Did they talk about it????
All the recent threads here about WW2 vets and items got me thinking about my dad.
He served in the 5th army during WW2.
He never really talked about all the years he was in.
About the only story he talked about was his interaction with the Red Cross people.
Said when they came to the HQ areas or motor pool areas {dad was a tank mechanic and translator for Italian} , his men would run power and water to their trailers.
Then the red cross girls would open coffee and donuts trailers.
They charged GI's for the coffee and donuts!!!
He hated the red cross till the day he died. He would yell at the TV when a red cross commercial came on. "you still want our money! "
So, did any of your dad' , uncles, brothers, talk about their time in WW2.
Almost all of my older family that served never talked or told stories about themselves.
He served in the 5th army during WW2.
He never really talked about all the years he was in.
About the only story he talked about was his interaction with the Red Cross people.
Said when they came to the HQ areas or motor pool areas {dad was a tank mechanic and translator for Italian} , his men would run power and water to their trailers.
Then the red cross girls would open coffee and donuts trailers.
They charged GI's for the coffee and donuts!!!
He hated the red cross till the day he died. He would yell at the TV when a red cross commercial came on. "you still want our money! "
So, did any of your dad' , uncles, brothers, talk about their time in WW2.
Almost all of my older family that served never talked or told stories about themselves.
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Sometimes I think the WW2 vets didn't talk about it because they were "out of town" and married. 
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My old man was with the First Marines, First Marine Division. He never talked about it until one day after I came home from overseas . We were watching a ball game and he said." Have I ever told you about the time I saw a hand walking?" He went on to say that he was in a shell hole with a couple of other marines on the island of peleliu...it was night and they heard a noise. They looked up on the edge of the hole and saw a blackened severed hand moving..the sand crabs had it. They didn't know if it was Japanese or American". Then he turned and continued to watch the game, and never said another word.
He also had no use for the Red Cross. He was recovering in a hospital in Melbourne , Australia after the First Division was pulled off of Guadalcanal.
A woman from the Red Cross approached him and said he should write his family to let them know he was okay. She present him with some paper and an envelope and then told him the paper was a penny a sheet and the envelope was three cents each.
He also said the Red Cross charged them for smokes, but the Salvation Army didn't. He always dropped money in a Salvation Army kettle at Christmas.0 -
Never knew about that. My dad was there and most likely had the Red Cross...
However he was also a fire fighter. I remember that the red criss came out a few times when he was fighting big fires in the city. They gave (?) coffee and donuts to the firemen. Not sure if they charged.
Darn - that would suck!0 -
My father served in the South Pacific as a sailor working aboard an LST. I never heard any stories until later in his life I would come by for a visit and the two of us would find ourselves at the local VFW basement tavern enjoying a cold beer or two.
Being around several of his WWII era buddies got him talking about things I never knew about his service. He landed his craft under fire on the island of Saipan. Forced to exit the boat, he along with all passengers found their way to a cave on the island. Darkness was falling and a large round of some sort hit one of the natives just as they were entering the cave. He said that the poor fellow, a very big man was hit in the stomach area and the round went right through him.
They spent a very sleepless night inside the cave and by sunrise the attack had subsided. Upon leaving, he noticed that the wounded man was still alive, being tended by a Marine medic.
Another very interesting story my dad told me about was that he was a member of the very first landing party that hit the beach at Nagasaki right after the atomic blast! What he witnessed there sounded more like science fiction to me, but I am a believer non the less. As people were hit at ground zero, all that remained of them were shadows imprinted on the building and bridge remnants.
I bought my fathers homestead back in 1986 and a few years later while doing some remodeling on the house, I found a wooden box in the attic under some insulation. Inside that small box was a bunch of Japanese money, a few service ribbons, and a very strange piece of steel that was half melted and deformed. What made it unusual was that it had a very dense, glass like shine to it. Almost clear like. My dad was getting pretty old and seemed to be going through a bit of depression at the time. I took the box and gave it to him as a present. He lit up like a kid at Christmas when he saw it and told me that he had totally forgotten bringing that stuff back with him in '45.
The way things go, I never asked him about that strange piece of metal and to this day I wonder if a Geiger counter should have been implemented on that thing!! :shock:0 -
my dad was a medic, was in the battle of bulge and after liberated quite a few labor/concentration camps. he never talked about the war around us. what was strange I had an uncle in florida who was a marine, he was wounded on saipan. we were visiting him right after my high school graduation, my dad and uncle bill were still talking on the back porch sharing war stories they had all evening long. I never went out and listened and to this day regret it. my dad went to bed and passed in his sleep that night. my mom told me later his only wish was to see all his kids graduate high school, he only had a 4th grade education. 0 -
My dad was Navy in the Pacific.He never spoke much about it but there was some film footage of a battle where US ships VS Japanese planes and I ask how hard is was to shoot down planes from a ship.His reply was Like trying to shoot down a hawk with a BB gun. 0 -
My dad was a WWII vet, I think he was an Army engineer/ tank destroyer or something like that in the European theater if that is what you call it. Never hardly ever spoke of what he did or saw.
