User Panel
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FL, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 11:59:25 AM EDT
[#1]
My first duty station was a Navy hospital in 1979. Met several and the widow of a Spanish-Americal War veteran, marines who had been stationed in China and more.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 12:02:00 PM EDT
[#2]
My grandfather fought in WW1 in Europe. He told some stories, but I didn't absorb them like I should have as a young boy. I wish I could hear them again.
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TX, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 12:03:03 PM EDT
[#3]
My Grandpa. He was 22 when he joined the Army. Served in the trenches, but I don’t know where. A great machinist. Worked for Johnson Motors/Evinrude from 1920-1959.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 12:03:13 PM EDT
[#4]
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. I had a great uncle growing up who was horse cavalry in WWI from what I understand. He didn't talk about it much. |
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AZ, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 12:03:43 PM EDT
[#5]
My Grandfather was a machine gunner in WWI. He lived to be 86. Knew him well but we did not live close by. Conservative from the old school. Children should be seen and not heard, strong work ethic, generous.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 12:10:18 PM EDT
[Last Edit: douglasmorris99]
[#6]
2 grandfather's and 3 uncles
One civil war vet, flag boy. Lost a legat age 12 to a Minnie ball |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 12:10:51 PM EDT
[#7]
My grandfather served in the Meuse Argonne. He was a medic/stretcher bearer. The experience took quite a toll on him, and he rarely spoke of it.
While I “met” him, he was killed when I was just a wee squirt, so I did not really know him. He did not have an easy life. He was a pharmacist, and during the depression, was usually away from his family seeking work where he could find it. In the early 50s, he finally managed to open his own drug store and soda fountain. It was a tiny place, but I think those few years were the most contended of his life. He was killed on the highway just three or four years after getting his business opened. I do have his discharge papers. |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 12:13:06 PM EDT
[#8]
My paternal great grandfather. I vaguely remember him as he passed when I was around 5.
Was in the Italian army. His whole unit would desert whenever they got paid. Also said they liked fighting the Austro-Hungarians. They’d trade food and play cards at night, stage “attacks” when the big brass came around. They even borrowed (I think) hand grenades from the enemy to stage one such attack more convincingly. Then they moved them to fight some German units. “There’s no talking to them. They just wanted to fight!” “The sonsabitches shot me! How rude!” |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 12:21:35 PM EDT
[#9]
Only one that I’m aware of, and I barely have any recollection of him.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 12:36:00 PM EDT
[Last Edit: dorobuta]
[#10]
yes, and up until he passed, he was sharp as a tack. The Australians did a WWI documentary that featured him and a tank similar to the one he was in.
Earle M. Jorgensen - he started a very large and successful steel company that bears his name even today. He would see me in the halls, even though I would be visiting from AZ, and he knew my name and the department I worked in. Last time I saw him, he was 101 years old - and he still said "Good morning Dorobuta, how are you today?" My reply, as usual, "Doing good Mr J - how about you?" Nancy Reagan attended his funeral, along with a host of other famous people. |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 12:42:06 PM EDT
[#11]
Yes, two of them.
One was a pacifist, but volunteered to drive ambulances and help out the wounded. He was an extremely quiet and gentle guy. The other was in the trenches, who would never talk about it. He carved wooden animals as his therapy for what he lived through. |
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WI, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 12:44:36 PM EDT
[#12]
Great grandfather was awarded the Navy Cross in WWI. Died when I was 9.
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USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 12:44:48 PM EDT
[Last Edit: Bubbatheredneck]
[#13]
Not that I can recall.
I did meet a WWII vet the other day. Enlisted in the Navy in 1941.  I was kinda sad when I realized it is very possible that he is the last one I'll ever meet. There are only 120k left and few are out and about. |
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FL, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 12:48:02 PM EDT
[#14]
Yes. My grandfather fought in WW1 and my father fought in WW2.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 12:51:33 PM EDT
[Last Edit: WDEagle]
[#15]
Yes, Two of my uncles. One was Navy and the other was Army.
Edit: I remember one cookout (fish fry & oysters) at our house. Present were : Uncle - WWII Navy Uncle - WWII Army Dad - Korea and Vietnam (Thailand & Philippines) Air Force Uncle - Vietnam (multiple tours) Army It was only the guys out back cooking and drinking beers. It's the only time any of them ever talked about their times in theater. |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 12:54:48 PM EDT
[Last Edit: 549]
[#16]
Not to my knowledge.
