Posted on 06/05/2009 6:44:25 PM PDT by doug from upland
Sounds like your dad was an amazing man.
Thanks. I think so, and also think the same about your Uncle.
It is unfortunate in one sense that my dad never spoke more about the war. It was only several years after he passed that I looked into his war record, the outfit he served with, and comprehending what he went went through.
To say least, I was awed, absolutely humbled, and at the same time, extremely proud.
My grandfather had been promoted to first lieutenant two days before Pearl Harbor was attacked, but he was never deployed overseas. Great-uncle Gordon, however, served as the operations officer for the 15th Tank Battalion of the 6th Armored Division. He crossed the Normandy beaches about a month after D-Day. On November 15, 1944, he was severely injured by a German mortar barrage and spent the next twenty months in a hospital in Scotland.
Both my grandfather and great-uncle Gordon passed away in December 2005, but I have this recording of their experiences to help keep their legacy alive.
I just wish that I had the forethought to do the same. You are fortunate to have preserved the memories of those heroes. It is something to treasure.
Many things, starting with innocence.
A bit too trite of a summation, I think. War is war, and though technology changes, the brutality doesn't - and prewar America was hardly innocent. But in WWII, America alone freed the world from global totalitarian horror. And so many people who find that important, myself included, find the results worth the effort, and are even proud of the fight.
Freedom
.
The trick is to push the buttons really hard
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