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Posted: 3/28/2024 9:50:43 AM EDT
[#1]
Yes
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MA, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 9:50:55 AM EDT
[#2]
I knew quite a few, including both of my grandfathers. I own guns I bought from some of them. I vividly remember a response when I asked one if he had any military guns: "when I came back from Germany in 1919 I brought a couple of pistols with me". Turned out to be a broomhandle Mauser and an Artillery Luger. He had his issued 1911 too.
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USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 9:51:18 AM EDT
[#3]
Three WWl vets in my childhood. Two of them pretty well. One, Ken, was gassed and had a small pension.
My Dad and uncles were WWll vets with one exception and he was in the Korean War. All gone now. |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 9:51:35 AM EDT
[#4]
I'm upper 40s....From my childhood I remember a WWI vet from church....he didn't say much but would give a nod if he caught your eye.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 9:54:26 AM EDT
[#5]
Yep. In 1984/85 at the Sussex NJ airshow, I shook hands with a very old gentlemen on a golf cart who flew fighters in WW1. I was under ten at the time and can't recall his name, but he was an honored guest of the airshow.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 9:54:58 AM EDT
[#6]
I'm 50 and I knew a few when I was a kid. One guy at our church lived to be 97 and was the towns longest surviving WW1 vet. He never told any war stories to me.
Another lady from church was older than him, and she was a secretary for a General in WW1. I spent a lot of hours listening to her stories, and looking through her old photo albums. Sadly, I don't remember for whom she worked, or many of the stories. I can still remember a lot of those old pics, though. Most were victory parades and such. |
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FL, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 9:56:21 AM EDT
[#7]
Yep old neighbor AL, we got his 1911
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NC, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 10:01:13 AM EDT
[#8]
Yes my Uncle was a sniper in WW1. Apparently he had a high count. Only thing he ever said to me was when they were worried about being over run and captured first thing he did was hide his rifle and immediately take off his sniper badge that he wore. Otherwise he never spoke of it ever.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 10:01:24 AM EDT
[#9]
I do remember in elementary school in the 70’s and there being a few that served from our small town being at the Remembrance Day services.
I was so young I don’t remember talking to any of them and unfortunately didn’t realize the opportunity to learn from their living history until long after they passed. |
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TX, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 10:01:33 AM EDT
[#10]
My maternal grandfather was a WWI vet.
I knew him well. He passed when I was an older teen. We had a lot of good conversations but none of them included any war stories. |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 10:03:58 AM EDT
[#11]
When I was a reporter for a daily newspaper in the mid 1970s, it was pretty easy to find a WWI vet. I'm not saying there were a lot of them, but you could find them at the local senior activity centers and nursing homes. Many of those I spoke to were still independent, active, and quite lucid.
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AZ, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 10:06:54 AM EDT
[#12]
My great uncle Bill was in WW1. He lied about his age to enlist, wound up driving an ambulance. I remember him making multiple trips to France to visit friends he made during the war.
He died when I was about 10, never heard any of his stories. Everything I knew was told to me by my great aunt (his older sister). |
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MT, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 10:11:56 AM EDT
[#13]
Originally Posted By bondryan: Just finished reading Storm of Steel and am now watching They Shall Not Grow Old for like the 10th time. It got me thinking that if your much under 30 you probably never new or had met anyone who fought in WWI. I had a neighbor when I was a kid in the early 80s who had fought in the war. I was too young to be told war stories but he did give me what he told me was his pack. I don’t have it anymore sadly. They also had vets from WWI come and speak on Veterans Day when I was in grade school. |
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WI, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 10:16:03 AM EDT
[#14]
My great-grandfather was in the German Army. I was way too young to ask him about his experiences.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 10:16:09 AM EDT
[Last Edit: BayEagle]
[#15]
My Grandmother was a Nurse in WWI and during the Spanish Flu. (She also had 4 of her 5 sons go off to WWII) Her brothers, my Great-Uncles lived until the late 1970s. I knew them well, both WWI vets. Both bachelors and both a little nuts. When I first saw Second Hand Lions, I thought "that could be Uncle Frank and Uncle Joe". This is all I have from them, some trench art - a German shell ashtray. Marked Juni 1915 with a KE crown mark (77mm "Whizz-Bang").
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USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 10:26:17 AM EDT
[Last Edit: SteelonSteel]
[#16]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By MemeWarfare: None that I recall, but to help with timeline comprehension, my father saw Civil War vets march in an Independence Day parade when he was a kid in the 1950s. I’ve known many WWII vets, many Vietnam vets, and I have a close friend who fought in Korea who’s young enough to have grandchildren under the age of 4. My great aunt talked about her great uncle Harold...retelling family stories of when he came back from the civil war. He was completely unrecognizable from the man that left. Older, bearded and battered a bit. He had to strip naked and wash in the yard as he was carrying lice from the camps. I cannot say I really knew any. I have seen them in my youth in the 1970’s and even in to the 80’s at the VFW hall. Only a couple regulars of that war. Plenty of WW2 guys there arguing about whose general and units were better. I went to a Marine Corps Ball downstate near Ramapo iirc, there were a handful of WW1 guys that were recognized by the M.C. That was around 1994 or 95. |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 10:34:38 AM EDT
[#17]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By MemeWarfare: None that I recall, but to help with timeline comprehension, my father saw Civil War vets march in an Independence Day parade when he was a kid in the 1950s. I’ve known many WWII vets, many Vietnam vets, and I have a close friend who fought in Korea who’s young enough to have grandchildren under the age of 4. It must've been the very early 50s because the last Civil War combat vet died in 1953. |
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TN, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 10:38:15 AM EDT
[Last Edit: BolivarBill]
[#18]
My grandfather but he died when I was three. He was only early 60's when he passed- don't smoke.
