I'm sitting here watching the history channel and it got me to thinking about my granpaw. He was a good a man.

I'm new here and this is my second post. I just thought this would be a good time to introduce myself and to say hello from Missouri.

Grandfather on my Fathers side was a Cook in the Polish Army, not sure if he joined the resistance.

Grandfather on my Mothers side was a Polish Cavalry Officer, fought in the resistance during the occupation.

My uncle was wounded at the battle of the bulge. Most of my family was in between ages to serve in WWII.

My Father served in the 1st Armored Division. N.Africa and Anzio, ect.
He's still kicking at this time.

My dad served in N. Africa, Sicily, and Italy.

Grandpa was a dentist in with the Marines in the Pacific.

One of my dad's uncle was the commander of the flight of planes that sunk the Yammato(sp?).  A true, decorated hero.

My Grandfather's brothers(two) also served during WWII.  A third brother was not allowed, because there were already 3 other brothers serving; at least that is what I am told by by grandpa's surviving brothers.  He (the brother that didn't get to serve) was kind of cranky about it also.  You talk about a smart bunch;  three dentists, and a mechanical engineer.  It was kind of intimidating to be in the same room with them and try to keep up with the conversations....all I can say is...wow.

WW 1:

Both my Grandpas were in the Army, one a bugler and admin clerk in a cavalry unit, the other was an ambulance driver. I can only imagine the ration of sh*t delivered at the Thanksgiving table in the years that followed.

WW2:

My uncle Ted was a radioman on a destroyer;

Uncle Fred was a Marine radio operator;

Uncle Jerry was a Corpsman;

Aunt Charlene was a WAAC, operating a Link Trainer.

Post Korea:

My Dad was the baby of the family, he wasn't in the Navy until '56.

my grandpa was on a ship in the pacific

my grandma was in the navy and worked in the us as a phone operator

my grandma's boyfriend served in europe, and with the CIA in korea. i get the feeling he's got some good stories in him, but he doesn't like to talk about it much

One uncle in the USMC as a airplane mechanic.
Another uncle in the Army Air Corps as a radio operator on a B-17.
One as a MD and the other as a Dentist.
My grandmother swept up the shipyard.
One aunt was a welding inspector and at night an air raid warden.
My uncles who were too young to serve in the armed forces worked in the shipyard repairing ships until they were old enough to be drafted (aforementioned B-17 radio operator).  Those who served in the shipyard earned their high school diplomas at the night school held at the shipyard.

Yep, you can say my family served (my pop was too young but served during Korea).

[url=http://www.arnhem1944.com/driel.html]my father[/url]

Hope yall don't mind me adding information about my grampaw. On June 6th, 1944 he landed on Omaha Beach at Normandy with the 4th Infantry. He fought all the way to the Rhineland and was wounded in action on November 29th, 1944 in the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest. He died ten years ago.

My dad was a tail gunner on a '17. (England, N. Africa and Italy)
I grew up with all the war stories...about the ammo ship that sank with sealed M1 ammo, once recovered they got to shoot it all up! [:)](they didn't want to chance it on the front lines)
The Harly-Davidsons they had fun with in the desert, until they ran out of gas and were abandoned. [:(!]
Or on the boat trip home an anouncment came over the speakers "anyone with any German weapons must turn them in to an officer"...he said the ship must have jumped 6 feet in the air. Everybody opened a port hole at about the same time and pitched their war trophies! [:(]
As a matter of fact, he is still in contact with the people he knew in England, via e-mail, from 1942. They love their "yanks" to this day.
                                              Welcome aboard, TheHurtgenForest! [beer]

My Dad - In Europe, Somewhere in a command post as a messenger.

My Stepfather - Over Europe, B-17 Bombadier with 40+ missions.

Great Grand dad, Phillipines, Spanish American war.

Grandfather, went over te top in '18 with Blackjack Pershing.

My dad was a bombardier.


Both my uncles served, Navy and an Army MP.


My father in law served, USN, Pacific.


I THINK we go back to te revolution, I KNOW we had descendents in 1812.

My great uncle "Dude" Kimberlin. He came out with multiple decorations including the bronze star for taking and then defending a jap machine gun nest. There is even a monument to him in Healdton Oklahoma in front of the Oilfield museum there. Talk about a vet, he was in WWII, Korea and Vietnam. A hell of a man if there ever was one. We have traced my family history back to pre-revolutionary war times and I have had a direct ancestor in every war this country has fought including both sides of the Civil War (Of course we someone got in on the wrong side for the War of Independence and had to flee to canada afterward but I digress on that one).
Oh yeah, my GF had an uncle in WWII but he was on the wrong side also, one of Mussolini's redshirts. Oh, her family is also supposed to be descendants of Constantine but we have never seen the proof as it is supposed to be in Italy somewhere.
So I guess it is a big yes here not to mention many many other wars.

