Easy Company

[Ole Joe Clark]

Just viewed "Band of Brothers" on you tube. I agree with the old Gentleman at the last when he said: "But I served with a company of heroes." But I disagree with his answer to his grandson when he said he wasn't a hero. Giants they were, and sometimes "hero" seems so inadequate. It's because of men like these and all who served in all the wars and those who are still fighting our battles, that the USA is still free.

God bless them all,

Leon

 

[rwsmith]

Most believe....

...that if there are any heroes in a war they are the ones that didn't come back.

 

[FlyTyinFool]

Funny you should mention that series!

I just started re-watching it last week.
I'm on episode 4.

It takes a while because I only have between 5:00 and the time the wife gets home, at about 5:20-5:30.
Slow progress, but a great series!

The Pacific is next (...month!).

 

[Abbynormal]

That generation didn't believe that they did any thing special or beyond the
call of duty if they survived.

They believed that that the ones that died were the
ones that went beyond the call of duty and should be rewarded. Not the ones
that survived, but the ones that perished!

They wanted to imortalize their comrads!

 

[fordson]

When I was growing up WWII veterans were common place. My father, his brother, two of thier cousins, our next door neighbors on either side of us and across the street were WWII combat veterans. My father was a POW. A cousin was with the 82nd at Normandy - lost an arm. My father had some work friends. One was a B-24 navagator who flew in Jimmy Strewards air group, another was a Marine in the 1st Div who told me stories of his nights on Edson’s Ridge. I was too young then to appreciate thier stories at the time but I remember that they never considered thier service to be anything special. They just did what they had to do - like a lot of us veterans from more recent conflicts. They were just doing thier job but they were special to a young kid. They were mentors and models of what a “man” was supposed to be. They were good man, one and all.
It’s sad but they’re all gone now - and I miss them.
Good man, one and all.
RIP Dad.......

 

[Texas Star]

I'm wary of saying anything about stuff in the news that a mod may think is political. So, with that in mind...


Without mentioning her approaching guests...Queen Elizabeth II was waiting in front of Windsor Castle this week, with the band of the Coldstream Guards playing the lawn equivalent of elevator music, I suppose. One of their songs was the music to, Band of Brothers.

I thought that was pretty cool. Did anyone else here notice that? I found just one video on You Tube that gave that much coverage. Most didn't begin until the guests arrived. But that theme music has been running in my head since.

 

[GUNMIKE]

One of our neighbors, as I was growing up, was a WWII, Battle of the Bulge vet. He said little about his service, with one exception. He said it was mighty cold.

 

[JH1951]

I'm a 'baby boomer', and grew up with WWII vets around me in all social circles that my parents introduced me to. Veteran's organizations (Amvets, VFW, American Legion) ruled. Almost every adult belonged to at least two organizations, and volunteered time and effort in to at least one. A lot of effort went to assisting kids who were orphaned or disadvantaged by the service injuries of a parent. Trips to Scotland School in south central PA were commonplace. I distinctly recall none of them claiming valor or heroics. Others may shower it on them, but they never expected it. One thing I do recall was that quite a few gatherings ended with a drink - a toast to those that fell and preserved the American way of life.
I miss those days. Kinda sad that even the old bronze grave markers get stolen today....
All of those people were heroes to me. Most service records were only hashed over at a funeral or in an obituary. I recall trying to get the records of my father when he passed. They were classified. He never spoke much of his service. The older I get, the more I would like to know.....

 

[WardenRoss]

Thanks for the reminder.

My Dad was a disabled veteran and served in the Pacific theater. He saw the Eastern Mandates (Bronze Star), Guam, Philippines, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and probably some other places that I don't know about.

He never talked about it.

I'm thankful that Mr. Spielberg made the "Pacific" so hopefully my grandchildren will know what my Dad went through.

His brother was shipped to Italy when my Dad was shipped to the Mandates Island Campaign. Two boys, worlds apart, fresh off a south Georgia tobacco farm.

I'm in awe.

 

[Rustyt1953]

Dad never spoke much about his combat time in Germany.

Growing up, if we were watching a war movie or war tv show dad would sometimes chuckle and say: "twern't thataway 'tall".

 

[Iggy]

My Dad and his Cousin came home from the war and took over for their homesteader parents and built a ranching empire.
They never talked about the war other than to say the were proud to have served.
Those men were 10 feet tall and made of steel in my eyes as a growing boy and even today.

