Talked to a WW2 vet today

[buford t justice]

Took my wife out for breakfast this morning for her birthday,on the way home we stopped at a garage sale.
While she looked at the clothes I started talking to an older gentleman who turned out to be the father of the lady having the sale.
I found out he was a paratrooper in WW2 and was dropped 15 miles inland from Omaha Beach on D Day and had also been dropped 5 other times as well as numerous missions in glider planes.
He had recieved 3 purple hearts and a spear shaped medal for the Normandy mission.
I could have stayed and talked with him all day, I thanked him for his service to our great country before I left.
If you ever get a chance to talk to one of these guys do it,it's way better than a history book and they won't be around much longer this guy was 90.

 

[littletommy]

There is an old guy here in town who is a Korea Vet. That guy, when talking about his experiences over there, can just absolutely paint a picture with his words, he doesn't leave out any details. Never tells stories of combat itself, but about his daily life while he was there. Makes you feel like you are with him when he tells of a rainstorm, and what he was eating at the time. I've told him many times he should write all that stuff down.

Glad you had the chance to talk to that gentleman! There is nothing quite like talking to somebody who has truly been there and done that!

 

[9mmfan]

I've talked several times to a 3 war veteran, having flown in WW2, Korea and Vietnam. He was flying his own plane until just 2 yrs ago. Great guy! I also suggested he right down his experiences.

 

[indyjohn]

 

[Ragenarok007]

My grandfather passed away in June at age 88. He served in WWII in the South Pacific. I was fortunate to have known him and to have learned from him. He was a fine soldier and a great man.

 

[Sylvain]

Took my wife out for breakfast this morning for her birthday,on the way home we stopped at a garage sale.
While she looked at the clothes I started talking to an older gentleman who turned out to be the father of the lady having the sale.
I found out he was a paratrooper in WW2 and was dropped 15 miles inland from Omaha Beach on D Day and had also been dropped 5 other times as well as numerous missions in glider planes.
He had recieved 3 purple hearts and a spear shaped medal for the Normandy mission.
I could have stayed and talked with him all day, I thanked him for his service to our great country before I left.
If you ever get a chance to talk to one of these guys do it,it's way better than a history book and they won't be around much longer this guy was 90.

That's not far from where I live, im just a few minutes away the beaches of Normandy.
I met once a WW2 veteran, in South Bend, he served a few times in France after the D-Day.
I was really glad to meet him and he was happy to share his story with someone who knows the cities and area where he served.
Here I can just show my respect to those veterans in the numerous military cemeteries we have around here, so where I meet one still alive it's really hard to describe how I feel.
Thinking that maybe I have been to the places where that veteran lost his fellow soldiers, maybe seen their graves, it's always lots of emotions.

 

[spec4]

I think if I ever got on Omaha beach I would become very emotional. Hell, I tear up when the flag goes by. My father was in the Pacific in WWII. I remember he said the heroes are still there. He was wounded on Pelilieu and never had a favborable disposition towards the Japanese.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

I see a WWII vet nearly every day. The neighbor across the street was a Gunner's Mate on the USS Massachusetts. Dropped out of school to enlist at 17.

He was injured in combat with the French (a fall) and then went to serve on the Massachusetts in the Pacific.

 

[Sylvain]

I think if I ever got on Omaha beach I would become very emotional. Hell, I tear up when the flag goes by. My father was in the Pacific in WWII. I remember he said the heroes are still there. He was wounded on Pelilieu and never had a favborable disposition towards the Japanese.

I go walk on those beaches all the time (no Omaha but others that have seen combat even years before the D-Day), they still have the allied flags flying 365 days a year.
You can still see impact holes from bullets and bombs on bunkers, churchs and otherbuildings everywhere in most of the cities.
This is not that emotional for me since I see that everyday but I still think about what happened here every single time.
I also visited the largest US military cemetery in France (could be the largest in the world too, or largest in Europe anyway) by the German border, with more than 12 000 graves.Very emotional.

 

[littletommy]

I go walk on those beaches all the time (no Omaha but others that have seen combat even years before the D-Day), they still have the allied flags flying 365 days a year.
You can still see impact holes from bullets and bombs on bunkers, churchs and otherbuildings everywhere in most of the cities.
This is not that emotional for me since I see that everyday but I still think about what happened here every single time.
I also visited the largest US military cemetery in France (could be the largest in the world too, or largest in Europe anyway) by the German border, with more than 12 000 graves.Very emotional.

Just curious, are there a lot of artifact hunters there? I would think that the place would still be littered with stuff. Is unexploded ordinance a big issue?

 

[Expat]

I still have one Uncle living that was in WW2. He was part of Patton's group.