My next-door neighbor when I was growing up, he talked about being trapped behind enemy lines in France and eating bugs because they were starving. He said they were called the anteater brigade after that experience. He had a German helmet that he brought home. We moved when I was 10 and he passed soon after. My first boss but he never talked about it. |
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MI, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 10:38:38 AM EDT
[#19]
Both my grandfather and my uncle were WW1 vets. My biggest regret was that while they were alive I was too young to ask them intelligent questions. My brother still has my grandfather's old uniform.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 10:46:03 AM EDT
[#20]
I'm 37 and met 1-2 when I was a kid. They were old guys and I didn't know it until years later, but it was neat to be able to say I have.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 10:46:46 AM EDT
[#21]
Yes. I posted this in a thread about the Somme a while back:
Growing up, our neighbors were an old English couple. They were both WW1 veterans, he was a soldier, she was a nurse who drove an ambulance. They met when he was wounded at the Somme and she drove him to either an aid station or hospital, I can’t remember which. Like most kids at the time (early ’80s), I was totally enamored with anything military related. I think I was maybe 8 or 9 years old when my family was at their house one night and I learned that they were in WW1. Being a kid, I had no understanding of the realities of war, especially that one and I said something like “Wow! That must have been awesome!” I will NEVER forget the look in that old mans eyes as tears welled up and he grabbed my hand and said “No, son. It was bloody awful. War is nothing but death and misery and nothing good ever comes from it.” It was very sobering to say the least. |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 10:47:16 AM EDT
[#22]
My Grandfather was an aircraft mechanic at an Army base in Ohio during the war.
My WWI history prof was in college during WWI. Her best class session was when she starting reminiscing about her experiences during the war. |
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TX, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 10:47:38 AM EDT
[Last Edit: Wineraner]
[#23]
Great-grandfather was a WW1 vet. Lived in an apt on Grandma/Pa's property. She made his meals, took care of him. We visited the grandparents frequently; he didn't like visitors. Was kind of an asshole, tbh. Enjoyed having you shake his hand---he was a bookbinder by trade---and he could clamp down on a little kid's hand like a vise. Maybe it was how he could show that he was still vital? Otherwise I think he really couldn't get around much, he was near 90 or over 90 when I knew him. I never saw him walking around outside. U.S. Army service. I don't know which branch, though I think Artillery. Not deaf, but hard of hearing.
Despite even at my early age, showing an interest in military history, would not discuss the War, or much of anything else. Unlike Grandpa, who also wouldn't talk much, but did end up giving me his WW2 cruise book and photo of the USS Arkansas. Able Seaman 1st. He worked in the Mess, IIRC. I think he exited the Service before Crossroads. Never thought to ask. |
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PA, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 10:48:16 AM EDT
[#24]
My great uncle Bob was a WW1 veteran. I lived in the same house as him, my grandparents house. This was back in the 1960s. He died sitting right beside me around 1969 or so. He used to tell us about the war in France. He could play the piano. He told us many times he would entertain the guys playing a piano outside on a bombed out street from town they just liberated, captured, etc.
That being said, my first Platoon Sgt in the Army, had a C.I.B. (combat infantryman badge) with two stars. He was in WW2, Korea, and Viet Nam. He was a great guy. I was young and didnt know how special he. It turned out he would be the only guy with a C.I.B. with 2 Stars that I would ever meet during my entire career in the Army (Infantry). He loved bayonet fighting and could really move for an older, big guy. There were lots of WW1 vets around when I was akid in the 1960s. |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 10:51:38 AM EDT
[Last Edit: callgood]
[#25]
 my grandfather. Attached FileWent to France as a doctor on the Black Arrow. En route there was an influenza outbreak. He said they froze the bodies until they got to France. I have his compass, helmet and a few other items. He never spoke of his service. |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 10:51:39 AM EDT
[#26]
My grandfather knew a few.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 10:52:21 AM EDT
[Last Edit: 11boomboom]
[#27]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Admiral_Crunch: I remember at least one was in a group of vets who came to my school to talk to the kids on Veterans Day. I might have been 10. This for me. I spent most of my childhood in DoD schools and we had WW1 vets come a couple of times around Memorial and Veteran's Days. Same for Astronauts and other interesting government characters. I'm 40. |
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USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 10:54:39 AM EDT
[#28]
My great grandfather. It was known that he went but rarely brought up.
