Posted on 06/08/2014 2:56:06 PM PDT by Hojczyk
The last thing his commanders said before he dropped from a plane somewhere near Bastogne was “good luck.”
It was the Battle of the Bulge, and Allied troops were running out of ammunition, food and medicine; they desperately needed radar capabilities because supplies being dropped sporadically were falling into German hands due to thick fog and high winds.
Mike Segal was 21, a self-described Jewish Kentucky boy born with a rifle in his hand. A “Pathfinder” for the 101st Airborne Division, he was the slim hope of surrounded American soldiers.
He sent his men off, two by two, as he laid down covering fire. “I told them to run like hell and to not stop for anything” while he picked off the enemy, one by one. “I was a dead-eye, I never missed. ‘One-shot Segal,' that is what they called me.”
Finally, when his men were 50 yards from their objective and the Germans, “I said, ‘It's time for you to go, Segal,' and I just dropped everything, kept my rifle and kept on running. And I made it across the bridge.”
He saved the lives of every man in his unit.
Segal doesn't consider himself extraordinary. He came from a loving, close-knit family with a strong work ethic, he said, and lived an unremarkable life. He is from a generation that gave its all during World War II, but he believes subsequent generations would have done the same.
Bright, charming, looking 20 years younger than his actual 91, he reminds you of the importance of living in the moment. His actions in battle make today's world seem small — and sitting beside him makes you wonder: If you were called, could you do the same
(Excerpt) Read more at triblive.com ...
This country can not win a war like World War II...We cannot build the stuff required anymore...fast enough...let alone find the men and women to fight it....or the leaders to lead it...
You’d be surprised by some of the young people I meet here in rural Ohio.But the problem is leadership,that lot in Washington is not up to the job.
Interesting, he wasn’t drafted, he volunteered, and he was from slave/plantation owning Jews.
My dad made it back to England 3 days later..he came down amid a bunch of the 101st..they got him back to the beachhead the next day..His plane was hit about 10 minutes after the stick jumped...the other members of his crew didn't survive..he never found out what happened to them. He often wondered if he'd found the right drop zone..and what happened to that squad.
Win wars, of course, is the obvious one. Send men to the moon. Run schools, keep civil peace, speak honestly about - well, about anything - all that is gone, perhaps for good.
Take a look at the young drivers on the highways.
You can’t win a war texting.
I read something a while back which I thought was interesting.
It said we could not build a WWII era battleship today. They built them in WWI and WWII and not just America. France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Great Britain, all built them.
There are no mills which could produce the armor for them. I guess we could first build the steel mills then build the battleships.
That is such crap.
We could get the factories up and there are plenty of great young men and women.
Used to be that the whole nation was deeply involved in the war and yes that included manufacturing shifting to war production.
I grew up listening to my great grandmother’s stories about the homefront side of the war. She said that they saw these B-24s flying test flights over south eastern Michigan every day all day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNKlpOlfNT0
“Every shot that misses it’s target is just useless fireworks.”Words from an SS officer who really knew his business.
The longest shot I would ever have to take here would be 750 yards.I won’t miss.
My dad was a C-47 pilot.
My Dad was a Radio Operator on a C-47. He missed D-Day, but, he DID drop supplies onto Bastogne after the weather cleared during the Battle of the Bulge. He also dropped troops over the Rhine.
What’s interesting is that my brother was a member of the 82nd Airborne. Served at Ahn Khe in Viet Nam.
When he went “Airborne”, he too, jumped from a C-47...
My dad dropped out of college in 39..joined the USAAF..he knew a war was coming, and he wanted to fly. After he got his wings, in 1940 his squadron was sent to Iceland...where he spent 19 months on the ice..they flew the anti-sub patrols for the convoys..before Pearl Harbor..FDR was nervous about getting us involved..so they flew the missions unarmed..the “theory” was that a plane flying convoy duty would keep the U-boats below the surface, and thus unable to catch up with the convoys..He said it was boring as hell..he never saw a sub..
My great granny said the whole town emptied of young people who went to fight the war. Even most of the young girls joined the WAVES or something similar.
My dad dropped out of college in 39...
My Dad was a travelling Salesman. Most kids from his generation were fascinated by airplanes. My Dad WANTED to be a pilot. But, he wore glasses...
He HATED officers. When his plane was ferrying 5 gallon jerry cans of fuel to Patton’s Army, he was the guy that had to hump these containers off the plane. He said it was a 24/7 operation. When the plane got back to England in the middle of the night, there was no mess hall open. The Officers Club WAS open. Though he HATED officers, he said that the officers on HIS plane ALWAYS invited him for a meal - the Radio Operator was the only NON-Officer on the C-47.
Yeah, he hated officers, but the officers he hated were the ones who NEVER saw any kind of action.
At the end of the war, his plane was turned into a flying “Living Room” for Gen. Alexander Patch. He liked Patch. Patch would invite him back for sandwiches.
Anyway, he told his sons and grandsons to get an Officer’s Commission. You live in a whole ‘nother world, he said...
Even most of the young girls joined the WAVES
I’m probably one of the few kids who can boast that BOTH my parents were WWII veterans. My Dad was a Radio Operator on a C-47, serving in Europe.
My mother tried desperately to get into the Navy. Her eye-sight was bad. Eventually, she was accepted by the WAVES. She served at Pearl Harbor as a teletype operator. She was a Radioman 3rd Class. Out ranked my Old Man...
It was a very different world. A short history of the 113th Antiaircraft Artillery Gun Battalion from bootcamp to the end of the war. My grandfather wrote the history of Battery D. He saw action in North Africa and again in the battle of the bulge. It was written for homefront consumption so its very tame.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/158942992/113th-Antiaircraft-Artillery-Gun-Battalion-History-All
The farewell message from Major Nix is very interesting and seems to be warning against becoming the America of today.
Imagine if Obama had been POTUS in 1941. We would be speaking German except the west coast which would be a Japanese enclave.
My grandmother was in the WAVES and Granddad was a radioman with the 113th antiaircraft battalion.
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