 

[AZretired]

My dad enlisted in 1940, was a Pearl Harbor Survivor (Scofield Barracks), then went to OCS and landed on Utah Beach on D+1. He was in the Signal Corps and was assigned as a Platoon Leader in a Black Company (All the officers were white in out segregated Army). They strung a lot of wire and he wound up in the hospital with Trench Foot shortly be fore the Battle of the Bulge started. Cold bothered his feet the rest of his life. He ended hias Career with a tour of Viet Nam in 1962. He didn't like to talk about the war but would answer questions. Just wished I had asked more before he passed.

 

[TomkinsSP]

I am the 'baby', born 13 years after the war ended.

EVERYONE I knew growing up had been affected by the war. Dad flew A20s, my FIL FMs. Some uncles served in M4s, one had nasty burns from an M7s that 'brewed up'. Priests had been chaplains. Mom's had been nurses or Rosy. Relatives made torpedoes in St.Louis, B24s in Ypsilanti, Liberty ships out in Washington. The men from the neighborhood had been Merchant Marines, Devil Dog Marines, Sailors, Infantry, Artillerymen.

We walked past reminders, such as the Frieze on the Park Ave Synagouge (which was actually on Madison) dedicated to the child victims of Nazism. People had a shared experience, a shared sacrifice. Teachers delivered the history lessons, and did not try to revise reality.

We tried to make the world a better place, even to the extent that some of our great failures were really the result of excessive enthusiasm and trust in tommorrow. It really was a different place and a different time.

 

[Texas Star]

Most of my childhood friends had fathers who were WW II vets. A surprising number had brought back enemy weapons and I learned by the time I was 12 how to work Lugers, P-38's, Mauser and Arisaka rifles, Nambu and Beretta pistols. There was an occasional Colt .45 auto, my favorite.

By the time I was 13, I owned a No. 4 .303 rifle and a MK VI Webley, and by 16, added a Colt M-1917 .45 revolver.

HS ROTC acquainted me with the M-1 rifle and .30 carbine and the BAR . I fired the M-1 at summer camp.

Yes, those were different days. No one was alarmed that young boys owned guns or knew how to use them.

Oh: my father was on Okinawa, but after the fighting ended. All he shot were some mongooses. And all he brought back were some coins and photos, none too dramatic. The only exception was of a native man afflicted with a condition that I probably shouldn't describe here. He did have a Ka-Bar commercial hunting knife, but had bought it before the war. It just saw normal utility use. Didn't stop any banzai attacks...

He did pass through a typhoon en route to Okinawa and said it was a real nightmare.

 

[klondike]

I had the pleasure of meeting Sgt Don Malarkey several times when he visited my restaurant. I asked him about the movie and he had several comments; the uniforms were pretty accurate with only a few exceptions that he noted, the artillery barrage at Bastogne was MUCH more intense than the movie showed ( causing hearing problems for him), Capt. Winters was almost worshiped by his men, and there was no fraternization with German civilians that he ever knew of.
Don was a real gentleman.

 

[Abbynormal]

My two Uncles were both WWII vets. LC was a tanker in Europe and Uncle Jim was a Marine that flew PBY's and B-25s off the East Coast on U boat patrol.

My Dad was drafted for Korea and his brother Jim was recalled into Marine air, was trained in night fighter jets and earned the DFC.

Both male cousins served in the Marines during VN, one spending 14 months at Da Nang!

My family's military history goes back beyond the Civil War.

GG Paw was in the Illinois Volunteer Cavalry and fought in the Indian Campaign and the Sherman March during the Civil War.

Grandpaw served in US Army Coastal Artillery in the PI during the Moro uprising.

Papaw was a truck driver in France during WWI.

A great Uncle was wounded being shot off a telephone pole in WWI too!

 

[rwsmith]

Yeah, the funeral thing.....

My neighbor never mentioned anything about war service, but at his funeral I found out that he was a tail gunner on a B-17 with two Purple Hearts.

Apparently having very capable and well armed people trying to kill you almost every day while you do your best to kill them first isn't as much fun as watching it on TV.

 

[Protected One]

I spent the 4th of July Week in Washington DC, and of course, had to visit the Vietnam Memorial. My next door neighbor from my childhood, a marine, was killed in Nam at the age of 20. His dad, a WWII vet. served in TWO branches of the military, with the 82nd Airborne AND the Navy. He is now 91 and an invalid (knees are shot) as a result of all the jumps he made...but his mind is as sharp as ever.

He's a hero in my mind.