Boomers: Do you remember the WWII stories your fathers and grandfathers used to tell? (grandparent, states)

[Manigault]

My father was part of the Red Ball Express driving supplies to Patton's Third Army. He never spoke much of it but did say that he got bursitis from sleeping outside in freezing temperatures in a mud puddle. His wartime letters to my mother mention only the climate and how well the US forces were clad in their uniforms.

My uncle served in the merchant marine and missed many family celebrations because his job was 'at sea'. He become one of the first black naval officers. After he worked in ships full of asbestos for 40 years, he got a $67 settlement check as part of a class action lawsuit. However, in '44, his ship was torpedoed off the Panama Canal and he got in a lifeboat while all his pay was in his dungarees in a locker! He remembered his cash sinking. I only got this story in 2008 about six months before he passed.

[markg91359]

Dad served on the USS Guadalcanal which was an aircraft carrier deployed in the North Atlantic to hunt and sink German U-boats. The ship achieved the distinction of capturing a German submarine, the U 505, on the ocean surface in 1944. The submarine is now kept at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. A plaque there lists the names of every crewman on the Guadalcanal who was present during the capture of the submarine. Dad died in 2009, but I suppose achieved a certain immortality by having his name on that plaque. Every few years we make it to Chicago and if we have time we go to the Museum of Science and Industry. Its more meaningful to me in many ways than going to a cemetery is.

Mom was in the US Navy Nurse Corps during World War II. She had many assignments on shore, but her most memorable one was as a nurse aboard the USS Samaritan, a hospital ship. The ship supported marines and soldiers as they invaded the Japanese held islands of Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. It was quite a job for a girl who grew up in small town Wyoming. She even met Admiral Halsey and Correspondent Ernie Pyle at different points in her tour of duty at sea at different times. Halsey hosted many of the nurses at a New Year's Eve Party on January 1, 1945 on his flagship which was the battleship, the U.S.S. New Jersey.

Both my parents were very eager to talk about their experience in the war. I never encountered the slightest reticence on the part of either of them to do so. The experience was clearly one of the highlights of their lives. It was something they were very proud to have done.

[JustMike77]

My Father was a Navy Seabee in WWII. His favorite story involved his initial deployment. He was bound for the Aleutian Islands (very cold) while another ship left the same day for the South Pacific (warm). Just out of port they realized that each ship carried equipment meant for the other. Rather than switch the men, they just switched the equipment instead. So, my Dad spent his time in the Johnson Islands building airbases and playing a lot of poker.

[NYgal1542]

Dad was born in England and came to America when he was 16. I think his oldest brother served in the British Navy, never heard any of his stories. Dad never did go into the military.

But I have had an interest in all of the wars and have watched as many documentaries as I could on TV.

Thank you to all the men and women who served. So many paid the ultimate price.

[gamboolman]

This is link to another post that i told of ms gamboolgals father, Mr. Beam
I also copied and posted the post below
As many others have posted, he would not talk of the killing
https://www.city-data.com/forum/histo...l#post58313351

Thanks to the veterans of D-Day and WW2; and all the veterans since who have served and/or are on active duty - Thank you

ms gamboolgals father was in the 101st and jumped in at Normandy. Mr. Beam said that when they were in the plane over Normandy that the sky was lit up bright as day from German gun fire and all he wanted to do was to get out of the plane.

Mr. Beam was the 501 PIR HQ3 3rd Battalion of the 101st. He was with the original group from Toccoa, Georgia and was in all of the major battles that the 101st was in. He was never wounded.
He never talked to us of the killing. He did say that he had utmost respect for the German soldiers and that they were excellent killers. He said that he had a pencil shot out of his hand one time and had his web gear shot off of him.
Mr. Beam was on Eisenhower's Honor guard, and he was a guard at Nuremberg. He said he walked several of the high ranking Nazi's to/from the trials and also to the gallows.

We lost Mr. Beam in 2008. He was a father to me and I miss him to this day.

We lost Mrs. Beam in Nov 2019. She had been active in the wives and families 101st organization and thru her we were also. When our son was around 7 years old in 1992, Mr. and Mrs. Beam took him to the 101st reunions and did so for several years. Our son got to meet all the paratroopers and was privileged to meet these great men.

He had 3 brothers who served in WW2 also. One was in the original 10th Mountain Division and survived the whole war. One was in Army in Europe and was shot thru the head and left for dead but his Lieutenant liked him so he had the men to recover him and put him in the dead pile - but he was alive and he lived until a old man with a glass eye and a bullet in his brain. He married and had a family and walked with a slight limp. The other brother was in the Navy in the Pacific and was at Okinawa and other invasions - he said the Kamikazes was terrible and killed many sailors.
None of them would talk of the killing and would not talk of the war.

Respect and appreciation to all the Veterans of all the Wars - Thank You.

Mr. Beam is pictured in the lower right and the other pic is him at Nuremberg

[txfriend]

No, he didn't tell me anything, he never came back from the war. I still remember it.

My Dad and me about 15 years between pic.

[GeoffD]

My father told off his sergeant on the last day of 90 day wonder fighter pilot training and was busted down to private. He re-trained as a bomber radio operator-navigator and was shipped off to Southeast Asia instead of Europe where he probably would have died almost immediately. He rarely talked about it. His missions took a lot of anti aircraft fire and that must have been terrorizing.

My recollection of war stories from WW II vets was that the ones who told all the stories didn’t get shot at.

[arr430]

My dad turned 18 a month before the armistice, and then was 40 on Pearl Harbor day. Lied about his age at both ends, trying to get in.

Nobody on father's side was in military service since Dad's uncle in the Civil War (north)

[Clemencia53]

Originally Posted by thinkingandwondering

I honestly don't know how my dad did it. I think he had a partner that helped out. I know it must have made him crazy and to be drafted at that age - insane. He was on the Army baseball team in Montana. That was his contribution to the war effort (as far as I know). I have the letters he wrote my mom but haven't read them all.

That is why it was called the Old Man's Draft - WW2. They drafted men up to their 40s.

[Clemencia53]

Darn - they increased the draft age to 64!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Man%27s_Draft