(There is a chance though very very very slim that my ancestors and my GFs ancestor did pop off a few rounds at each other but we will probably never know).

When the Nazis invaded Poland, my Grandfather put my Dad (the oldest boy in the family) on a bike and said to him: “Keep pedaling till you make it to Russia. I will take the family on horse & wagon and will meet you there.” My Father made it to Russia and waited for his family at the designated village. After a few days of waiting he learned from other people who had escaped that the people on horse & wagon were forced back into their villages by the Nazis. They never made it and were all murdered by the Nazis.
My Dad joined the Red Army and fought the Nazis all the way back to Berlin.

Welcome aboard, TheHurtgenForest!

My dad was too young for WW2. His dad was too young for combat in WW1, but got to take a trip in a JN4 Jenny trainer biplane in 1919 before he mustered out. And survived the influenza epidemic in camp- more died there of the flu than in action.

But my dad's cousins were in WW2:

Bennett was a P47 ground attack pilot in 44-45- attacked a flak tower on Ger/French border, got shot down, spent rest of war in POW camp- both shoulders/arms broke in crash, which had to be rebroken in operations after war. Never talked about his experiences to anyone, except to me, once. Nobody knows why- he died five years ago, and I hadn't seen him since I was nine years old. Bennett was in a lot of pain his whole life, but he was still a Boy Scout leader, church leader, selectman- the guy was just amazing. His son Timmy, my second cousin, and I were close for a time, then they moved away. Timmy died of cancer when he was sixteen- I had got out of touch with them, and was floored by the news of his sickness and death- I heard about them both the same day. By all accounts, Bennett held the family together after that, even with all that had happened. To him, real heroism wasn't just something that happened only in war.

His first cousin Corey (named for Bennett's dad) was a co-pilot on a B-29. Over Osaka, Japan, his plane was seen streaking in flames, hurtling upside down into a cloud. Never seen again. He was his father's only son....His dad never spoke of it to me, or anybody, for that matter.

There are others, but I don't know them.

My late father-in-law, however, was in the German Luftwaffe. He had been pulled out of a tech college near Dresden, Germany, his hometown, where he had been studying metallurgy, and was drafted to work at Heinkel in the 1930's on some project nobody could talk about. Suddenly one day, there was an ear-splitting roar they heard one day over the factory. An officer walked in, and said, "Congratulations- you have just invented the first jet airplane." "What's a jet airplane?" the men at work replied.

He then got put in the Luftwaffe and ended up running a ground crew in Tunisia, working on every plane imaginable. One day he woke up, and everybody except for him and his crews were gone- the staff and pilots had bugged out in the middle of the night, got out to Italy, and left the ground guys stranded! He was lucky- he went to the States as a POW, whereas his friends from school had gone to Russia- they were never heard from again.

We still have his school-leaving certificates in US history and in English from prison camp schools at Ft Hood. He didn't go back home after the war, because a) there was no more home to go back to, and b) the Soviets ran the show in his home region. He went to Scotland instead, and worked as a machinist and tool/die maker for Burroughs Adding Machine Co. for decades.

"Don't ever volunteer for anything in life- my friends volunteered to go to the Eastern Front- Ach! Stupid!" he used to say.

Grandfather on my dads side, faught on Okinawa.
He was good man and my hero.
CH

my dads dad was too old
my mothers dad was a .50 machinegunner in the cavalry (dont know any numbers or anything as im very disconnected with that side of the family)

my grandmother on my dads side had 7 brothers, every one was in the war, 2 of them were B-17 flying fortress pilots............one of which completed his tour, came home and killed himself, go figure

My grandfather survived the omaha beach landing and his euro tour.


To the day he died he wouldn't talk much about the landing.

One Grandpa served under Patton. He was served in D-day and was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge(sp?).  My other Grandpa served as a Navy cook and gunner in the pacific.  He lied about his age to serve.  The two best men I know.

Jawohl.

My father-in-law was in Germany toward the end of the war. He was also in Korea (went through living Hell there), and was sent to Viet Nam before he left the service. Not sure what exactly he did there, as he was not a spring chicken by then.

He is a hell of a man.

My father was in the Army in Burma, India, China.

One uncle at Anzio. Later won a Silver Star in Korea.

One uncle on a destroyer in the Pacific.

my grandfather was an aircraft mechanic. I think his appendix burst the day his unit shipped out for England so he got left in the US

My grandfather was a navigator in a bomber over in the Pacific.  Real funny guy, always making dirty jokes that my mom disapproves of, and let me watch R rated movies when I was young.  Got to get some stories out of him next time I see him.

