Of historical importance...

[gehringer_2]

9 minutes ago, Jim Cowan said:

I have a good war story about a relative, my great uncle Roy was a stretcher bearer at the Somme.  Of course he got hit, and ended up in a hospital in London.  And while he was there, the Canadian army stopped his pay.  He wasn't on active service.  He had to write a letter home to get them to send him some money.

Three brothers. One already past draft age, one drafted into the Navy, one lied his way into the Marines at 17 to get away from home. The Patriarch was a shoe-maker and the eldest son had a business in custom orthopedic shoes. When each of his younger brothers went off to war he hand made them a leather wrapped handle assault style knife about the same size as the standard issue Navy MK-I. Youngest son disappeared into the PTO and never wrote home. At some point the Dept of the Navy informed the family that he had been wounded in action but they knew nothing beyond that. 2nd son posted to a ship also in the PTO and on one return to Pearl Harbor someone stops him and asks him where he got the unique knife he was wearing because he had just seen another just like it. And that is how my father found his wounded brother half way around the world in the middle of WWII. 

I still have both my father's MK-1 and the knife my uncle made him, and I'm sure my children will someday have no idea why there will be two old knives in a box at the estate sale.

[chasfh]

My dad was on the detail to clean up Dachau in 1945-46. Or, more exactly, he was on the detail to force POWs and the local townspeople to clean up Dachau. He did not talk much about it, but what little he did say was truly horrifying, and I've always thought, if that's the part he was willing to share with us, I can't imagine how horrific the parts he kept from us were.

[gehringer_2]

53 minutes ago, chasfh said:

My dad was on the detail to clean up Dachau in 1945-46. Or, more exactly, he was on the detail to force POWs and the local townspeople to clean up Dachau. He did not talk much about it, but what little he did say was truly horrifying, and I've always thought, if that's the part he was willing to share with us, I can't imagine how horrific the parts he kept from us were.

Hard to fathom. My father was older than most GIs when he went  because he had had a defense deferment as a machine tool operator in war production. He's a lesson in why you send the youngest men you can to war. His eyes were too open to what the war was and he came home pretty down on the concept for the rest of his life. The only thing I ever remember him saying about the war was that the young men on neither side deserved it. 

[chasfh]

2 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

Hard to fathom. My father was older than most GIs when he went  because he had had a defense deferment as a machine tool operator in war production. He's a lesson in why you send the youngest men you can to war. His eyes were too open to what the war was and he came home pretty down on the concept for the rest of his life. The only thing I ever remember him saying about the war was that the young men on neither side deserved it. 

Speaking of hard to fathom, try this on your imagination: my dad was twenty years old when he stepped into the Dachau situation. What were you doing when you were twenty? I don’t know you or your background, but I’m going to take a flyer on the answer “nothing even remotely close to this.”

Me, I was ****ing around most of the time, which my dad’s service ensured that I would have the freedom to do if I so chose.

[romad1]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

Speaking of hard to fathom, try this on your imagination: my dad was twenty years old when he stepped into the Dachau situation. What were you doing when you were twenty? I don’t know you or your background, but I’m going to take a flyer on the answer “nothing even remotely close to this.”

Me, I was ****ing around most of the time, which my dad’s service ensured that I would have the freedom to do if I so chose.

Some of our current generation of kids who have been off in the wars have seen some things.  Nothing as bad as that though.  

My father in law would mention the various battles in the pacific where his ship was dealing with kamikazes.  That appears to have been a big factor in him being a very tough person to deal with.  

[gehringer_2]

7 hours ago, romad1 said:

My father in law would mention the various battles in the pacific where his ship was dealing with kamikazes.

Though he never talked about, it turns out my father kept a log of things he knew he couldn't put in letters home. One of the things he noted is that they most definitely did not pick up any ditched Japanese Zero pilots.

[Cruzer1]

 

[Cruzer1]

Nixon explaining calling Ike General among other great points.

[romad1]

On 5/4/2023 at 12:39 AM, gehringer_2 said:

Though he never talked about, it turns out my father kept a log of things he knew he couldn't put in letters home. One of the things he noted is that they most definitely did not pick up any ditched Japanese Zero pilots.

Was just reading In Ian Toll's Pacific Crucible about the very aggressive US sub commander of the Wahoo who had his deck gun fire on Japanese survivor's after a sinking.  Kinda shocking but also, not so shocking considering the barbarism of the Pacific war. 

[chasfh]

Wrong thread

Edited September 2, 2023 by chasfh

[CMRivdogs]

A little history for those planning to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. 
 

On this date in 1773 a group of seditious legislators gathered at Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg, Va to pass a measure calling for a Committee of Correspondence among the 13 member colonies...

 https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/learn/deep-dives/committees-of-correspondence/

Just one of those things we never really learned in school.

[chasfh]

5 hours ago, CMRivdogs said:

A little history for those planning to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. 
 

On this date in 1773 a group of seditious legislators gathered at Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg, Va to pass a measure calling for a Committee of Correspondence among the 13 member colonies...

 https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/learn/deep-dives/committees-of-correspondence/

Just one of those things we never really learned in school.

It would be cool if they could somehow revive the Bicentennial Minute that CBS ran literally every night for two years leading up to the date itself. It ran at 7:59PM, I think, and consisted of a famous personality, usually a CBS series regular, reading a few paragraphs about what happened 200 years ago that day, accompanied by contemporaneous art of the incident from the period. Shell Oil sponsored it the whole time. They could restart it again this July 4. They could call it the Semiquincentennial Minute. Rolls right off the tongue.

Here's one:

 

[The Ronz]

Kolchak!

[CMRivdogs]

Eisenhower had two speeches ready for the aftermath of the DDay invasion. One if it was successful, the other if it failed. This is leadership, taking responsibility.

Also related, Bedford, Va a mall town between Roanoke and Lynchburg, had the largest per capita of men killed during the invasion. 38 men from the town served in Company A, 20 were killed.

There is a monument to those who served there. It's been a few years and too many trips along RT 460, I need to stop on my next visit to the Valley

https://www.stripes.com/special-reports/featured/d-day/2024-06-02/bedford-boys-dday-wwii-virginia-army-normandy-14056070.html#:~:text=Thirty-eight men from the small town of Bedford%2C Va,20 were killed in action.