However when confirming name & DOB for an elderly male patient about 15 - 20 years ago, he was surprised and pleased when I referred to his birthdate, which was November 11th, as Armistice Day. |
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USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 1:08:09 PM EDT
[Last Edit: HourOfAngle]
[#17]
My greatgrandfather and his couple of brothers and cousins. All went to France in WWI. They all lived long enough for me to know them at a very young age and I was born in 1971. One cousin had shell shock or whatever and would always whistle and snap his fingers, family said he had done it since he came back.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 1:23:00 PM EDT
[#18]
Yes. My great-uncle was infantry with the Texas Division at the Meuse Argonne in France. He was wounded at some point and taken from the front to a field hospital. He spent a couple of weeks there and recovered enough that they put him to work in the camp kitchen. Though he had no experience at it, he was given the job of butchering chickens, hogs, beef, etc. for the field troops meals.
He returned home after the war and went to work, in the towns largest local market, as a butcher. He spent the rest of his life carving meat for the towns rich folks. This was back in the days when folks walked up to the glass fronted meat case, pointed out the pieces of meat they wanted, and told the butcher what cuts they needed and he wrapped it up in brown butcher paper. He died in 1970 at the age of 77. I still have his WWI "Texas Division" helmet. 
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Posted: 3/28/2024 1:29:23 PM EDT
[#19]
Yes I knew several. My grandfather was one. USArmy. Some of his long time time pals were too.
Gramps never spoke much about it. He got there very late. Aug ‘18. He died in 1992. Most of what I know grandmother told me. He did say a few things I remember. He hated mud until the day he died. He hated the Red Cross. Every year at Christmas he would bake a bunch of cakes with white frosting and hand deliver them to the Salvation Army office. To this day the recipe for them in grandma’s cook book is Salvation Army cake. |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 1:34:49 PM EDT
[#20]
My wife's grandfather was in the infantry. I asked a few times before he passed, about WW1 and his experiences. He always answered "it was hell" and immediately got quiet. I finally got the hint that he didn't want to remember much less tell stories.
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MN, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 1:36:40 PM EDT
[#21]
My grandfather
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ND, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 1:39:49 PM EDT
[#22]
My eight year old Oma survived WWI and later in WWII in Berlin. She was a single mother during the siege of Berlin with four kids as Opa was KIA in 1941. So yes!
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Posted: 3/28/2024 1:48:58 PM EDT
[#23]
I don’t remember meeting any, but I do remember going to a Veterans Day parade in the early 90s and they still had a WWI veterans float in it and distinctly remember there being 3-4 really old guys on it. The WWII and Vietnam vet floats were packed full back then.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 1:49:03 PM EDT
[Last Edit: Strela]
[#24]
My Grandpa Frank. AEF on The Western Front, awarded the Croix De Guerre by the French Government.
Played minor league baseball before the war, hoped to make it to the majors. That dream ended after mustard gas damaged his lungs. He passed away while I was in VN.  |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 1:55:55 PM EDT
[Last Edit: Orion10182011]
[#25]
Yes, I met the last living WWI vet at the VA in Louisville some years ago. Was walking by and saw an Old man wearing a WWI hat and was like "holy shit"! He looked at us and said "Hey hey!" At the time I didn't know he was the last.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 1:56:51 PM EDT
[#26]
My grandfather.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 1:59:40 PM EDT
[#27]
Veterans Hospital in Livermore nurses pushed WW1 vet passed me in the 1990s
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Posted: 3/28/2024 2:11:40 PM EDT
[Last Edit: Noname]
[#28]
My Grandfather was in the Imperial German Army during WW1 --------- He spent the whole war in Africa.
I remember meeting him 3 times before he died, I was 4yr's old... My Dad was a WW2 US Navy combat vet and retired from USAF with 28yr's. I spent the first 16yr's growing up on USAF Base Housing ------ Almost every adult male you knew and all my Dad's buds were all WW2 combat vets ---------------------- made for an interesting childhood...! ETA -------------- My Grandfather was arrested 3 times during WW2 for "being a spy" (The Bronx) ----- He only spoke German. So he started wearing a pic around his neck of my Dad in his US Navy uniform... |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 2:23:27 PM EDT
[#29]
I have pics of infant me in my Great Grandfather's lap. He died when I was 6 months old. Does that count?
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Posted: 3/28/2024 2:36:50 PM EDT
[Last Edit: Ajek]
[#30]
Not that I'm aware of. I volunteered often at a veteran's home when I was young, but don't recall any WWI vets.
I am old enough to have seen some on TV (being interviewed and such) though. I met family members who were alive during WWI, but were too young (or female) and weren't in the military. |
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USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 2:53:30 PM EDT
[#31]
A WW1 vet?
