Dec 7, 1941

I just now saw this, Salty, and I'm so glad you posted it. Here in WV, the flags were lowered to half-staff to honor this day in history. May we NEVER forget.

 

Salty- Thanks for posting this.

I grew up ten minutes from my Grandfather's home. I consider him to be my best friend. I was able to get to know the man for who he was. My Grandpa served in the Pacific in WWII. He never spoke of his experiences in detail until the last couple years before he passed away. He'd talk of terrible things. That ordeal left an indelible mark on the rest of his life. His service was a source of pride to him, but he paid a price for it.

We buried him December 7, 2006.

 

I do not have any combat experience and I am thakful for that.

I can not thank enough, those who have put themselves in harm's way to give the rest of us the chance to live the fat, cushie lives that we live.

There are thugs in the world and they will do something stupid enough that we will have to fight them. I just hope that the next generation of Americans that have to fight a war for the nation's freedom do it as well as the World War II generation did it.

 

quote: True combat vets do not like to talk about their experiences; and we who never served in combat should respect their wishes.
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Salty, True we don't like to talk about the death and destruction, but we usually find the humorous times to explore. There were plenty of times for laughter.

During the bombing of London, I remember as a youth throwing stones at the German bombers as the flew above us. Wonder if I ever hit one...lol. As much as we hated the Germans, we did run to the planes that crashed to see if anyone survived, so we could assist them. Funny innit!

Cheers,

Jim

 

I had a great uncle at Pearl that day. We should remember always. My grandparents, like most men their age were veterans of WWII. My maternal grandfather endured heavy combat in Europe. He would tell us the funny stories of military service. Happy stories of what he had seen. How he met my grandmother as a pen pal and then came home to marry her. But he would never talk about the pain and those friends he had lost.

When I came home from Iraq he was quite ill and did not have much longer to live. But he could and did talk about all those things. He said now I could understand, and I did. We both managed to help each other.

It is not that veterans don’t want to share these things. It is that they can’t. Not because it is too painful, although it sometimes is, but because we just don’t know how to say it. You can’t describe it unless it is to someone who has experienced it, and then you don’t have to.

There is an old expression of combat experience that someone had, “Seen the Elephant.” In the days before television and movies it was very applicable. Imagine trying to tell someone about an elephant who had never seen one. Without having pictures to help you.

Well first off, it's big.
Big, how big? Big as a hourse?
No bigger than that, big as a room?
Big as a room?
Yea, about the size of a small room, and it has this nose that hangs down to the ground.
Its nose hangs to the ground? like a big droopy nose?
No, its almost the same size as its leg.
It has a nose the same size as a leg?
Yea like a 5th leg coming out of its face, and it can use it to pick stuff up.
Yea, right.

You can imagine how hard that would be. But, to someone else that has seen an elephant, you don’t have to explain at all, they know.

 

I'm a little late with my post----but yes---I do remember Pearl Harbor day each December 7

ToJo(Toe-Joe) rolls the dice and lost in slow motion!!!