My mother served in the United States Navy during World War 2. My father, due to an arm injury, was considered unfit for active service so joined Merchant Marines. Jewish Americans, first generation born in this country, children of immigrants.
My father served in the Army Aircorps as a Master Sgt working on British and American fighter planes during Dday in Scotland...he trained pilots and fixed planes...his heart rate was too low for flying...pass out on dives. Two of his brothers fought with Patton's tank division and his youngest was a sailor in the Pacific....all 3 of my mother's brothers were in the Navy fighting the Japanese...….mom worked for Bell telephone at home as an operator after growing up with her brother in an orphanage home due to the dustbowl and great depression.
Mother was building ships at Swan Island. but I never heard from her again. I guess she was injured there. Father was a Navy guy in the Pacific through the war. My Grandfather that had immigrated from Scotland was the one to come tell me that my father would not be coming back.
Grandma told me stories about Great Grandpa's Washington farm being used as a German POW camp since he emigrated from Germany in the late 1800's and knew German as his first language.
I heard a bit today, listening to the TV about the speeches about D day. The great Reagan speech some 35 years ago. It was a fair speech too, but he had a motive at that time to use the example of the courage on display on D-day. We still faced the unknown in the 50 year struggle with the Soviet Union at that time. Today the bit from Mike Pense had a different affect on me. Yes I get the courage of the those guys that day. How horrendous it was to loose 19 of 20 guys from one town, in Virginia maybe. Didn't get the whole thing. The Killing of damn near the whole bunch of the first two or three waves of Higgins boat load of young soldiers. I am sorry, I got pissed, this is not the image of bravery that I can accept. This is the imagery of piss poor planing on a massive scale. 2400 men or more dying as the the front door drops on the boats is utterly stupid. The jack ass that made that plan should have been hung not made President. There are other plans that show the utter ineptitude of this invasion. like Tanks being floated ashore in canvas boats. None ever made it. My God, it is a wonder that this invasion ever succeed, but it did by shear mass, not smart leadership. We had a weapon in those days that should have been deployed early instead of late, and finally was by some Destroyer captains that pretty much broke ranks and took matter into their own hands. They brought their ships in for direct fire support and got those guys of the god damn beach and saved the day. Not by plan but by, Holy hell, we have to do something! PS. We do not have ships that could provide that gallant support today. Another plan yet to be exposed.
I wish I knew what my grandfather did in ww2. Have no idea. He turned the channel if anything related came on. His medals I remember finding stuffed in a drawer in the attic. They got stolen 5 or 10 years ago I think.
My mother's grandfather was in his 40s when he volunteered, so they made him a merchant marine in the Pacific. My paternal grandfather's brother was an artilleryman in Europe and kind of pulled an Ira Hayes after the war and drank himself to death apparently.
I don't know a hell of lot about what dad did. I was eight years old when he died. I talked by chance with Mark Hatfield who helped me get full access to the library at Willamette U when I was a Senior in HS. I think dad was in the same support unit as him. I am pretty sure he was a landing craft driver hauling Marines and supplies back and forth to the beach.
Great grandfather was a paratrooper that dropped in after the beach invasion. Was shot and lived. Not long enough for me to meet him, but I consider him a hero no less.
Yeah, but where the hell did great-grandpappy get Viagra? Maybe it was rhinoceros horn or something. barfo
My father flew in a B-17 in WWII, I had two uncles in the paratroopers at Normandy on D-Day and a third uncle in the paratroopers at Anzio and later in the Korean War. I had another uncle by marriage who survived the Baton Death March. They, like me, were all in the Army. I was in Vietnam in 1968 and my brother was in the USMC. They're all gone now, except for me. Oh yeah, I had one uncle by marriage who was in the Pacific in the merchant marine in WWII and my step father was in the Army during the Korean War. A brother-in-law was in the Army in Korea. They're all gone now but I place flowers on all their graves on Memorial Day. Two graves are in Willamette National Cemetery while the others are all in River View Cemetery. They all have American flags. When my brother passed away in 2005, he got a Marine honor guard complete with a bugle player which made me cry. He was extremely proud of being a Marine. My mother got his flag. I got my father's flag and when I got it I cried my eyes out. Sometimes I fly it from my 20 ft. flag pole. I love flying the American flag and the U.S. Army flag right across the street from Lakeridge High School where all the kids can see it. I hated going into the Army when I was drafted but now I look back on it with a lot of pride.
My respects to all those who served in WW2 and took part in DDay. My grandfather served in the Korean War and my dad in Vietnam.
My mother was determined her family be represented in the war effort although there were, literally, no men. Her father died when she was 16. He had been drafted into the Tsarist army, sent to Siberia to break rocks, escaped and made his way alone to Odessa, where he took ship to North America. No cousins on her father's side in this country. Her mother came here at age 13 with her 16 year old sister, later another sister and their mother joined them. My mother was one of four sisters, all unmarried when the war broke out. By chance, her two aunts had only daughters, all still unmarried. She tried to join Marines. Back then they gave IQ tests, The Sergeant said she had the highest score he'd seen! But Marines checked corrected and uncorrected vision; her corrected was OK but she was blind as a bat without glasses. The doctor applied for an exemption because he considered her such an outstanding candidate. She got a letter that exemption was denied but she should join the Army as they only tested corrected vision. She tried, but was told their "New York quota" was full. New York quota had nothing to do with being from New York. At that time, first question on the form was name, second religion, and "New York quota" was a euphemism for Jews. The Army did not want a whole bunch of Jews out there fighting Hitler! Go figure. She tried the Navy and this time it worked. In occupied Europe, Quakers smuggled Jewish children to Britain and the U.S. at great risk to themselves and the children. Some of my cousins on my father's side smuggled their 2 year old daughter to Britain, yes, an illegal immigrant. There was no way to get word to the family she had arrived safely. That is Cousin Lola. The only survivor. Everyone else on both sides of the family were murdered in Nazi death camps. If you are wondering where I get my feminism, my anti-fascism, and my support for immigrant rights ... and my lousy eyesight ... now you know.
