I was just wondering if any of AR15.com's members are WWII vets.

Personally, I can't spend enough time talking to or admiring or respecting the men and women who took care of business when the world was on fire.

If any members here are WWII vets, I'd love to corrispond with you and hear your stories( [email protected] ). You truly are the greatest generation.

I had the pleasure of actually meeting a man, an American man, who volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War! Yes, he was old as time itself, but seldom if ever, have I been so impressed with one human being. He risked it all for a country that he didn't even live in, to fight what would ultimately become the fasciest wave that engulfed all of Europe.

Again, if there's an WWII vets on this board, I would REALLY like to hear from you.

To anyone reading this post i am looking for any information or refernce to a  General La May
He is my Great Grandfather but no one in the family has any information. I would love it if anyone knew who he was.

Waldo....You're a lucky guy to have such an impressive slice of history in your family.

I wish there was some sort of forum of discussion with some of the remaining WWII vets. Whenever I get the chance, I like to strike up conversation with people of that generation. Most likely they did serve, and if not, they still have plenty of great stories about what America did to save the world.

Send your dad my best wishes, he is the kind of guy that makes me most proud to be American. Make sure he never forgets that the world will forever be indebeted to him and his generation.

My father is a WWII vet. Fought in the Pacific. He was a Navy signalmen, but he trained as a radiomen as well, so he got attached to the Marines at Iwo. Saw the flag being raised at Suribachi (the original flag). Also was in Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Pearl Harbor, etc.

I wish I had his stories. Sample:

"At Samoa, half the time there was nothing to do so one day a bunch of us got together and stole a truck loaded with 420 cases of beer. Had it hidden really well, but the captain got wind of it and caught us in the act. So, just about when we think we're going to the brig, the captain says, 'You guys better find a better hiding place for the beer. I suggest you move it up on the mountain by the radar tower. No one will find it there.'"

Would that happen today? Not!

Finally, some FBI guys found it, so the captain made them destroy it. Here they are sitting on the edge of a cliff throwing 10,000 bottles of beer off the cliff onto the rocks below. What a waste.

More Iwo stories:

"One day at Iwo I was walking along and saw a boot lying on the trail. Picked it up because it looked really new, but found a foot in it so I threw it away."

"On a mission as radioman with a group of Marines and came across a naked, half-starved Japanese soldier lying bleeding in the bottom of a shell crater. Big crater, result of our 16" guns. When one of the Marines tried to go down and get the guy, the Japanese soldier pulled out a knife and threatened him with it. So, the Marine lays his rifle down and tried to go in again unarmed, just to reassure the guy that we meant him no harm. The Japanese guy again waved his knife and started yelling at them. So, another Marine steps up and says, 'I'll get him out, watch.' With that, the Marine throws a grenade into the crater and shouts 'Run like hell!' Next thing we hear is Boom! He got the Jap out, but in 40 pieces. The Marine who threw the grenade was sent to the hospital ship for a little R&R"

Wow.

i found my great uncles dog tags in my grandgfathers garage this past saturday, showed it to my dad and other relatives -- havent seen it since, my dumb uncle probably threw it away
GGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

i assume they were from WW2, but he died before i was born, his wife(my great aunt) was one of my favorite relatives as a kid, im praying there in one of the boxes in the garage

My father was a WW2 Vet. He died in 1983 but his spirit lives through me...

Hey Mattja, your dad and mine probably talked to each other. My dad was a USMC radioman, forward observer with the 3rd JASCO ( 3rd MarDiv Joint Assault Signal Company ).

Most of my dad's detailed stories from WWII were about training, transport at sea and weird/funny stuff that happened. He never really opened up to me about what he experienced in combat. But when he would go to unit or division reunions the men would get together in small groups and talk among themselves and shed tears for those comrades in arms who never came home. Not something easy for them to share with those who have never been there. My dad was more proud of being a Marine who served his country than anything else he ever did in his life. Being a Marine meant so much to him and was such a force in his life that my son also became a Marine, largely because of my dad. I only wish my dad had lived long enough to see him earn his Eagle, Globe and Anchor.

Sgt Don Thomas
1924 - 1997

My dad was a WWll and Korean combat vet with nearly 30yrs service was killed when I was in Vietnam
Last month I helped some close family friends bury their father a "Battle Of The Bulge" vet the graveside service was solemn as the few remaining Bulgers from the 101st Airborne (Bastogne fame) and the 82nd Airborne sent him off with taps and colors
I was privileaged to be able to explain to my God Daughter the significance of those "old mens" achievements and what her grandpa had done for all of us..

My father in law (still kicking from Iowa) was a 20yr E-8 Top Kick spent his time in the Phillipines he is just now starting to talk about it movie "Private Ryan" seemed to jog his memory of past events and he relates more and more of the War weekly

Pthfndr, that is highly likely. My dad knew many Marines because he spent a lot of his time with them. He has the highest regard for the USMC (less for the Navy in general).

Sorry to hear about your dad. They're a dieing breed. My dad is still alive, born in 1924 like yours, but he has major heart problems so we're all worried like hell. I'll ask him about your dad.

Funny thing about it. I was in an automobile accident as a kid and it screwed-up my left knee. Years later my dad admitted that he was half happy that it happened because it meant I could never be drafted and go to war. I get the feeling there's a lot he's not telling me. So, after a couple years of college I went to talk to the Navy recruiter about what was available for me after graduation, and they basically said with your knee, nada. So, my dad got his wish.

My late great-uncle Bennett Fuller was a prince of a guy, but I never knew how much of one he was until recently.

