Topic: just say'n thanks

[jlh3rd]

D-Day

[rocket johnny]

i was talking to a friend yesterday ,  his dad was in the second wave on utah beach .    i'll add my thanks to the many who lost their life that day so we can enjoy freedom today.

[newday777]

Totally.

My dad served in the south pacific from Tarawa to Japan

[Don R]

  I had a father in law and uncles in WW2, only one talked about it and that was a free ask anything today, but not tomorrow. I'd love to see their service records. 

[jlh3rd]

I had an uncle who was a combat engineer in the pacific. He was a little deaf in his right ear due to a grenade that went off close to his foxhole. He never talked about it, I just heard about it from my mother. I was too young, ignorant, and detached to be interested and only later realized my stupidity. By then he had passed away. My dad did join up (navy) but was 4 months away from VJ day.

[HondaMan]

My dad was in the last 5 months of it in the Pacific. When it was over he was assigned to help de-mine Tokyo harbor (he was stationed on a destroyer and was a SCUBA team member). One day when he and his partner were swimming back to the ship after setting charges on the mines below (to blow them up), one of the timers 'slipped' its clockwind timer (a common problem with the cheaply-built detonators) and one of the mines blew up while they were still about 10 feet down. Dad was on the mine-side of his partner, with the mine off to his right about 150 yards. It destroyed his right eardrum. He never told anyone because he didn't want to be let off the diving team, but he was totally deaf on his right side, hard to talk with him when he was driving!

[Don R]

 My WW2 Veteran Uncle saw and described the handywork of the "witch of Buchenwald" if you are squeamish, don't look it up. My mother told me his story because she thought it needs to be remembered.

[jlh3rd]

It all needs to be remembered....and taught in schools....but hey, that's just me.

My uncle despised the japanese. His way younger brother, way younger, introduced me to my first motorcycle ride on a CL 450 K1, red. I held on for dear life...loving every minute of it. 😃

years later, I often wondered what his older brother thought.....and what he thought about me buying my hondas...

[Don R]

 I found some info on two of my uncles, the one that didn't make it home was in the newly formed Americal division on Guadalcanal relieving the marines there. They mixed the army in and the battle-hardened marines trained them causing a lot less early kia's. He died on Bougainville in the Soloman Islands, the day before a big push to move the Japanese off the island.
 One that did survive saw a lot of action, 8th infantry, 28th infantry regiment, company B. Illinois National Guard. They landed at Utah beach after the invasion and proceeded east and south to close off a peninsula to try to capture ports including Brest in France. They had 10,000 casualties from 170,000 troops and were only able to contain the German fortifications until the end of the war. As they surrendered the Germans destroyed the ports so they were never used. They were in the battle of the Hurtgren forest and the Battle of the Bulge, liberated a concentration camp. He described most of the things in the band of brothers movie.
 Another uncle and father in law's service remain mostly in obscurity.
 I did work with a pilot that had 3 air victories in a P51 mustang. He said the two ME109's were fairly easy and then described the dog fight with an FW190. He said that guy was good and his plane did everything my mustang could do. He said he was getting pretty concerned and then the FW pilot made a mistake. He said he was lucky to come back that day.
 These guys were my heroes. I was instructed never go near my uncle if he was asleep, he had come up swinging more than once. A backfiring car would send him ducking for cover. They all paid a hefty price for serving even if they made it back physically unhurt.

[newday777]

Yes Don they did pay a high price for their service.
My dad wouldn't talk about it, he was a Marine and worked all the Atolls from Tarawa to Okinawa. He used a punching bag in the basement often to release much but occasionally would fly off the handle when we did the wrong thing.....
I didn't learn how much he went through until after he died. I lived with a guy who had befriended dad after the war, he was like the grandfather we didn't have (my dad's dad got pneumonia after a barn door fell on him and broke his back in the winter of '32). Harold told me much of the suffering of the past memories dad went through. He and his wife had dad over much ministering to dad.

[Don R]

 My Dad had two kids when the war started, he worked two full time war production jobs all through the war. He moved and loaded coal and ice. They held the national record for loading an insulated box car with ice. Mom said either boss could see him at home if he was off work and went outside. Either was likely to call him in so he often sneaked out the back for an hour or two off.

[jlh3rd]

thanks again.