OT: 83rd anniversary of Pearl Harbor American Heros

I would disagree. I know it's not a competition, so not trying to show you up or anything. My wife's grandfather was in Europe. He was a happy, silly salesman guy who loved talking and making bad jokes. One thing he never talked about to his family was the war. But a few weeks before he passed, he started talking to me, who was only engaged to his granddaughter at that point, for hours about everything he saw, and gave me a notebook. He was in the 101st Cavalry, armored scouts that roamed far ahead of the main body behind enemy lines. Lots of ambushes and counter ambushes, midnight raids, and so on. Lots of very close combat. He was one of the first GIs to enter concentration camps. The guards had gone nuts knowing the American cans were near, and people were still burning in ovens when they came through the gates. He said he would never forget the smell and could never eat pork after that. Specifically, he talked about how Americans rarely took SS troops prisoner, and never after Malmedy. At the first camp they found some SS hiding in the woods outside trying to escape. He "admitted" that they murdered them by hand after capturing them, and I use quotes because I don't think he felt any guilt even decades later. Another story was that after suffering snipers in a few villages, they would just use heavy machine guns and the light cannon in their Greyhounds on any tall or stone buildings when they rolled up to another village, and hopefully the Germans had the sense to flee to their basements when they saw Americans. If not, oh well. Some towns would have people hanging from light poles when they came in...sometimes it was townspeople who were too eager to surrender to Americans executed by Nazi party members, sometimes it was the Nazi party members the townspeople were getting vengeance on. The Americans would hunt down Nazi officials and rough them up, hand them over to the townspeople for disposal, or just disappear them if they resisted.

Europe was not nice and clean like the movies, is the impression I got. Maybe "Fury" got a little closer. Anyways, his unit suffered 130% casualties or something like that...and he never got a scratch. They were a National Guard unit pre-war so he had lots of friends - all were killed. That was what tore him up the most. He also showed me a picture of a Bf 109 Messerschmitt he shot down, and got a Bronze or Silver Star for. He didn't remember which, he gave it away. It was a surprising night, for sure.

 

There were certainly atrocities that happened in Europe and what any soldier experienced should ever be minimized, but for all of that, the combatants there had similar ideas of what was and wasn’t acceptable in warfare. The Japanese played by a very different set of rules.

 

The primary reason I think the Pacific was worse is because the battles were much more concentrated since they were on small islands. Marines were storming beach after beach and the Japanese had time to setup strong defenses in many cases. The European theater was no walk in the park though and there were definitely certain battles that were equally horrific in my mind. Plus they had to contend with the cold. The whole damn war was just terrifying. But I think WW1 tactics scare me even more than anything in WW2.

 

Pearl Harbor Day: See photos of the attack that brought the US into World War II

My nephew was a student at UF when 9/11 happened. Within weeks he enlisted in the Marine Corps. Served with a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) in the mountains in Afghanistan hunting Bin Laden.

 

I went several years ago. There are 9,388 Americans buried at Normandy.

Average age is 23. It will certainly stir your emotions & make you proud to be an American.

 

My story is similar. My late Dad’s birthday was December 8th.
He was born in Honduras to an American father & Mayan Indian mother.

His Dad died when my Dad was 13 so she got on a banana boat & brought him & 3 sisters to Tampa.

As my Dad prepared to celebrate his birthday Pearl Harbor was bombed. He wanted to join the Navy, but his Mom refused to sign the papers for her underaged, incoming producing son.
On December 8, 1942 my Dad walked off his job, joined the Navy & commanded a Higgins boat in 7 Pacific invasions even though, as the only surviving son, he didn’t have to go.
He too was preparing to invade Japan, but President Truman’s decision to drop the two atomic bombs probably saved his life & subsequently mine.

 

My dad fought in the Pacific theater, I don't think he ever forgave the Japanese for the brutality he witnessed. I remember when I bought my first Toyota back in 1983 he acted like he was offended that I bought a Japanese vehicle. I said, but dad you drive a Mercedes. He just shook his head and said, the Japanese were brutal.

He never would tell war stories except for the one about him accidentally machine gunning a wild hog while on guard duty which made him a hero with his fellow soldiers who enjoyed the first fresh meat they had eaten in months.

 

Until my Father passed nothing was allowed in his home made in Japan. My Father would only tell funny stories but NEVER talked about the actual war

 

Both of my parents were great examples of The Greatest Generation. The sacrifices of spouses are too often ignored.

My father graduated from Leesburg High School in May of 1943. He turned 18 a couple of days later and enlisted in the Army Air Corps. A little more than a year later, as a 19-year-old, he was the pilot of a B-29 bombing Japan flying from Guam.

He flew a bomber over Korea from Okinawa which coincides with my first memories.

My mother traveled there on a troop ship full of Marines on their way to the conflict with my infant sister and me, a 3-year-old. A year before, my father was stationed in Nome, Alaska. My mother took me to live there in a small cabin heated by a single pot-belly stove.

While we lived in Okinawa, there were two typhons. The aircraft were removed so my mother was alone with the two children as the roof was blown away during one of the storms.

My father flew a C-130 for 2 years in Viet Nam while I was in college. During this period, he was awarded 3 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 2 of them at Khe Sanh.

