Going down 3 times

[wbraswell]

I wanted to share a little story of the "greatest generation".
Last night, I attended a meeting of a local genealogy society that I am a member of. It was our annual "Summer Picnic" where everone brings food and we have a feast and enjoy the company. This time we were asked to honor the vets of our families and bring pics and say a little about them. One woman told of her realtive that had 3 major ships sink under him. He was on the USS California at Pearl Harbor, then on the Wasp, and then on the Hornet. The Hornet was sunk in Oct. 1942, so that's all in one year. I think he couldn't have been on the Hornet but about a month. Man, I think I'd ask if I could get some kind of shore duty, or at least put me on a smaller boat, that doesn't attract so much attention.
He still made it home after the war.

 

[shouldazagged]

Even now I wouldn't want to stand next to that man in a thunderstorm.

You have to appreciate the guts it took to keep going back to sea. Some kind of hombre.

 

[Alpo]

Probably survived the war because word got around, and there was not another sailor that would get on a ship with him. "Me sail with that jinx?"

So they assigned him shore duty in Nebraska for the duration.

 

[feralmerril]

My uncle was wounded in a glider landing. Just him and one other guy out of 14 lived that was in the glider. Then they had to hide for a few days. Finaly when they did hook up they were put on a boat to cross the channel the boat was shelled and sunk. They had to get rescued the secound time.

 

[ChuckS1]

This wasn't what I thought it was...

 

[Rintimtin]

That man should have gotten a job as a cooler in Vegas. That generation beats mine all to hell.

 

[CW Spook]

All the boats I was ever associated with sank every time they went to sea; sometimes for months at a time. ;-)

 

[RSDRake]

My next door neighbor was in WWII and two of the cruisers he was on were sunk in the Pacific. I found this out when he got pissed at another neighbor who bought a Japanese car. Never spoke to the neighbor again.

 

[Brian41]

My adopted Grandfather Jim was a Grumman 4F4 flyer in the Pacific off baby flat tops. His carrier got sunk while he was off her in his plane fighting. He found another ship to land on later but lost a good number of buddies on that ship.
Later when he learned his Ford Ranger had a Japanese Mazda drive train in it he threatened to burn it in the driveway he hated the Japanese so bad.

 

[dcxplant]

My doc and early mentor flew Corsairs in the Pacific, and later F7F's.

He had a Navy SNJ he bought in the 60's for peanuts, and we would fly all the time together.

He never bought a Japanese car, or anything else he could avoid. He'd buy Chinese, as it cracked him up to buy something from a nationality that was an enemy of Japan.

Now another buddy, older dude, fought with Uncle Sam's Misguided Children in the Chosin Reservoir....yeah...... tough s-o-b.... (great article about Tootsie Rolls and the Frozen Chosin in Handgunner) He would buy a Japanese car, but never a Samsung or LG anything Korean.

So...my point is: Why do these guys have no problem buying a German car or Italian shoes? Even vets I know in Europe, they have no problem buying German or Italian. Heck many vets after VE day brought home German wives! My dad's sister married an Annapolis grad.

 

[ChuckS1]

I worked with a retired Navy officer who had been on the USS Chopper when it had its accident. He became a surface warfare guy shortly thereafter until his retirement.

 

[lonejacklarry]

So...my point is: Why do these guys have no problem buying a German car or Italian shoes?

The way my uncle once explained that very question was that the Allied prisoners of war were treated very differently by the Germans than those held captive by the Japanese.

 

[MT99]

My uncle was a ball turret gunner in B-17s and a gunner in B-24s as well. He flew 27 missions and crashed into the English channel 3 times. He had a fused spine and was blind for the last 40 years of his life due to his war injuries. I never heard him complain about it. He was as tough as they come.

 

[Old TexMex]

Knew the late Col. Chas. Weisel, he told me he was a German ace, cause he got shot down 5 times. He did say, more serious, he was glad he was never captured by the Germans.

 

[charlie sherrill]

Back in my youth we had a guy in the neighborhood called "The Walking Man." He had been on three ships sunk by the Japanese during WWII. Dad said he was "shell shocked." He would get up before daylight and walk around town until dark, regardless of the weather. He would not stop and talk. He just kept walking. He lived with his mother and died in his 40's.

 

[JackM]

My uncle was an officer in the Merchant Marines and made frequent "trips" across the Atlantic, one of which was cut short by a U-Boat. He survived that and the rest of the war, but not the tuberculosis he contracted before VE Day. He died at Saranac Lake, NY, before TB was brought under control.

 

[the ringo kid]

My Dad was a Ball Turret Gunner on B-17s from sometime in 44-to-wars end. The only thing I remember he hated--was when some crew mates would substitute his rations for cans of Tuna Fish--he HATED tuna Fish. When he would discover that some fellow prankster substituted his food with that? he would get mad with the Germans and throw the tuna fish out the bomber. He later got "even" with those who he knew changed out his food--by getting all their money while playing a game of Craps--in some Latrine. In Korea--his "profession" was changed and he was in a USAF Weather Detachement.