboys" also by the same author. Still in the Pacific but fought near and on another unknown island CHI-CHI Jima. It is another excellent read. It makes you think of alot things that were not taught in school.







Darin

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Kevin O. Pulver_2

I talked to a man a couple days ago...

His dad died last year on veterans day. Had been in New Guinea. Said they befriended the naked men with the bones in their noses, and taught them even to run equipment. When the Japanese snipers would bother them, their native friends would sneak off and come back with the snipers head! If you google sermonaudio or sermonindex "soldiers" you can listen to a rousing story by B.H. Clendennen who was in Pelalu, Guadalcanal and other places for 33 months.
Kevin

Wayco Wayne_2

This thread

gave me an idea. I called my sister and brother and suggested taking Mom and Dad down to the memorial for Fathers & Mothers day. While my Dad was overseas, my Mother left the farm, in Canton NY and became a secretary for the War Dept in Washington DC, while the war was going on. A good book about this support from home is David Brinkley's, "Washington Goes To War."

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Matt J._3

My dad

was in the navy. He always played down what he did. Basicly he steered the ship, was at the helm so to speak. He told me of times were torpodoes were drop in the water by enemy planes and he had to make a decision on which way they had to turn never knowing until it miss if what he had done had worked. He said he had never held his breath so much.

They watched there sister ship take two torpodes and go down in less than 15 minutes.

He was able to fly before he went into the navy but was not able to fly because a medical condition when he inlisted. They still took him but he couldn't fly. He didnt like that. After he came home he never woulds fly again. When asked why he said he had lost too many friend that where pilots. He said it took all of the fun out of it.

Being a pilot is how my dad met my mom. After a rural dance date he found out where see lived in the country and buzzed her house with his plane. He also made parachutes out of cloth and would drop her favor clark bar out the window of his plane. Man I miss him and his stories!

If you know a vet that has a story to tell, stop and listen.

Matt J.

Leo_10

The Great Generation

Growing up most of the fathers were veterans, it was only natural for me to enlist after high school. My father hit Germany at the end of the war then Korea. God Bless the "Veterans" especially the "Great Generation".

Their stories are great IF they tell them.

Leo

Jack

Time

As in so many things in life, time gets in our way of doing the things we know we should do and want to do. Case in point, my father and father-in-law. My Dad (Marines) was Peleilu, Eniwetok and Okinowa. My FIL (Army) was Guadlecanal, New Georgia, New Guinea and the Philipines. Through my life with Dad and the last 35 with my FIL there was never a lot of talk about what they had gone thru. I spoke with them about going to the Memorial last year about this time and regardless of help, they were just to infirm at that point to make the trip. So, if this is something you want to do, get it done today because there is no tomorrow for the remaining few.

My FIL is a tremendous reader and if you are looking for a good read on the Soth Pacific service in WWII, Henry recommends, above all others, William Manchester's, "Goodbye Darkenss".

Wayco Wayne_2

Try this link

http://www.harrellshistory.org/ This professor of History at Spotsylvania College has been recording interviews with vets of WWII. We met him at an air show in Manasas VA. where My Dad and Son and I went to see a restored B-24 Bomber. If any of you have surviving vets in your family he would probably like to talk to them. WW

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Bob Bona_4

my dad

just missed WW2, went to Korea, stationed in Japan. Never saw action, and he was grateful. In WW2, My Uncle Al chased Rommel across Africa. My Uncle Len was a pilot. They are both gone now.

But, my FIL, he was a teen in Poland right in the middle of the action. His mother came here early in the war when she could still get out to visit relatives here. Then the war started, and she could not go back, nor could my FIL leave. He stayed with his grandparents.

One day, his grandmother was out in the garden and a bomb dropped very closely. My FIL and his grandfather had to pick up her pieces and put them in a box to bury her.