“They’re all dead, Jim.” |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 2:58:13 PM EDT
[Last Edit: Londo]
[#32]
I grew up with WWI vets. The grandfathers of nearly every family I knew had served.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 3:02:13 PM EDT
[#33]
Only 1 that I can think of. Around 2000 my parents used to take us to Golden Corral several times a week. This older guy was about 100 would eat there just about daily. He ate there so often (and at the same table) they had pictures of him on the wall from the war. They threw him a big party when he turned 100. He was a WW1 vet.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 3:07:31 PM EDT
[#34]
Both my grandfathers fought in WWI. Both were in the Greek army
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PA, USA
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Posted: 3/28/2024 3:12:36 PM EDT
[#35]
I forgot to mention that I met an old guy, who owned a bar in Fairbanks, AK. He was an Army Ranger and fought in the Boxer Rebellion. That was a long time ago. He was a character!
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Posted: 3/28/2024 3:14:41 PM EDT
[#36]
Yes late 80’s guy on my paper route was a ww1 vet. I had to collect cash payment monthly and he didn’t like paying lol
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Posted: 3/28/2024 3:22:15 PM EDT
[#37]
Yeah, my paternal G'dad served in the navy during WW-1.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 3:24:25 PM EDT
[#38]
Great Uncle that lived to be 99, shared a birthday with me, so I would see him at least yearly until he passed.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 3:37:02 PM EDT
[Last Edit: scotchymcdrinkerbean]
[#39]
Just my great grandfather, my mother's mother's father.
6th Marines, got hit by a machine gun at Belleau Wood, then mustard gassed waiting to be taken to the rear. Lived to 101. ETA: Also, it is very likely that another great grandfather, my father's father's father, was also at Belleau Wood, but on the other side. |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 3:39:40 PM EDT
[#40]
My maternal grandfather had an interesting life story.
There's pictures of him with me as a toddler. We was born in 1899. He immigrated with his family as a boy from the Marseilles region in France to Racine Wisconsin. A few years later when he turned 18 he was drafted into the US Army and sent right back to France. What did the Army do with this guy who spoke the language and knew everything about the country? Translator? Guide? No, they made him a cook. |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 4:00:33 PM EDT
[Last Edit: ARx3]
[#41]
My father served in C Company 353rd Infantry Regiment 89TH Infantry Division in WWl. He was gassed in October of 1918 in the Bois de Bantheville during the Meuse Argonne Offensive.
He passed away one month before my 5th birthday in 1960.  Attached File Attached File |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 4:13:42 PM EDT
[#42]
Sure. Quite a few. As a kid in the 1970s, there was an old man that lived next door who was a WWI veteran. He was probably in his late 70s or 80s when we lived next to him. I don’t remember anything particularly “military” about him. I just remember my Dad (a veteran of WWII and Vietnam) talking to him from time to time, sitting on the back porch.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 4:20:01 PM EDT
[#43]
My ex wife worked in a nursing home.
I would talk to them all the time |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 4:23:50 PM EDT
[#44]
I’m 42 and while I’m sure I met one when I was younger, I remember golfing with my grandpa and his ww2 buddies. God, they were men among men.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 5:27:09 PM EDT
[#45]
My father was born in 1899 and served in the 103rd Engineer Battalion in France in WW1. In 1915, when he was 16 years old he tried to enlist in the Canadian Army, but was rejected because of a large burn scar on his back. When he was just a toddler, he pulled a pot of hot soup off the stove and got the burn scar as a result. He served the US Army from May, 1917 to January 1919. In June of 1919 he re-enlisted in the Army and joined the Balboa Coast Artillery Corps in Panama, and was there until sometime in 1921. He died in 1951 when I was 8 years old.
My late wife's father was born in 1896, and went to France in 1915 as a volunteer ambulance driver with the American Field Service. He was there for 3 years, but that's really all I know about him. He died in 1963, before I met his daughter. Here is a photo of the monument erected by the French government in honor of the American volunteer ambulance drivers  Attached File |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 5:38:18 PM EDT
[Last Edit: redfish86]
[#46]
Reading is fundamental, I read the title as WWII
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Posted: 3/28/2024 5:41:41 PM EDT
[Last Edit: WDEagle]
[#47]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By redfish86: Reading is fundamental, I read the title as WWII LOL. So did I. I just rewatched BoBs & The Pacific so I'm blaming it on that. |
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Posted: 3/28/2024 6:03:39 PM EDT
[#48]
My great uncle served in an artillery unit. Every year he put on his uniform for us on Memorial Day.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 6:09:37 PM EDT
[#49]
Yes, my dad when he was alive.
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Posted: 3/28/2024 6:10:41 PM EDT
[#50]
There are some really old members here.
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