Maybe you should be ashamed for making such an assumption. Not replying to this thread doesn’t mean someone didn’t remember.
December 7 , 1941..........
- Thread starter Blanca BusaLess
- Start date
Maybe you should be ashamed for making such an assumption. Not replying to this thread doesn’t mean someone didn’t remember.
I saw one of those recently and you are correct, the people they interviewed (US born university students) didn't even know where or when it happened all except one young man who looked like he had a clue...
Pretty sad.....
‘You all should be ashamed’ as in I was surprised nobody started a thread about it. You know what they say about ASSumptions right? If you don’t just ask Jelly. Hahahahaha
TallTom
Registered
My dad joined up at the day after PH. He turned 20 in flight school. Thought the war would be over in 6 months and this would be a great adventure to go on. 20 hours of total flight time later and he had Germans in planes shooting at him in his plane. Up until that time he had only shot at mostly sheep in the English countryside for training.
He flew bomber escort in P-47s until the P-51 was delivered. They seriously were getting their asses kicked until the 51 arrived. He lost many fellow pilot friends monthly before the 51 arrived.
He was relieved when Germany finally surrendered. Then they put him, along with about 10,000 others on the Queen Mary, a ship built to carry 2,000 passengers, with orders to Japan. Gave him a promotion en route. He thought the war would never end. Japan surrendered before they crossed the Atlantic.
Which took weeks. He got to disembark in New York.
He flew bomber escort in P-47s until the P-51 was delivered. They seriously were getting their asses kicked until the 51 arrived. He lost many fellow pilot friends monthly before the 51 arrived.
He was relieved when Germany finally surrendered. Then they put him, along with about 10,000 others on the Queen Mary, a ship built to carry 2,000 passengers, with orders to Japan. Gave him a promotion en route. He thought the war would never end. Japan surrendered before they crossed the Atlantic.
Which took weeks. He got to disembark in New York.
The reality is that we just don’t learn from history, same mistakes and aggressive manoeuvres are repeated over and over…
So what is the relevance of actually learning history??
Oh yeah, it’s nice to know who killed who, and who stole who’s land etc.
The history of the ancients always interests me, the Old Testament stories especially.
Gives you an idea of where we all came from and who were the old peoples of Earth.
These young men and women went to war and did the job in the face of constant death......I really wonder how the modern young people would stand up to such a monumental task like that...
Here in Canada we joined the war in 1939 with Britain and for a time we had the 3rd largest navy in the world. We had many fliers fighting in the Battle for Britain where many made "Ace" status. I lost both grandfathers in the war and an uncle.
It is humbling to read and research what these people went through and what they endured over the years....I have a degree in Canadian military history and was privy to many war diaries written by on-site commanders...these were very interesting to say the least.
Even as a kid I was fascinated by military history and used to read everything I could get my hands on, our school library had a lot of books on the subject and I signed one book out so often the librarian gave it to me...
When I joined the military at 17, I tried to talk to as many of the old veterans I could find and because I was a soldier, many times they'd open up and talk about their experiences....it's a very sad thing that they are all leaving us and along with them their memories and drive to keep these memories alive.....in only a few years, it will all be lost to the next generation as it's no longer taught in schools.
TallTom
Registered
I'm my dad's case, he had just endured the depression. It wasn't fully over. He was in college hoping for a job. So he saw it as not only the patriotic thing, but it was also a job. With food and housing etc. Considering what had been through, he thought it was the right thing in more than one way.
People don't appreciate the war effort. The Germans were winning. We just managed to keep building massive amounts of hardware to outpace the attrition. They needed bodies to occupy them. So yeah, 20 hours of flight time and throw you into combat against seasoned enemies is pretty unheard of these days.
He remembered D-Day. He said you'd never seen so many flying things flying at one time in your life. That was the point. Overwhelm by sheer numbers. It wasn't that they wanted to make people expendable. They just had no other strategy that would have worked.
People of his and my grandparents era were of a different breed, they endured and excelled even when most wouldn't....
It molded them as people and made them stronger.....
We seem to be losing this resolve more and more in a rapid pace these days....change is becoming less gradual and far more militant, in these times if you are slow to accept all change or are hesitant, you are instantly branded with zero mercy...
People from the older generations are being forgotten, disposed, dismissed and looked at as dinosaurs whose opinions are worthless.
If you try to explain how society used to be, people of today barely look up from their phone in acknowledgement...
I still believe society was far better before the invent of cell phones and social media (even though it makes me a hypocrite for being on here).
Giving Stanley and all the rest the bump and memory they deserve.
A good re-post and a reminder of a tragic event that shaped a nation.......it's sobering to read about young men killing themselves because they were 4F and unable to serve.......in these modern times it would be young people fleeing just so they didn't have to serve...
We here in Canada got lots of Vietnam draft dodgers.......I personally believe they should have been instantly extradited to the US once they were found out....
I shudder to think of how a draft would work today in the event of a looming global war....
The enemies of the west are all building their militaries....China is building an army with the sole purpose of defeating the US yet we in the west are still kissing their ring.......this might change with Trump at the helm though.....
We here in Canada got lots of Vietnam draft dodgers.......I personally believe they should have been instantly extradited to the US once they were found out....
I shudder to think of how a draft would work today in the event of a looming global war....
The enemies of the west are all building their militaries....China is building an army with the sole purpose of defeating the US yet we in the west are still kissing their ring.......this might change with Trump at the helm though.....
michael parris heuberger
Registered
Hi. I would go to sighn up again. If not for front lines ( where I would want to be ) in supplies
or something I could do.
michael parris heuberger
Registered
Hi. And if they can not use me for anything, maybe they could use me for a bad example!
If they were smart, they'd bring experienced guys like you in as an advisor/instructor.....real time combat experience is priceless...
Similar threads