Not long before he passed last July, 5 days before his birthday. almost made to 95, his eyes filled with tears as he spoke a few words about what he saw as the men he was with marched through parts of Germany, France, and some other countries which I can't remember. Utter destruction where the allies had blown the enemy to bits and pieces, towns, cities a country sides, destroyed, then he said "it was better to fight them there than here".
And then the SOB's here want to burn his flag.
Had several men as neighbors that have passed on, all WWII vets, one survived Normandy, one the battle of the Bulge, another pulled 5 years as a driver for generals and high ranking officers, they all hardly spoke of what they had seen but would talk a little if you asked. The driver said that one of his worst experiences was looking at a soldier close by, turned his head and heard a big explosion, looked back and he was gone, heavy artillery fire.
And then the SOB's here want to burn their flag.
The Greatest Generation is just about all but gone.0 -
Unfortunately, your stories resemble mine.
My Dad was a lifer ABN CSM, with 32 years in. (WWII, Korea, Vietnam.) He never spoke to us much about what he experienced. (Most who have seen Severe Combat, do not speak about it much, in my experience.)
I do however, remember him getting together with some other "Combat," Veterans, and relayed some stories. (He was unaware, my Brother and I were listening in.)
One particular story about "Human Wave," assaults in Korea - when they had two half tracks bumper to bumper in a mountain pass with quad .50's. Told "You will hold this pass, under all circumstances." Etc.
Human wave assaults, bodies piling up. Shaking hands/hugging all around, knowing if a gun overheated/jammed/ran out of ammunition, they were done. Etc. etc.
Miss you Dad. Super Proud of you.0 -
Flying Clay Disk wrote:I guess I was very fortunate, Dad did share huge amounts of his experiences during WWII with me. He told almost no one else in our family though. I didnt know this until just last year. I think it was because I had always been keenly interested and was a history buff on the B-17 since I could walk just about. He never encouraged me, I was genuinely interested. I had built every model of B-17, I had books of them, pictures of them and I knew them inside out.
My conversations with him started out with him correcting me on minor misunderstandings about some technical detail, and built from there. By the time I was in HS, we were having detailed discussions about tactics, formations and intricate details of specific missions.
This all took place over a span of about 15 years. After I left to go to college he fell completely silent on the subject and never really spoke of the war again, even to me, even though I was more interested than ever. It was like a light switch.
Fortunately, I'd written it all down, or recorded it in some fashion. I then spent years researching all of it and it all matched exactly. It's an absolutely incredible and amazing story.
Later, when Dad was in senior care, I ran into a guy who worked at the senior place. Turns out he was a B-17 history nut also. I told him part of Dad's story and he freaked out. This guy went and did a mountain of research and found things even I didn't know. The whole time Dad wanted little to do with him or the project.
He built (by hand) this incredible shadow box memorial as a tribute to Dad and his service. I just found out about this less than a month ago. The center has had it on display there since Dads passing in 2014.
I am actually now in the process of trying to figure out how to get this to CO without being damaged. It's a masterpiece!
(I'm on my phone now, but I'll see if I can post a picture of it later)
Brother, the story you recently shared about your Dad, having survived (the Statistically improbable task of surviving 3X - 25 mission's, on B-17's,) had me my shaking my head in Admiration.
Unbelievable.0 -
POP was 82 nd Airbourne and no he never talked about it . 0 -
In from D-day to liberation of the camps Dad never mentioned it.
When 80 he told my sons and I how he received the Bronze star.
Told with tears. A moment we'll never forget. RIP Pop.0 -
My father did not talk much about the war. He did write a lot of letters home, and probably in deference to my mothers fears, the letters all sounded like they were a bunch of boy scouts camping in the Alps. He wrote of takin his best sniper into the mountains and shooting a elk which they took to town and cooked up. They bought a huge wheel of cheese and many dozen eggs and made omelettes. He told me other stories including being at the gate of the Walther factory when a light colonel from Eisenhower's command took away 2 half track loads of PPs with pearl stocks. He never knew what became of those, but I later learned that it was well known that Eisenhower gave them out to larger donors when he ran for President.
I also later learned from relatives while he did not talk about the war, for months after he returned he would walk down the main street of town hugging the buildings with his eyes on the second floor windows across the street.
I never learned why he was awarded the Bronze Star and the papers with it have no details.0 -
We were a lucky family, none of us saw any combat service.