Very often the SS would come by the small farm to rough up and interogate his grandfather. My FIL always slept in the barn since they liked to come at night. One night they beat his grandfather so badly he was left with two broken legs and arms. My FIL had to care for him until he passed shortly afterwards. He then stayed with an aunt.

He speaks of the soap, how it smelled, for it was made with the ashes of the concentration camp victims. He said everyone knew what was going on from the smoke that always permeated the air. He tells me how one day he was in the woods and came on a clearing where he peered out and saw Jews lined up by a pit. He saw the SS mow them down and a few selected survivors shovel the dirt over the mass grave.

Once everyone was gone, he came out from the woods and went over to the mound of dirt and stood on it. He told me it heaved up and down from the people who weren't instantly killed and buried half alive.

He's told me of how he found buried suitcases of money and jewelry hidden by civilians hoping to have something to fall back on once the war ended (if it ever did). He even saw boxes stashed up in fir trees. One time he "rescued" a bunch of money, only to find it was worthless in war.

He told me how after the war there was nothing to eat. All livestock was gone, slaughtered. They would boil water with grass in it for soup. They would use sawdust and ingredients to make bread.

He told me how his uncle was a "Chuck Norris" of the times, going after Ukraine gangsters. He would go with his uncle to ferret out thieves and the like. He told me once how they caught a guy running out of someones house after ransacking it and how his uncle sighted his rifle and dropped the man. They took his boots.

My MIL has stories of how her father was picked up by the SS and escaped out the back of the truck...TWICE.

They have told me so much more that I can't remember. They are living breathing history!

Wayco Wayne_2

Bob

Fascinating stuff. You should get a video camera and tape him while he is still around and lucid.

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Kevin O. Pulver_2

Absolutely Bob

Wayne is right! Just do it. Write down a lot of questions, and just set up a camera and start talking with him. If you can't do it, maybe a local college could have a good journalism or history major who could help. Kevin

Wayco Wayne_2

Kevin

An excellent suggestion. I had been planning to do something with my Dad myself, but didn't know how and time was passing fast. Then the History professor fell into our laps. We now have a 2 hour video tape of him discussing things he never talked about with us. That's a problem with these tough old guys. They don't feel they need to tell anyone. They were just doing their job. With the stories about a teen growing up in Poland a good writer could turn that memoir into a book that could be riveting and important to record. I'd buy it. WW

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Paul Rohrs_7

1986

Back in 1986, the ARMY shipped me overseas to Germany. I was stationed in a very small training post about 2KM from the East German border. It was about 70 miles NE of Frankfurt and 25 miles south of Fulda.

It was quite a time to serve. What was interesting was the post.

Wildflecken was the training facility for the SS troops back in the teens and 20's prior to WWII. This place was nestled in the mountains and was not discovered until a few years after the war. The Germans hid this post from the allied bombers by tying the trees together over the barracks, as well as painting roads camoflauge.

There was unconfirmed reports that this post also had an elaborate tunnel system that connected EVERY structure. It was supposably flooded and booby-trapped but we never pursued it.

In the "My Barracks" picture, you will see that there were 2 stories of living area, but also it had a lower level basement for storage and equipment. These buildings still had the plaster and straw ceilings on the 2nd floor but were very comfortable because the 2-man rooms each had one very large panel radiator. IIRC, it was about 2 ft tall and 7 foot long. Who knew to take pictures of that at the time. I was 20 yrs old when I got there and could not have cared less about german heating systems. Don't ask about the boiler room because I still don't know how this was piped or set up.

This was a post for our 8th infantry division. I was in an intelligence battalion but I don't claim to have any personally.

Paul

Jim Pompetti

Vets are the back-bone

of this country. WWII vets saved the world and never even asked for a thank you . They did their job ,slapped the dirt from their hands and when back to work. I was at a meeting last night, for veterans ,there are still guys who have not receive their fair share for the goverment .WE pay for the war , but forget the warriors. Shake a vets hand and say THANK YOU . GOD BLESS them