Old TexMex
Member
John, thank you for making that trip. We pray their (and your) service will never be forgotten.
My Dad: WWII U.S. Army in the Pacific. '43-'46
My Dad: WWII U.S. Army in the Pacific. '43-'46
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I walked with GIANTS last week...
- Thread starter PALADIN85020
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S&WIowegan
US Veteran
Great post and thank you for helping these men make the trip. Many of the guys have suffered PTSD silently for decades in varying degrees of severity. Their wives sometimes mention the nightmares they have. Only now are many of them willing to talk about their experiences and they still cry when recalling dead buddies.
We have had several honor flights out of Iowa. One local WW II vet who enlisted in the Navy at age 17 has become quite wealthy since coming home. He has been a major sponsor of the flights. He is a person who tended to block out the war and focused on getting on with life. Only now is he talking about what he saw running landing boats to Iwo Jima and hauling casualties off the beach to hospital ships.
Believe it or not, we have one WW II vet who comes to our IPSC matches occasionally with his trusty 1911. He's a little shakey and we watch him closely for safety but he can still hit what he aims at. He also recently got married!
We have had several honor flights out of Iowa. One local WW II vet who enlisted in the Navy at age 17 has become quite wealthy since coming home. He has been a major sponsor of the flights. He is a person who tended to block out the war and focused on getting on with life. Only now is he talking about what he saw running landing boats to Iwo Jima and hauling casualties off the beach to hospital ships.
Believe it or not, we have one WW II vet who comes to our IPSC matches occasionally with his trusty 1911. He's a little shakey and we watch him closely for safety but he can still hit what he aims at. He also recently got married!
Triple like! My dad was a wwII vet, stationed in the south pacific. He never talked about his war experience. Unfortunately he died before the honor flights started. It has been my honor to have my morning coffee with several wwII vets for several years. Unfortunately, not many left. I have always stressed to my sons that all veterans are to be treated with the utmost respect and gratitude
shouldazagged
Absent Comrade
My father died at ninety, fifteen years ago this November 22. He was a war correspondent in WWII. He was far too shortsighted to serve in the military; but at thirty-three he hit Omaha Beach with one of the first units ashore in the first wave on 6 June, 1944.
As a kid and a young man I was privileged to be acquainted with many veterans of the war. One married couple were good friends of my family. He had been an infantry officer in North Africa, Italy and southern France, and she had been an Army nurse.
Four of my mother's brothers were in the Army, one in the Aleutians and three in Europe. The eldest was in on the liberation of some of the worst concentration camps in Germany.
None of these veterans would talk about their combat experiences, though they'd occasionally tell a funny story. None was ever the same after the war. The uncle who fought in the Aleutians committed suicide seven years after hostilities ended.
These were my idols. To a part of me they always will be.
As a kid and a young man I was privileged to be acquainted with many veterans of the war. One married couple were good friends of my family. He had been an infantry officer in North Africa, Italy and southern France, and she had been an Army nurse.
Four of my mother's brothers were in the Army, one in the Aleutians and three in Europe. The eldest was in on the liberation of some of the worst concentration camps in Germany.
None of these veterans would talk about their combat experiences, though they'd occasionally tell a funny story. None was ever the same after the war. The uncle who fought in the Aleutians committed suicide seven years after hostilities ended.
These were my idols. To a part of me they always will be.
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