WWII Vet Uncle dillema

[Caustic Burno]

My dad was in the Navy training to be a tail gunner in dive bombers and he had a bad reaction to sulfa drugs. So they gave him a medical discharge. But I grew up surrounded by WWII vets. My best friends dad was in the Navy. He ran landing craft at Iwo, Tarowa, and others. One of the nieghbors was a co-pilot in B-17. He was shot down. Shot in the leg and spent two years as a POW. Another was an artillery man in NEW Guinee (sp). He rotated back to the states just in time to be shipped to Italy where he fought for the rest of the war. My brother's best friend's dad was an infantry captain in the Philipines. He had a Jap 7.7 that we played with as kids (firing pin removed). We later found out that he was shot by that same rifle and killed the guy who shot him. When he past a few years ago I found out that he had three purple hearts from the Philipines.
As kids growing up we didn't realize that we were standing beside heros.

Dave we are still standing beside them every day. There are kids giving everything every day for us and we don't even think about it like we should.

You are dead on, I know that my youngest son and some of his friends joined up after 9-11. We still have young men and women willing to stand a wall so we can sleep safely.
We stand by more hero's than we know.

 

[hillbillycwo]

Hoss, Thanks for starting this thread and for sharing those events with us!
John250,
Many of us in the Navy Honor that day every year! I fly my flag at halp staff that day and always start the day with a special prayer for those who died. Dec 7, 1941 was a terrible day for us as a nation but also one of fierce pride and determination. It gave birth to "The Greatest Generation" and I feel in many ways defined a Nation.

 

[Dave]

My dad was in the Navy training to be a tail gunner in dive bombers and he had a bad reaction to sulfa drugs. So they gave him a medical discharge. But I grew up surrounded by WWII vets. My best friends dad was in the Navy. He ran landing craft at Iwo, Tarowa, and others. One of the nieghbors was a co-pilot in B-17. He was shot down. Shot in the leg and spent two years as a POW. Another was an artillery man in NEW Guinee (sp). He rotated back to the states just in time to be shipped to Italy where he fought for the rest of the war. My brother's best friend's dad was an infantry captain in the Philipines. He had a Jap 7.7 that we played with as kids (firing pin removed). We later found out that he was shot by that same rifle and killed the guy who shot him. When he past a few years ago I found out that he had three purple hearts from the Philipines.
As kids growing up we didn't realize that we were standing beside heros.

Dave we are still standing beside them every day. There are kids giving everything every day for us and we don't even think about it like we should.

You are absolutely right. I was just thinking back to being a kid and those men I grew up around. And sitting here thinking about it, I think all that I knew are gone now. Fort Lewis is just a few miles north of me so I see lots of todays soldiers on a regular basis. I thank them every time I get a chance.

 

[chrisy]

Hoss thanks for sharing your family day with your Uncle, with us. It is nice to see his face light up with his stories he told you.
My Dad could not talk about his time in the War as he was in the Secret Service in Bletchley Park where they were decoding the Enigma Codes, He met Churchill, Barnes Wallis, and Guy Gibson, while working there. He couldn't come home for most of the War so he used to go to the American Air base close by to where he was. He used to tell us stories of the times he went to the American Air Base, and some of the antics he got up to with the American Air Men, I went to a few of the Re-unions they had at the Air Base in Norfolk, when I was a child and met a few of the Air Vets we had some good times, I still have a Silver Dollar that a Pilot gave to me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bletchley_Park