Anyone have any more WW 2 veterans stories that they can share here?

LTC Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 08 May 2016 23:22:16 -0400

I had this printed in the my Brigade Newsletter last summer.

https://www.rallypoint.com/status-updates/1487281

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Response by CSM Private RallyPoint Member made May 8 at 2016 11:27 PM

CSM Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 08 May 2016 23:27:49 -0400

I have photos and stories from my Grandfather who was a Marine in WWII.

Response by LTC Stephen F. made May 9 at 2016 12:07 AM

LTC Stephen F. — Mon, 09 May 2016 00:07:34 -0400

My family is British and my parents grew up in wartime London during the battle of Britain except when my mother was evacuated LTC Private RallyPoint Member. My father lost his uncle, who was a WWI British army veteran of the trenches in France and Belgium when a German bomb destroyed his home during the Battle of Britain. My uncle George was killed with his wife. Their two youngest children survived - one in a closet and the other hiding under a table.
My father described the excitement of finding unexploded ordnance early in the war out in the country and of some middle school boys helping a teacher put out the fire caused by incendiary bombs hitting the school roof on the weekend.
After the war, my mother's family took in a former concentration cap prisoner named Cashik [spelling?] who was a Slav and was sentenced to Treblinka because he was a Slav. I met him in the 1960s and by then he was very quiet with eyes which had obviously seen too much.

Response by CPL Ricky Vasquez made May 9 at 2016 12:46 AM

CPL Ricky Vasquez — Mon, 09 May 2016 00:46:17 -0400

While on Funeral Detail, I met a WW2 Vet who lost his hand. His hand was chopped off by a JAP in the Pacific Battle Front...

Response by PO1 William "Chip" Nagel made May 9 at 2016 2:21 AM

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel — Mon, 09 May 2016 02:21:33 -0400

You ever Meet an E-3 Capt'n? I did I called Him Uncle Bill until he passed. Navy Tradition the Senior Man in Charge of a Vessel is the Capt'n no matter his rank. He was Capt'n of a Landing Craft in the Battle of Okinawa. He told me that he quickly figured out that the Japanese only fired on him while the Marines were onboard. Told the 2 SAs working for him get them bastards off my boat as fast as you can, push them off if you have too. Funny his Youngest Brother, My Father became a Marine. LOL!

Response by SGM David W. Carr LOM, DMSM MP SGT made May 9 at 2016 2:28 AM

SGM David W. Carr LOM, DMSM MP SGT — Mon, 09 May 2016 02:28:52 -0400

LTC Private RallyPoint Member My 92 years young dad is a WWII "Can Do " Seabee veteran of 4 Pacific theater campaigns. His 77th CB held many reunions over the years up until about 5 years ago when they played taps while placing a unit placard on the outside wall at the Pacific War Museum in Fredricksburg, TX. They island hopped clearing the jungle, building runways, fuel depots, hospitals, barracks and chow halls to name just a few. Every Construction Battalion has a yearbook at the Seabee museum in Biloxi, MS

Response by SSG Carlos Madden made May 9 at 2016 9:58 AM

SSG Carlos Madden — Mon, 09 May 2016 09:58:06 -0400

My childhood friend's grandfather was in North Africa, Italy, D-Day, Normandy, the Bulge, and ultimately linked up with the Russians at the end of the war. By chance, he called me out of the blue a few days after I'd just visited Normandy and sent me his short memoir from the war.

Response by LTC Stephen C. made May 9 at 2016 10:01 AM

LTC Stephen C. — Mon, 09 May 2016 10:01:31 -0400

LTC Private RallyPoint Member, my father, LTJG Jack D. Curlee (now deceased) served in the U.S. Navy during WWII. Here's a photo of my father with his brother, Brooks (at left), in Pasadena, CA on 1JAN46, just before they went to the Rose Bowl.
My father had just returned from the South Pacific, and was in San Francisco, preparing to assist in the decommissioning of his ship, U.S.S. LST-78. His brother, who had been wounded and MIA with the 70th Infantry Division (Trailblazers) in Europe, was stationed at Camp Ross in Wilmington, CA.
What are the chances that brothers stationed in opposite parts of the world could end up so near each other and go to a football game together?! By the way, the University of Alabama beat the University of Southern California 34-10.
Here's an ironic twist for you. Both my father and uncle graduated from Auburn! COL Jean (John) F. B.

Response by CPO Emmett (Bud) Carpenter made May 9 at 2016 11:01 AM

CPO Emmett (Bud) Carpenter — Mon, 09 May 2016 11:01:30 -0400

This is picture of my dads team just before they did the recon of Yap during WW2. My dad (second from the left) and the guy on the far right were the only ones to return to the sub(USS Burfish). The other 3 were captured by the Japs and put to death.

Response by CSM Charles Hayden made May 9 at 2016 1:30 PM

CSM Charles Hayden — Mon, 09 May 2016 13:30:01 -0400

LTC Private RallyPoint Member At my urging, a friend went to a reunion of the 36th ID. 'Mike Reta" had seen service in North African, but was severely wounded in Italy and shipped home.
While Mike was chatting w/ another veteran at this reunion he casually asked if the fellow remembered "LT ?"?. The fellow responded, 'I remember him, he took a round to the head in France and died immediately".

Several boys of the Bobbit family had been baby sitters when I was a baby in the 1930s. In 1946 at a backyard picnic, I really caught heck for discharging a fire cracker. Two of those Bobbit' boys" had taken cover at the explosion!

While reading "Darby's Rangers" in 1964, I mentioned the book to Ray O'Dell at work. Ray said, "who wrote it?". I responded, "James Alteri". Ray exclaimed, "JIMMY!". Ray had been a original Ranger, had seen action in N Africa. At Anzio's Battle for Cisterna, the Rangers were decimated. (6 of 767 Rangers returned to Allied lines). Ray almost reached a drainage ditch where he would have been able to flee the carnage at Cisterna. His next memory was awakening on a train to Germany with his left elbow shattered. As a POW, Ray said the German farmers he was detailed to work for saved his life by sharing some of their meager rations with him. Ray did not physically engage his sons as they were growing up. He said he was afraid he might suddenly reflex and really injure them.

Another friend had been a gunner on a bomber in the Pacific. Herb said that one morning they flew over some Japanese personnel sunning/ bathing on a beach. The Japanese were taken under fire. Herb said he soon surrendered his wings; deriving pleasure from that wonton killing was not to his liking.