Grandad was too young for WWI and too old for WWII, Dad served two years during Korea but never left the states, I joined just after Nam and got out 4 years later, my step father served during Korea on the Leyte and was on board when Ensign Jessie Brown was killed and he helped evacuate men from Korea on a small boat.
God Bless all those who served their country and those who continue to do so.0 -
I think the men who saw real combat kept most of it to themselves.
Have a BIL that was in the Air Force in Vietnam, MP on the airbase. If you could hear the BS he spreads you would have thought he was the only soldier in the so called "war".
Missed Vietnam just by the skin of my teeth, Class 1-A , draft number 13, had physical, bags all but packed and ready to go. Police action came to and end and draft eliminated. Praise the Lord.
I consider a US flag draped over a soldiers coffin to be a very great honor.0 -
Pop was a Army Ranger assigned to a native alute alaskan unit in the Alutian Islands. The Japs had taken a few of the end islands and the mission was to surviel and prep for taking back the islands. He spoke rarely about it. A few stories he did share were that conditions were so harsh that survival was the main job in the cold wet environment.
There was a strong sentiment by the natives who hated the Japs and were extremely harsh in the treatment of the enemy. Most of the Aluets were hunter, fishers and miners, whos people had been abuesd over eons by Jap raiders who had raped and pilaged the "People".
None of the Japs survived, and since they had good dentistry. The natives enjoyed breaking thier teeth for extracting precious metals which were much easier then mining. It was cruel but considerd payback. There were some other stories but to gruesome to tell. It was a hellish experience and a difficult situation. I give my father much credit for his service to our country. He was far from home in a cold cruel place...0 -
He Dog wrote:
I never learned why he was awarded the Bronze Star and the papers with it have no details.
My dad also was awarded the bronze star, and while I in no way want to disrespect your father by any means, I learned ,I think it was Truman later passed and order that any WWII vet who was in combat/ in theater was to be awarded the bronze star. my dads records also showed no formal award though he was in battle of bulge and others, maybe your dad like mine was awarded it on the Truman order like my dad.0 -
Thanks Hillbille, I had never heard that. I am going to go through St. Louis and see if I can get copies of all his service records and find out. I also want to know exactly which Chemical Battalion he was with. 4.2" mortars, attached to the 83rd Infantry. 0 -
I was commissioned right at the end of Vietnam. Went to Ft. Knox to work on an audio-visual training program helping several combat-veteran captains understand media. ( 2LT advising CPT's? What genius came up with that :roll: )
There was one captain who mentored me (and later the lady I married -- he was our best man) who had lost an arm, most of his leg and I suspect other important parts when an anti-tank went off near him.
I asked him one day how it happened and he simply said," Company commander set his C&C chopper down in the middle of some tank tracks so, despite being told told not to walk across tank tracks due to booby traps I went to report to him. I must have missed a trip wire."
He didn't mention that he kept fighting him platoon, despite his wounds, until relieved. He got the Silver Star for that. He didn't tell me that; I read it in him memorial page at West Point after he died a few years ago.
He was the kind of officer, combat and staff, that I wish I had been.
RIP Hank0 -
Uncle was in Europe during WWII. It was winter. When he came across the Red Cross he did not have any money. So he went without. He would not donate to the Red Cross. I don't donate to the Red Cross and at least two of three kids don't donate to the Red Cross. 0 -
My late dad, who served in France, had nothing good to say about the Red Cross. He never went into detail but even as a grade school kid I knew he was serious. I never asked him about it again. 0 -
RIP with HONOR those that served ......have heard stories from the WW2 guys that would scare you sitting here at home....almost none left now .... 0 -
In 1937, age 18, he became a 2Lt in the Coastal Artillery (Anti Aircraft) fought the Pacific campaign, in charge of 40mm dusters, ground support, anti aircraft. Retired in 1957 as a LTC. Never talked to me about the war until I came home from mine. We sat on the back porch with a beer, talked until the lightning bugs came out. Never again. 0 -
Thanks to all of you for posting.
When I young, I thought Dad did very little during the war because he never talked about it.
When I grew up, I realized, The more they did, the less they talked about.
Truly, THE GREATEST GENERATION.0 -
My dad was in the Army Air Corps. He flew missions in cargo planes. Their base was India and they flew supplies across the Himalayas to China. The Japs were fighting heavily in China and the idea was, the more gasoline and guns we send the Chinese, the more Japs the Chinese will kill, the fewer Japs for our Marines to kill.
Dad never saw a Jap fighter but the flight, called the flight across "The Hump" was very dangerous and lots of the crews crashed and died. The pass was at 17,000 feet and the planes were not pressurized.
It was called the "Aluminum Highway" because on a sunny day, the pilot could navigate by looking at the shiny aluminum of all the C47s that had crashed in the snow.
Dad made 76 flights across The Hump and he was lucky to survive.0
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