He told me about 30-odd years when I was quite young about his experiences as a P-47 pilot in the ETO in 1944-45. He took out a strongbox one day when I had asked him if he had been in a Luftstalag in WW2. He asked me how I knew what an LS was, and I replied I spent a lot of time in Germany and liked to read a lot of milhist, esp. USAF (lots of family in AF) He opened up the strongbox and took out books and photos (all his friends had been killed) and much memorabilia. It turned out he ended up in a German POW camp run by the Luftwaffe because he and his wingman had volunteered to attack a flak tower inside Germany in late 1944 or early 45. He did so, blew it up, but his wingman died, and he himself got shot up bad and had to belly-land his plane. German soldiers pulled him out of his burning P47, and he discovered, painfully, that the crash had broken both his upper arms. Burned and in bad shape, the Germans put him in a hospital, but for whatever reason (neglect, lack of medical care and supplies) when he was repatriated, the US doctors had to rebreak his arms again, to get them to heal right. Nonetheless, this man was in pain for the rest of his life.

I told this story to my second cousins (his kids) and their families at the wake, and I was met by stunned looks and utter silence.

It turned out that he had refused ever to speak to anyone about his war experiences his whole life after the war, and they had only found that strongbox a few weeks before he had died.

Why he opened up to me, a 9 year old nephew whom he hardly knew, one day in 1966, is still a mystery.

Pthfndr, my dad said he was with the 5th JASCO and eventually moved to GROPAC. He said he didn't know your dad, but he knew some 3rd JASCO guys at Oceanside. He has the memory of an elephant. Much better than mine.

My father passed away in 1987, he was in the Pacific Island in the 3rd Marine Div. Very seldom could I get him to talk about the time he spent there. He said there was never a dry day in the jungle. He swore by his M1. He shattered his K-Bar by throwing it into a palm tree-my grandmother had a new custom knife made at a local machine shop and sent it to him. It had a wooden handle which rotted off in no time. He replaced it with bone. [:D]

My GrandFather died last year.
He was on the Destroyer USS Edwards during WWII.
I believe he was in Admiral Bull Halsleys fleet. (7th fleet 56th task force maybe?)
I have his Campain medals, victory medal, he was awarded purple heart but I dont think he took it, I only have a ribbion of it I believe.  A bunch more ribbions and 7 bronze stars. He talked a little about it. He was a very kind, huge as in big, ol guy, slow to speak man. I was told when he first joined the navy he had to wear slippers until the they could get shoes for his big ol feet.
As I remember him he loved smoking his pipe and doing crosswords.Never had a evil word to say about anyone!
Im not sure exactly how he got the PH, there are 2 differnt stories, he said they were to close to an island and the japs liked to shoot rifles at them and caught one while on deck. My uncle said he got it from a shore party that had to go in to pick someone up? I thought that was the marines job?
Well he died at age 83. I will always rember him and know Ill never match him in stature!

General Curtis LeMay? Commanded the Eighth Air
Corps during WWII. Instrumental in creating
the U.S.A.F. after WWII. The General that
strapped a JATO bottle to his MG-TD and went
roaring down the runway and damm near killed
himself? Head of SAC in 1957. COS in 1961?
Call the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs,
CO. and ask to speak to the Dean of Military
History.

95thFoot


He showed you, because you were interested and a kindred spirit, I was the only one out of 11 grandkids, to show any interest in my Grandfathers time served in WW2, he also took me into his basement, and opened up an old footlocker he had of stuff, pictures, books, love letters from grandma, and other such things, grandma gave the box to me, after he died (it was the only thing in his will BTW, the rest went to her), I have gone through about 1/3 of it, its too upsetting right now for me, because he died a year ago, and my father (who gave me an artillery shell box full of stuff from vietnam) died six months ago, next week I am having my fathers best friend come over, and we shall finish going through this stuff, I want some stuff to show my sister that my father and grandfather were both good people, just not as emotional as everyone else, I was 16 years old when my father cried on my shoulder because he lost his second job in 2 years and felt he wasn't good enough, even though he was laid off both due to downsizing, I was very close to both, and feel I owe this to them.

PS> if the military gets its shit together, in the next year or 2 I will join the army, and continue the tradition, I feel I owe it to myself, to my country, and to them.

Where is the War Memorial for the greatest
generation of Americans since the birth of our
Nation? We have a Memorial to the dead of VN.
Whats up with that?

My Grandfather passed away last November. Top turret gun on a B-24 Liberator. Flew out of Italy and participates in the Ploesti Oil Raids.

My grandfather was in France in WW2.  My wifes grandfather was on the beaches in Normandy.

Not long ago I had a WW2 vet sit in my office and cry over his lost friends and the things he had seen and done.

Tell me that won't put a lump in your throat for the rest of the day.

Our WW2 vets are dying off.  So many already gone.

How horrible and terrific must circumstances/friendships/losses/accomplishmentsand amazments have been for it still to affect men as it does over 50 years later?

Do we still have men of that caliber today?

I work with a guy whose a WWII vet.  He was a bomber pilot on a B17 (I'm pretty sure thats what he said)  This guy is cool, whenever I get a chance to work with him, or even better, slack ass and drink beer with him, I do it.  He's got more stories to tell than anyone else I know.  If you ran into this guy on the street and BS'd with him, you'd think he was in his mid 60's getting ready to retire.  

But the one thing thats always stuck with me was when he said that if the US gov't ever tries a national firearm registration, we're going to end up just like the jews in Germany did...  Gets to you a little more when you hear it from a guy that was there.