Topic: 6 june

[demon78]

 6Th June where were your grandfathers?
Bill the demon.

[Glenn Stauffer]

He wasn't anywhere near Normandy - likely he was home in Emmaus, PA.  I don't know exactly, but he did not go to war, instead serving in the Civil Defense in some capacity in his home town.  I imagine that he was deferred from the draft because of his age - at the time, he was married with 3 or 4 children.

My step-father was old enough to serve, but ineligible because he has vision in only one eye; he served in the air force, but was involved in shuttling planes from the factory to staging areas in the US.

[Jonesy]

Mine was in a factory in Detroit building gun turret shields for battleships. He was a misc. iron and steel detailer/fabricator and despite being called up 3 different times, the army felt he was more useful here.

[Uncle Ernie]

Both of mine are 6 feet under.  Did you have a particular year in mind?

[Stixxy]

Mine was probably on/getting ready for/just completed a night time bombing run over Germany. He was navigator of a Lancaster in the RAF. Died before I was born tho 

Stixxy

[Bob Wessner]

6Th June where were your grandfathers?
Bill the demon.

In my case it would be my father, grandfather might have been WWI.  Anyway, they refused to take my father as he had just had twins (my ever loving sisters  ). He instead, enlisted in the New York National Guard, was a machine gunner, but never called to active duty.

[Damfino]

My maternal grandfather was working the homefront as a farmer and my paternal step-grandfather was fighting the Japanese on the island of Guam. I now have the Japanese rifle & Samurai sword he brought home with him at the end of the war.

[upperlake04]

 After 4 long years waiting and training in the south of England, my uncle was eagerly awaiting DDay+2 to get moving and finally do something.

[bucky katt]

my dad was at anzio, not sure what year it was. he would never ever talk about it though so i dont really know what year it was.

[shacolaid]

My paternal GF served in the Navy, not sure where though, I'll ask my Dad. My maternal GF is Italian, and was still living in Villa San Angelo in Abruzzo. To those who serve and served, thank you for your service.

[demon78]

Stixxy interesting, I have a passion for Lancs worked on them until our squadron converted to Neptunes the final flight of the squadron Lancs had them all up at once and then they did a flypast over the field and if you closed your eyes the sound was incredible it must have been like the forming up for one of the thousand bomber raids, made the hair on my neck stand up.
Bill the demon.
 

[TwoTired]

My Dad was wounded in Anzio.  Not Sure where he was on June 6.  He did become a cook after recovering from the injury.

[goon 1492]

Pretty intersting stories, I will check with my mother and get more detailed info on where my Grandpa was. I don't remember the exact story righ off hand.

[MCRider]

It was my Dad in the Phillipines, Army Air Corp,  helping with a portable radar setup. never talked about it much. They kinda ran into a forward area, set up, guided the planes in, then got the heck out.

He did tell me, it was his inspiration to drop out of the seminary and become a mechanical engineer from VPI. He saw what the engineers could do. Odd...

Don't know if it was 1944 though...

[babyfood1217]

My grandfather was a colonel serving in the Pacific (The Philippine islands, new guinea and numerous other little islands, working their way to Japan.)

His brothers were parachuting in deeper inland than the beaches.  

The other grandfather was working his farmland.  Father of 8 got a reprieve from service.

His brothers were serving everywhere between North Africa and Europe, and again over in the Pacific.

Family is too extensive to remember exactly where everyone else was.

Times sure were different back then.  Wish I could've experienced it... sort of    We owe that generation a lot.  So selfless...  My only existing grandfather is likely getting ready to close his book too.  So many stories he could tell, I wish I had the time.

[upperlake04]

 Make the time Babyfood, it's an important bond between family members and is good for both of you. When he's gone, he's gone.

[myhondas]

As with Bob, it would be my father.
US Army Air Force in one of four  locations in the US. Originally enlisted as a Private. Discharged and came back in to OCS at Harvard I believe. Came out as a 2Lt. in the photo dept. Later got Capt. and when they found out that he was also a Distinguished Expert Rifleman (NRA) they combined his skills and he started mounting cameras on the B24 guns. The gunners would go up and shoot at towed targets. After landing, he would collect the film, process it and get on a projector with the gunner in the room and instruct him in their errors and such. Stayed stateside for the whole war and joined the reserves after the war. Stayed in till 30yrs service (about 1972) and retired as a Major. Passed away in May of 05 with a FULL USAF HONOR GUARD sent up from WPAFB in Dayton to handle the services. One thing that I always will be happy for is that I was able to fly him and my mother to Washington, DC in one of our company aircraft so that he could see the WWII memorial before he died.

[BeSeeingYou]

My Grandfathers were too old and my father too young but my wife's father was in New Guinea and Australia in the Pacific serving as a radioman.  He had a miserable time going over on the troopship and would have nothing to do with boats for the rest of his life.  His favorite memory was playing poker with the actor John Wayne who was on some type of U.S.O. tour.

[DanEarl]

My Grandpa was a weather man in WWII.

[Frankenkit]

Oddly, I don't know where my grandfathers were, but my grandmother on my mom's side was in the WAAC (women's army air corps) stationed state-side.  Not sure where she was 6/6, but she spoke of it often to her (very curious) granddaughters, and I think it was one of the most exciting parts of her life.

[bucky katt]

i wish i could have gotten dad to tell me about his time in the army during wwII. but i understand why, i have a cousin who did 2 tours in southeast asia 68-71 and he wont talk about it as well.

[DammitDan]

My Dad's father was a 1st Lieutenant in the 27th Infantry Division.  He would have been prepping for the invasion of Saipan on June 6, and later went on to lead an infantry company as a Captain on Okinawa.  He died 2 weeks before I was born of Lou Gehrig's disease.  He was the only one who was absolutely certain I was gonna be a boy (I have 2 older sisters)  

My Mom's father was too young to participate in any operations but joined in 1946 as a RADAR operator in the Pacific.

[Ecosse]

great thread. my grandfather (mom's side, dunno dad's dad) had his left arm amputated in the mid thirties in a work place accident so he couldn't go. Gramma (same side) built m1's in the springfield armory.

i don't even deserve to breath the same air as those who served, here and over there. my respect is beyond any description i could imagine.

WW II Memorial



(my grandma's high school photo.)

[Dusthawk]

My Grandfather was a member of the 194th Glider Infantry, and along with the rest of his Battalion, landed his Glider behind enemy lines in Normandy. He made it all the way to 22 July before getting his first Purple Heart, nicked in the shoulder by a German ricochet.

[Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er]

Dad's been gone 40 years so I didn't get much chance to talk about it.

He served in the Pacific. Engineers. Apparently built landing strips and whatever was needed. Saw pictures of massive piles of bull dozed bodies when they went in afterwards to clean up.