 

Similar Story for me. Both my Uncles served, one Navy ( USS Indiana), one a Ft Benning Infantryman. All we knew was, they served…..until after they passed.

They were both a big influence on my joining.

Those guys were built different and I just tried to honor them both.

 

I echo the comments about visiting Normandy. My wife and I spent 3 days there this September. It was awe-inspiring and very sad. War is horrible and this is underscored by seeing these sites. As others have said, it is a place that deserves to be experienced.

We decided to use a guide for one of the days. This added a great deal of value and allowed us to get a far better understanding and see things more efficiently. Our guide’s family lives less than a mile from Utah Beach so was able to provide great insights through the things she learned from her grandparents who lived through the battles.

We stayed in Bayeux which was the first town liberated. It is a delightful and rich place to stay, full of great places to see and at which to eat.

Below is selfie taken by our guide (front right) and one of the actors from A Band of Brothers, my wife and me. The actor was with a bus load of tourists and was very charming and informative.

 

I had three grandfathers fight in WWII. One I never knew and two others who never talked about their experiences. Others did, not them.

My mom’s father was attending SPJC in hopes of going to UF. He volunteered for the USAAF in 1943. He trained as a navigator and was assigned to the 340th BS, a 15th AF Unit based out of Amendola AB Italy in Nov 1944. He was in the replacement pool and on his first mission, his plane went down over the isle of Cres Yugoslavia on a mission to bomb a target in Czechoslovakia. His body was never recovered. He is memorialized at the American Cemetary in Florence Italy.

My dad’s father was a Florida National Guardsman. He was part of an engineer unit. He travelled to training in Oregon, Utah, Texas, South Carolina and finally Vero beach before heading off to Europe. He was reassigned multiple times between early 1943 before leaving in early 1944 for Europe. My grandmother and my dad crisscrossed the US by themselves to be with him. They often lived in substandard housing and hardship but went anyways. A single woman traveling with a child on a train was probably no easy accomplishment back then. Grandad was supposed to be in the first wave on D-Day. His company commander asked him to stay behind as the unit 1st Sgt and organize the unit stragglers into another unit coming in the following waves. His HHC was wiped out in the first wave. No survivors. He went on to fight in the Battle of the Bulge and into Germany. He worked for GTE post war for 30 years. He was an avid outdoorsman. He retired and moved from St Pete in the late 80s to his boyhood stomping grounds in Hernando on Lake Asalapopka(sp)? I remember when he was in his eighties he would take his johnboat out and fish. One instance he shot a gator with his .22 rifle he always carried. I guess the DNR folks didn’t pay much mind to an old guy in a johnboat with a wide brimmed sun hat fishing the banks. He towed the gator back to his little dock got some cinder blocks to tie to gator took it back out to the middle of the lake and disposed of the body. lol. He was die hard Gators fan. We used to watch the highlights of Saturday games after church on sundays. We didn’t eat until the show was over. At after he passed in 09, Memom told me some of things he experienced. He never told anyone but her. Those experiences dovetail on some of the stories posted here. Horrifying recounting of life or death actions. The stories too had no kind words for the SS or other hardcore Nazis they encountered.

My grandmother married my mom’s step dad after WW2 while he was stationed at McDill. He volunteered in 1940 to fly with the RCAF. He was a guy who loved to fly. He got his pilots license in the late 1930s. He wanted to help fight the Nazis as he was a second generation Pole living in Connecticut. He flew coastal missions then transferred to RAF bomber command. He flew missions in the Halifax, Wellington, Stirling and finally Lancasters. His last assignment was to 7 Sdqn flying Pathfinder missions. His most notable raid was marking the target for raids on Peenemunde(sp)?. He transferred to the USAAF in late 1944 after completing 43 combat missions for the RAF. He trained on the B-29 and was assigned to 62nd BS(VH), 39th BG, 20th AF, North Field Guam. Tail code was “P” crew 47. The 47 was located on side of aft fuselage. He named his plane “Kick a poo joy” after the lil Abner cartoon. He flew 22 missions against Japan before being sent home because of kidney problems. He was good leader who earned the respect of his men. I met a couple of them as child. They told stories of him and his ability to bring men home because of his natural piloting and leadership skills. He was kinda larger than life to me. He drank a lot though. This was very common with combat crews in WW2. Post war he was actively involved in Kiwanis and Boy Scouts. He received the British DFC x2 post war for his RAF service.
He used to take me to Camp Soule to help with him with camp projects. Mom told me a story as a member of the St Pete Yacht club, he held its leadership to task when they refused entry of Jewish applicants. How true that is I don’t know. He ran Tinney Rug Cleaners until he passed from a stroke in 1974.

Pearl Harbor, Gettysburg, Florence American Cemetery and Normandy. I’ve been to Gettysburg. 3 bucket items to go.

 

My nephew was a student at UF when 9/11 happened. Within a few days he withdrew from school and enlisted in the Marine Corps, he wanted to do his part. He served with a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) in the mountains of Afghanistan hunting Bin Laden.

 

As a combat vet I appreciate a thread like this. God bless the men and women who gave some or all of themselves in the defense of others.

May everyone be sparred from war. While sometimes necessary, it is a life altering experience.

 

My oldest son was born on the 7th. It was a day that will live in infancy.