Salute to my Dad and the Greatest Generation

[Miller Tyme]

73 years ago today my dad was in Liester, England , with the 82nd AB, 505th Co C 3rd Batt. when they recieved word that the Invasion of Europe was on for that night, only to latter be given a 24 hour stand down order. I can only imagine what was going through his mind over the next 36 hours, and I often wonder how he would have felt if he had known he would kill his 1st German before sun up, and be wounded twice before June 6th was over and be sent stateside latter that month to recover from his wounds.

We lost dad last August but not a day goes by I don't thank him or others like him that put so much on the line for our freedom.

[Niner]

Walt, those guys who parachuted into the D Day invasion have my respect. Something that we don't often think of is that the overwhelming majority of the paratroopers who parachuted that day were entering into combat for the first time in a giant exercise that hadn't been tried before. And considering how the troops ended up scatter all over the place it must have been quite a dose of combat shock all at once and yet somehow the majority that survived after the landing prevailed against the odds.

Another paratrooper from D Day that has acquired some fame died this past March. Donald Burgett wrote some of the best narratives of the 101st in WWII. Dwight Eisenhower even wrote a blurb for the cover of his first book Currahee. I had become slightly acquainted with him because of a messageboard he had some years ago. The messageboard went away but since I knew he lived in Howell Michigan and I have an old war buddy that lives there too, I mentioned that fact to my buddy three or four years ago. And one day he called Don up and had a chat. That began a friendship and my friend used to visit Don and bring him homemade soup and stuff and chat with him. As Don got to the point he couldn't live at home, he moved into one of those places that can give care to someone beginning to lose touch with reality now and again through the ravages of old age. My friend visited Don a week or two before he died. While he was visiting, the nurse told Don the lunch meal would be chipped beef on toast. Don stuck out his tongue and gave her the raspberries. Chip beef on toast was, more or less, "shit on a shingle" from long ago military days. Few soldiers ever liked that stuff.

Walt I know you miss your dad a lot and I bet he was a good man besides being a good soldier. You can always be proud of him.

[Niner Delta]

There was a good reason they were called "The Greatest Generation", and I believe they were!

My father was never in the military, he had broken his back in 1938 and the Dr. at the place he
tried to enlist took one look at the surgery scar on his back and said, in effect, "Oh hell no." and
he was sent home immediately.

.

[Niner]

Vern, my dad didn't serve in WWII either. He was drafted and got to the medical exam and was discovered to have a hernia. The doctor told him it needed fixing before he could pass inspection. My dad asked him couldn't the military fix it and the doctor said no since he wasn't in the military. So what they suggested for him to do was pay for an operation out of his own shallow pockets and then join. My father decided he didn't want to spend the money. And I'm glad he didn't.... otherwise I might not be around today.

[Niner Delta]

I'm not sure if my Dad would have been drafted, in 1942 he was 33 years old. He said he knew
that his back would keep him from combat, but thought maybe he could do something less physically
demanding in the military. But I'm sure the Dr. knew that one wrong move and Dad would be on
disability for the rest of his life. As it turned out, he became a barber, although the standing was
a problem at times.
And like you, if my Dad hadn't made it through the war, I wouldn't be here either......

.

[Aughnanure]

My Dad was called up in WWII but as soon as they saw his occupation as a Blacksmith on the Government Railways he was rejected as he was in a Reserved Occupation.

Had he gone to war and not come back, I'd still be around, but I'd have lost my best mate and the bloke who taught me to shoot..