 

[littletommy]

I think if I ever got on Omaha beach I would become very emotional. Hell, I tear up when the flag goes by. My father was in the Pacific in WWII. I remember he said the heroes are still there. He was wounded on Pelilieu and never had a favborable disposition towards the Japanese.

I feel the same way, the scenes in saving private Ryan were very emotional for me. My mom, rest her soul, got to go to Hawaii before she died, and she visited the Arizona memorial while there. She said she was surprised at how emotional she got while standing over the wreckage, and how she would never forget that feeling.

 

[Sylvain]

Just curious, are there a lot of artifact hunters there? I would think that the place would still be littered with stuff. Is unexploded ordinance a big issue?

Yes many people find lots of military stuff (helmets, rifles, dog tags etc) everywhere in France, not just in Normandy, and some of those date back to WWI.
More than 90 years after the end of WWI things still get back to the surface, things from WWII too.
I know some people find and collect (illegaly, since they are firearms you need a special permit to own them) rifles and and other firearms.
From time to time a farmer will find a bomb shell from WWII in his field, sometimes it's unexploded german marine nines that are found on the beaches or on the shore, every year, even 60 years after the end of the war.
They also find unexploded US or British bombs that were dropped on the germans.Many of those bombs never exploded and were never recovered.
I remenber when I was in college, workers found a 550 pounds bomb under a building during some works a few streets away from where I lived.
Since the end of WWII, mine clearing units in France recovered more than 30 millions of bombs and mines of every kind.

 

[irishfan]

Took my wife out for breakfast this morning for her birthday,on the way home we stopped at a garage sale.
While she looked at the clothes I started talking to an older gentleman who turned out to be the father of the lady having the sale.
I found out he was a paratrooper in WW2 and was dropped 15 miles inland from Omaha Beach on D Day and had also been dropped 5 other times as well as numerous missions in glider planes.
He had recieved 3 purple hearts and a spear shaped medal for the Normandy mission.
I could have stayed and talked with him all day, I thanked him for his service to our great country before I left.
If you ever get a chance to talk to one of these guys do it,it's way better than a history book and they won't be around much longer this guy was 90.

There is an old guy here in town who is a Korea Vet. That guy, when talking about his experiences over there, can just absolutely paint a picture with his words, he doesn't leave out any details. Never tells stories of combat itself, but about his daily life while he was there. Makes you feel like you are with him when he tells of a rainstorm, and what he was eating at the time. I've told him many times he should write all that stuff down.

Glad you had the chance to talk to that gentleman! There is nothing quite like talking to somebody who has truly been there and done that!

One thing I have noticed a lot from the older WWII and Korean vets and a lot of Vietnam guys is they don't pat themselves on the back every chance they get compared to what you see today. A lot of the old veterans know what they did and don't need anyone else to tell them anything because they are heros whether they will accept you telling them that or not. I occassionally run into a WWII vet and it makes me proud to be an American knowing what they fought for and it really makes me admire them more when they just give you a nod when you tell them thank you.

Now days it seems people want to let you know in their sig lines or all over their car that they were sent somewhere they volunteered for. Those old guys are a whole other level of amazing.

 

[PistolBob]

Pearl Harbor was 70 years ago...these guys are not getting any younger. None of us are. We can never forget the price they paid for us to be here living our lives in freedom and not speaking German or Japanese. The last high school history book I looked at spent all of 18 pages on WWII. That's just wrong.

 

[Hoosier8]

So many of them have passed and the ones I have known did not talk much about their experiences. My mother joined after hearing about Pearl Harbor but thankfully never went overseas.

Mom on the left during her trip to NY.

Next is my uncle Emmet recieving his Silver Star for bravery during the Prum River campaign.

What I have from my uncle is a Nazi Army dagger he brought back from WWII and a number of items I have purchased locally like this Indianapolis newspaper signed by survivors of the USS Indianapolis.

 

[MrSmitty]

I thank every vet I meet, for serving our country, as an aside, the biggest regret I have was not being able to take a tour of the Normandy beaches, while in Germany in the 1980's, and missing a tour of Corregidor, while in the Phillipines!

 

[Hoosier8]

I thank every vet I meet, for serving our country, as an aside, the biggest regret I have was not being able to take a tour of the Normandy beaches, while in Germany in the 1980's, and missing a tour of Corregidor, while in the Phillipines!

Wow, no shyte.

 

[Sylvain]

I thank every vet I meet, for serving our country, as an aside, the biggest regret I have was not being able to take a tour of the Normandy beaches, while in Germany in the 1980's, and missing a tour of Corregidor, while in the Phillipines!

Well if you ever come to visit Normandy (Besides the beaches and historicals places the whole region is beautiful) I would be more than happy to be your tour guide.

 

[Hoosier8]

Well if you ever come to visit Normandy (Besides the beaches and historicals places the whole region is beautiful) I would be more than happy to be your tour guide.

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