WWII Vetrans

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hurleyjd

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Thinking back this morning on the death last month of the Last Uncle that served in WWII. I decided to search on how many were still alive.
This is what I found there were 496,777 in 2018. And the daily death rate was 348 each day. So with in four years they will be gone.
 
Lost one from my family in January.

That was an awesome generation. They wasted nothing. They valued everything.
 
We buried my wifes grandfather 2 weeks ago. He was the last WW2 vet left in his county. Helluva good man.
RIP Red.
 
My dad served during that time but was stationed in Washington. He passed in 1993. My uncle is 91 and in failing health. He once told me that when he was on the ship going over to Japan that he was so sea sick that he wouldn't have cared if he died at that point.
 
Practically every adult man I knew growing up was a WWII veteran. I can't think of a single one of them still alive today.
 
Dave said:
Practically every adult man I knew growing up was a WWII veteran. I can't think of a single one of them still alive today.

There was many a man in my area that served and I never knew it until I read about their service in the obituary. I personally knew a man in my area that survived the Bataan death March. Had a High school that survived a German POW camp. Non never talked about their service and did not ask for any favors after they got back. I remember a TV interview of a WWII vet and he was asked about volunteering and why His answer was I would have done any thing to get of that darn farm. I also had numerous Uncles and Cousins that served.
 
All mine are gone lost the last one in 02. Had an uncle at Pearl 12/7/41,Dad
was North Atlantic and Med. Marine uncle Guadalcanal, Iwo and Okinawa another uncle in the South Pacific at the Mariana turkey shoot.
 
Dad was trained to be a tail gunner in dive bombers. He was about to ship out and got sick. They gave him a drug that nearly killed him. He was medically discharged after 6 months in the hospital. Found out years later that the drug did kill a bunch of the boys. He spent the rest of the war working in the ship yards. Man who was like a second father to me ran landing craft at Tarawa, Iwo, and Okinawa. A guy who worked for my uncle survived the Bataan death march. He had a huge scar from side to side across his stomach. A Jap officer tried to cut him in two with a sword. He was left for dead in a ditch. Some locals found him and nursed him back to life. One neighbor was shot down over Germany in a B-17. Spent 27 months in a POW camp. Dad's hunting partner was in artillery at New Guinea. They rotated him state side he figured that he would train recruits but they sent him to Italy for the rest of the war. Gosh the list goes on and on.
 
My dad is WW II Veteran, and he's working on 93. He doesn't talk about his dealings with the Japanese much, but he spent Christmas in Shanghai China and sounds like he had one heck of a time. Shipping out to parts unknown at 17 is growing up in a hurry. Pretty tough bunch of men this country had back then.
 
True Grit Farms said:
My dad is WW II Veteran, and he's working on 93. He doesn't talk about his dealings with the Japanese much, but he spent Christmas in Shanghai China and sounds like he had one heck of a time. Shipping out to parts unknown at 17 is growing up in a hurry. Pretty tough bunch of men this country had back then.


Tell him thank you from me.
 
Not many left hear now. There is one who i grew up not far from that is still going. One who passed a couple of years ago was in the dam buster crews, they pretty much went up knowing they were going to die. My neighbour died about 10 years ago, he used to tell some interesting stories. He was conscripted into the Italian army so took off into Switzerland but was caught and sent to the Russian front. He told me what he saw was bad and he wasn't near the bad part. His worst experience was being lined up and then held down and having his wisdom teeth pulled out with pliers. Only pain relief they had was shoving snow in their mouths. He ended up a prisoner of war. He was a very tough hard man when i knew him. I remember a comotion next door one day, he was 40ft down a well when his wife "accidently" dropped a 4x2 piece of wood down. He reckons that made his knees buckle. Think it would have killed me! All my uncles who fought are long gone, only got to meet one of them. I had one uncle who used to get dropped in behind lines and do recconaisense. He came back messed up and drank the rest of his life away.
 
Redgully said:
Not many left hear now. There is one who i grew up not far from that is still going. One who passed a couple of years ago was in the dam buster crews, they pretty much went up knowing they were going to die. My neighbour died about 10 years ago, he used to tell some interesting stories. He was conscripted into the Italian army so took off into Switzerland but was caught and sent to the Russian front. He told me what he saw was bad and he wasn't near the bad part. His worst experience was being lined up and then held down and having his wisdom teeth pulled out with pliers. Only pain relief they had was shoving snow in their mouths. He ended up a prisoner of war. He was a very tough hard man when i knew him. I remember a comotion next door one day, he was 40ft down a well when his wife "accidently" dropped a 4x2 piece of wood down. He reckons that made his knees buckle. Think it would have killed me! All my uncles who fought are long gone, only got to meet one of them. I had one uncle who used to get dropped in behind lines and do recconaisense. He came back messed up and drank the rest of his life away.


My dad said the worst was getting treated for having to much fun on shore leave. The story is the ships doctors used a 22 cal rifle cleaning brush, rubber mallet, and a shot of something like penicillin?
 
Great grandfather was killed in the Battle of the Bulge. If he'd survived that one he would have likely made it home. Wasn't meant to be. Saw my grandfather when he was born and then shipped out when he was 3 days old. I've read some of the letters he mailed back home to my great grandmother. She cherished them until her death in 2013.

19,000 were killed. The "Bulge" was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in World War II and the second deadliest battle in American history.

Great grandmother later remarried another WWII veteran. He was a very fine man and I had the opportunity to know him well. While I in no way wish for another WW, I do wish we had men with that kind of character running this country and our families. Never happen though.
 
Hello!

My grandmother died in the past month, she was prisoned under Berlin
 

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