I want to give this guy a hug

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clamum

clamum

Lifer
Feb 13, 2003
26,256
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Like I said in the YouTube comment, the "Greatest Generation" ftmfw.
 
rudeguy

rudeguy

Lifer
Dec 27, 2001
47,351
14
61
Originally posted by: clamum
Like I said in the YouTube comment, the "Greatest Generation" ftmfw.
Click to expand...

When I was selling TV's, I had to go over to this old couple's apartment to hook up their TV. I was kind of frustrated because all they had to do was screw in a coax cable and they made it seem like a big deal. After I spent 30 seconds hooking up their tv, I wandered around while they flipped through the channels. There was a wooden display hanging on the wall with 2 purple hearts in it. I pointed to it and asked who's they were. They guy told me very humbly that they were his. I was pretty shocked and blurted out that it takes a lot to get one of those, let alone 2. He just said that he had a couple of ships shot out from under him. He got kind of choked up when he mentioned the all of his mates that didn't make it.

Those guys were something else. They downplay their actions while making sure that others got their credit.
 
R

RichardE

Banned
Dec 31, 2005
10,246
2
0
My Great Grandpa landed on the beach on D-Day. He never told anyone really about it till one night a few months before he passed away where the told me mom and I the story for the most part. The way he described it, and how he described loosing every friend he had known in a few short minutes was the worst and he was left with a sense of "why did I get to live."

That could very well be why they came back and built the world up on there shoulders, they had seen too many good man die when they lived to sit around doing nothing. He was also one of the main reasons I took an interest in history, than politics off that. Grandma passed away a few months after he did.
 
rudeguy

rudeguy

Lifer
Dec 27, 2001
47,351
14
61
Originally posted by: Hammerhead
Epic Hero!
The camera man who cropped his head = Epic Zero!
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Yeah...I kinda wanted to falcon punch the camera guy for being a douche. But the old guy is just awesome.
 
Perknose

Perknose

Forum Director & Omnipotent Overlord
Forum Director
Oct 9, 1999
46,892
10,713
147
The combat vets of the WWII generation never once thought of themselves as special. It was a job that needed to be done, a call to duty, and they pitched in and saw it through to the end, then came home and got married and raised kids and almost NEVER talked about what they did.

The first and only time I found out that my Dad had seen his sister ship, a fleet oiler, blown sky high by a kamikaze sub was in 7th grade when I brought home a watercolor from "art" class of planes attacking ships and my Dad quietly said, pointing to my 'flames', "If you want to know what flames look like I've got them burned into my memory" and then told me.

The

only

time.

As a grad of the New York State Maritime Academy with a naval engineering degree he was more valuable stateside teaching others as the Navy ramped up their personnel needs, so he went into his superior's office every single day for a year until the guy relented and released him for combat duty in the South Pacific.

And my Dad had it hella good stateside!

But like he simply and unassumingly said about wanting combat duty, "That's what you did. You wanted to be part of it."

 
skyking

skyking

Lifer
Nov 21, 2001
22,802
5,971
146
Originally posted by: Perknose
The combat vets of the WWII generation never once thought of themselves as special. It was a job that needed to be done, a call to duty, and they pitched in and saw it through to the end, then came home and got married and raised kids and almost NEVER talked about what they did.

The first and only time I found out that my Dad had seen his sister ship, a fleet oiler, blown sky high by a kamikaze sub was in 7th grade when I brought home a watercolor from "art" class of planes attacking ships and my Dad quietly said, pointing to my 'flames', "If you want to know what flames look like I've got them burned into my memory" and then told me.

The

only

time.

As a grad of the New York State Maritime Academy with a naval engineering degree he was more valuable stateside teaching others as the Navy ramped up their personnel needs, so he went into his superior's office every single day for a year until the guy relented and released him for combat duty in the South Pacific.

And my Dad had it hella good stateside!

But like he simply and unassumingly said about wanting combat duty, "That's what you did. You wanted to be part of it."
Click to expand...

They did want to be a part of it. My dad lied about his age and joined the marines at the age of 17, and a scant two years later he was on Iwo Jima, deciding which of the wounded lived or died. He never did tell me, I learned it from my uncle.
 
Perknose

Perknose

Forum Director & Omnipotent Overlord
Forum Director
Oct 9, 1999
46,892
10,713
147
Originally posted by: skyking
They did want to be a part of it. My dad lied about his age and joined the marines at the age of 17, and a scant two years later he was on Iwo Jima, deciding which of the wounded lived or died. He never did tell me, I learned it from my uncle.
Click to expand...

Hey Kelly. :thumbsup:

I can't sing for squat, but this is the song I sang at my Dad's funeral.

I dare anyone with a heart to listen to this song and not well up. :heart:


 
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