The Greatest Generation

[disaffected]

My father never complained about the depression. All I remember him ever saying was that he and his brother volunteered post pearl harbor. They wanted to serve but also figured winter was coming and at least they would be warm, fed, and have new clothes all provided by the government. He said at the time it was a compelling trade off.

When he said it, I felt like a soft priviledged dick weed.

 

[SteveGangi]

This needs to be remembered in today's current world. The price they paid to keep America what they fought and died for.
US! all of us.

Not just for the USA, and not just by the USA. All countries, and all the Allies who fought.

Hitler and the Nazis would never have stopped on their own. Their "philosophy" demanded constant warfare and a constant stream of "The Other" to scapegoat.

 

[slug]

I get choked up when I read about these guys. Children during the Depression and then they sacrificed more in this war. My dad served on a battleship in the Pacific. They changed the world, it could have been much different.

 

[Jymbopalyse]

That was great !

Thanks for taking the time to share

 

[scrumm21]

Great Story OP !!
My dad served in the 103rd Infantry Division during WW2 - The Cactus Division. Ordinance section

...was a welder...always a few miles behind the front lines repairing vehicles damaged at the front. Traveled across France then thru the Tyrolean section of Austria where he was given a cache of weapons a local mayor had collected from the citizens. Proud to retain some very nice P-38s ( 9mm ) 2 Walther rifles \ a Mauser riflle and especially a Walters PP 7.65mm stamped with the Tyrolean Austrian Eagle. It wasn't until the early 80's when I learned of the significance of that particular Stamp. The local antique firearms dealer who assisted me in verifying it made me about 10 different offers to take it off my hands - I Still have it

I made this video and entered it in an Online contest for a special appearance on The Antiques Roadshow - 2010. Winner selected by online voting... I was in the lead until a lady submitted her video on the last day with her documents that had Abe Lincolns actual signature on it - while he was president...as soon as I saw it I knew I was beat lol.

 

[Ed B]

No question that they're the best generation. That's incredible stuff, Don. Cherish it.

 

[Roberteaux]

Excellent post, Don!

My dad was with the 15th AF... he was a B-24 pilot and flew a lot of combat missions, from North Africa to Europe. Like so many other servicemen who passed through that war (and others) he wasn't inclined to talk about it much. I never detected him as suffering from PTSD or anything like that, but I learned more about his activities in the 2nd World War from his former co-pilot than I ever heard from dad himself.

I also had five uncles who fought in that war... four Marines and one Navy Seabee. None of them really spoke much of any of it either.

But then there was my FIL, who was with the Marine Raiders. He was also taciturn and spoke but little of the war-- until he had a stroke, when he suddenly opened up and talked about it more than any of the others did. Got a real ear full from that guy.

Easy to understand why very few combat veterans are in a hurry to blow their horn about it. Who would really wish to re-live it?

--R

 

[Soul Tramp]

R, I can only remember my father mentioning the war twice, he was in his late 80's. He was a tough man who believed one should suffer in silence. On both occasions he was chocked up (never, ever would he show weakness).

The first time he mentioned strafing Nazi troop trains. It was obvious in his old age he felt considerable guilt. The second time he mentioned his friend John de Havilland who was killed during the war (but not in combat).

 

[LtDave32]

My father and grandfather fought in the same war.

Grandad was a naval officer aboard the USS Nevada; the only ship to get underway at Pearl Harbor on Dec 7th. He was a CPO (Senior Chief) at the start of that attack.

After it was over, he was given a battlefield commission for his actions that day, plus awarded the Navy Cross.

Dad led a combat platoon across France, 1944.

Neither one of them talked much about it at all. Ever. Occasionally a brief mention, but always in the context of something else they were talking about.

Of course, the stories would come up via other family members from time to time, but neither one of them would comment much at all. The family knew not to press.

Men of few words and huge deeds.

If I were but ten percent of those men..

What they did for and gave to the world, and their own children after the war was nothing short of phenomenal.

The Greatest Generation indeed.

 

[LeftyF2003]

A heart felt salute to your grandfather. Those guys were amazing.

My uncle was a pilot for the air force in WWII flying B-17s over Germany and occupied Russia. He was shot down twice and lost most of his crew. He never flew a plane again when he got home and never talked about it. The guys in those planes during that war were full on heros, but what they went threw I wouldn't wish on anyone...

 

[slug]

Jimmy Stewart,Clark Gable

Ted Williams

 

[slug]

Kirk Douglas, enlisted in 1941, served in the Navy until discharge for war injuries.

 

[Bill Hicklin]

Kirk Douglas
Tony Curtis
Lee Marvin
Christopher Lee
David Niven
Alec Guinness
Mel Brooks
Lenny Bruce
Yogi Berra
Rod Serling
Captain Kangaroo (Bob Keeshan)
Gene Roddenberry
Charles Bronson
Peter Graves
James Arness
Don Adams


John Banner (Sgt Schultz). Austrian Jew who somehow got out of a concentration camp before the war, made it to America and joined the USAAF.

And my wife's three uncles (her dad was too young, as was mine.)

 

[Frogfur]

I get choked up when I read about these guys. Children during the Depression and then they sacrificed more in this war. My dad served on a battleship in the Pacific. They changed the world, it could have been much different.

My pop served in WWII on the USS Salem(The Sea Witch) a heavy Cruiser in the atlantic, then reinlisted and served on the USS Lafey in the Pacific.
Both are restored and docked on the east coast today.

 

[dave b]

Kirk Douglas
Tony Curtis
Lee Marvin
Christopher Lee
David Niven
Alec Guinness
Mel Brooks
Lenny Bruce
Yogi Berra
Rod Serling
Captain Kangaroo (Bob Keeshan)
Gene Roddenberry
Charles Bronson
Peter Graves
James Arness
Don Adams


John Banner (Sgt Schultz). Austrian Jew who somehow got out of a concentration camp before the war, made it to America and joined the USAAF.

And my wife's three uncles (her dad was too young, as was mine.)

...and Eddie Albert (remember Green Acres) who was at Tarawa...three of the most horrific days in Marine Corps history

 

[Bill Hicklin]

My pop served in WWII on the USS Salem(The Sea Witch) a heavy Cruiser in the atlantic, then reinlisted and served on the USS Lafey in the Pacific.
Both are restored and docked on the east coast today.

Damn, the Laffey went through absolute hell.

www.burnpit.us/2017/04/ship-would-not-die-uss-laffey-survives-kamikaze-attacks-near-okinawa

 

[Frogfur]

Damn, the Laffey went through absolute hell.

www.burnpit.us/2017/04/ship-would-not-die-uss-laffey-survives-kamikaze-attacks-near-okinawa

Yep.

 

[defcrew]

I was watching something on YT re WWII and--as incredible and horrific a sacrifice as our people made--it said something like for every day of combat US troops faced in WWII the Russians faced 25. They lost more people than all the other countries on both sides combined, I think, and it is hard to say they were fighting for freedom...or maybe all things are relative. Most vets will tell you war is not about heroism. It's about absolute and unspeakable horror. I tip my hat to all who have ever had the displeasure of experiencing it. Insanity in its purest form but seemingly somehow we have never been able to get around it. Reading Stephen Ambrose's descriptions of D Day on its 40th anniversary was something that really moved me like nothing I'd ever read re war. Something about men (Boys) crying for their mothers as they died on the beach just stung the hell out of me.