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AZ, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 11:00:17 AM EDT
[#29]
Possibly; my great-grandfather was a WWI vet. Yankee Division. He died when I was only a few weeks old though, so naturally I don't remember meeting him.
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TX, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 11:00:35 AM EDT
[#30]
Mr Hubert Poer 404 S Chestnut St. Sat with him many a day in his back yard listening to him talk. We had a big time dodging pecans and pears that the squirrels would intentionally drop on us trying to hit us.
He was in his mid twenties when he and his brother signed up out of sheer boredom. They had been working good jobs making good money for the time but never got any time to enjoy it. I guess going to war was a break and an adventure for them. He never talked about combat, just funny things that happened as a soldier. I miss you Mr. Poer and wish I would have listened closer. |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 11:12:47 AM EDT
[#31]
My great grandpa, he died when I was about 13.
I have his 1911, a couple of pics in uniform, and his 40/8 roundup and American Legion stuff. |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 11:17:54 AM EDT
[#32]
Yes, My grandpa. He would tell funny stories about things that happened in training stateside but wouldn't say much of anything about his time overseas.
He had a bum leg from a wound and he limped and needed a cane for the rest of his life. I asked him what happened to it (dumb little kid question) and he just said "Some of those damn Germans were good shots and some weren't, I got lucky." |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 11:20:05 AM EDT
[Last Edit: sparkyfender2]
[#33]
Several. They weren't rare when I was a kid.
My grandfather on dad's side was actually too old to serve by the time the States joined in on WWI. |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 11:20:33 AM EDT
[#34]
My 3rd grade history teacher was a WWII pilot. He flew P51 and P38.
He became a TV repairman, but decided he wanted to become a teacher. My dad and he carpooled to the local university after my dad graduated high school. Both were in school to become teachers. The WWII vet because he wanted to teach. My dad, because it kept him out of Vietnam. |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 11:22:59 AM EDT
[#35]
My grandfather was a WWI vet. He died when my dad was 12 so obviously I didn’t get to meet him. He emigrated from Sweden just in time to serve in the Army and get shipped off to France.
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NC, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 11:31:02 AM EDT
[#36]
Nope, never met one.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 11:33:10 AM EDT
[#37]
When I was a little kid, I would sometimes walk my brothers paperwork with him. There was an elderly man named Arnold who was a World War I veteran. My brother liked him a lot and he was clearly lonely. In the winter time he would invite us in and let us warm up for a while And make us hot chocolate. He would tell us stories, but they typically were not war stories. I remember him telling us that when he was young, he rarely saw automobiles, and that the downtown area of the small town we lived in, mostly had horse and buggy traffic . In fact, I do not specifically remember him mentioning World War I. I just know my brother told me he was a World War I veteran, and he had several sons who fought in World War II. I also remember him saying that, except for his time in “the service”, he had never lived outside of our small town.
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NJ, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 11:36:09 AM EDT
[#38]
My grandfather fought in WW1. Never met him though.
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USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 11:37:57 AM EDT
[#39]
My great grandmother was 13 during the war and she told me a little about what went on here when I was younger. But it was a big war for America like ww2 or the Civil war
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Posted: 3/28/2024 11:44:50 AM EDT
[#40]
My great grandfather was a WW1 vet. Died when I was young, but I knew him.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 11:45:54 AM EDT
[Last Edit: TxLawDog]
[#41]
I had a great uncle that flew fighter planes in WWI. I met him twice before he died but I was young and don't remember much.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 11:51:22 AM EDT
[#42]
Two of my great uncles served in WW1 - last time I saw them was in the early 1960s.
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FL, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 11:52:17 AM EDT
[#43]
My great grandfather and my namesake was a veteran of ww1
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Posted: 3/28/2024 11:55:30 AM EDT
[#44]
Yes. He lived on a house on a hill not far from my grandparents home. Clarence. One day the sheriff's office came and took him away.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 11:55:38 AM EDT
[#45]
My grand father and my great uncles were in WWI.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 11:55:41 AM EDT
[Last Edit: HenryKnoxFineBooks]
[#46]
Yes, a relative and a couple of others. As mentioned previously, they were not that uncommon until we got into the 1990s.
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MD, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 11:55:56 AM EDT
[#47]
My maternal grandfather fought for Italy.
When his parents went to visit him when he was in training, they asked if Gregory so-and-so was there. When they were told he wasn't, they went back home. My grandfather had changed his first name from Gregory to Achille.  I have no idea how far away the camp was, but I'm sure that they didn't drive there! |
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USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 11:57:44 AM EDT
[#48]
I met several when I was a kid.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 11:58:12 AM EDT
[#49]
Yes. Mr. Walters lived across from my uncle. He had outlived his wife and sat on his front porch in a rocking chair all day. Very nice man who died in the early '80s.
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NC, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 11:59:07 AM EDT
[#50]
There was an old gentleman with one leg that went to our church that fought in the Spanish American and WWI. We were just children and scared of him because of all the tales we heard.
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