I have a Japanese room mate whos grandfather was on the other side too.  Sort of interesting.

5 uncles on my mom's side. 1 in the army served in europe. all the rest were navy in the pacific. 2 of them died last year.

At his funeral i found out my uncle Bud recieved a medal for valor after entering a flooded compartment to weld up a leak after his ship was torpedoed. According to the paperwork his captain credited him with saving the ship. I never knew he was in the navy he never spoke of it.

My other uncles saw LOTS of action aboard ship on destroyers. They have told me bits and pieces but they also seem to have a hard time reliving it. Lots of freinds lost and lost of bloody decks from kamikazi's. From what i have heard the Kamikazi's may not have done a great deal of ship damage but the moral effects were devastating.

mike

Dad never talked about it but was a corpsman in the Navy, Pacific theater. As kids, we all made fun of his "sissy" fear or flying. Later on, we learned that part of his job spec involved pulling what was left of pilots out of shot-up fighters that didn't quite land. It wasn't so funny after that.

My mom's brothers were Army Air Corps (one mechanic, one tail gunner, both European theater) and Marines (one, Pacific theater).

Everybody made it back, although my tail-gunner uncle had a nervous breakdown and, to this day, will tell you he was ground crew for the duration. We've got the papers and medals to prove otherwise but leave the guy be - he's done enough.

Uncle who was an Army medic in the Pacific under MacArthur.  He despised MacArthur until he died a few years ago.



Great Uncle (Spike) who was taken prisoner by the Japanese in the Philippines.  He survived the Bataan Death March and spent the remainder of the war in a Japanese POW camp.

When asked how he survived, he said that you had to remain defiant.  When forced to line up for roll call, there was a line in the dirt that you were forbidden to step over.  So, you get as close to that line as possible and then get closer until your toes are over the line.  You see how long you can get away with it until you recieve a beating from a camp guard.  

You then stand back from the line.  The next day you try and stand a little closer....and so on.

Defiance is what kept him going the entire time.  He saw where many prisoners would give up mentally and would die shortly after.

He also stated that you can eat [b]anything[/b]. You only have to be hungry enough.

After the war, he didn't hold a grudge against the Japanese.  He stated that the Japanese were a lot like us.  There were mean ones and ones that weren't so bad.  He also said that most of the time, the Japanese were just as hungry as they were.  Strange.

He was a tough old bird. He survived the Japanese, a tree falling on him, and only died when he had cancer for the second time.  It was a running joke in the family that you couldn't kill Spike.  You would only be wasting your time.

My Grandfather served with the 2nd Div., 9th Inf. durning the Normandy Campaign, (D-Day +2.) He was badly wounded 3 monthes later, and sent home. Luckly, they were able to save his leg. I remember as a kid, feeling the small pieces of shrapnel under his skin.

My grandfather on my father's side was in his late 30's-early 40's so he didn't serve, but his 3 younger brothers did.  One was in Burma in the army, another was in the air corps, and I can't recall where the other one was.  His brothers never married or had kids, so what I know of them is very little other than what I've seen in pictures or heard from my dad.  They lived in New York and either passed away when I was little or never came out to visit since I was young.  The great uncle that was in the air corps was stationed on Tinnian Island.  He was a radio operator on the ground and had a role in the dropping of the A-bomb on Hiroshima.  My dad's brother has his uncle's awards and citations hanging in his den.  Even though I've seen them before, I've never completely read any of them.

My grandfather on dad's side was in the Army, but never got to meet him. My great grandfather on  mom's side was in the Army. In England I think. I remember stories about having trouble getting rations and having to eat rat and whatever else they could scrounge up. My grandmother supported by building planes in Detroit. B-17's I believe. She used to tell me about riveting wings. Sadly we lost her about five months ago. Alot of history I wish I would've taken the time or had the opportunity to learn about in my family. I'm trying to get all of it I can now though.

My father served with the Navy in Atlantic and Pacific Theaters during WWII.

During Korea he went back into the Navy to backseat off of the Bon Homme Richard- Scout Recon.

Never did talk much about it. He did take time to point out the aircrafts he flew on. PBY etc.

I thought most of what he said was drunken stories- until I got a hold of his service record after he passed away.

Nominated for the Academy- he chose a different path.

He was adamantly against me going in the service; after raising me in P coats and watch caps as winter wear. He even painted my bedroom battleship grey. I guess he new something I didn't.

Welcome to AR15.com, TheHurtgenForest.

My mom's father was on a troop ship on the way to Europe when the Germans surrendered. His unit went to Germany and conducted raids in the German cities looking for weapons and German troops still in hiding. He passed away this past summer of natural causes.

My dad's uncle was a combat medic serving in France during WWII. He was shot twice by a German sniper in November, 1944, but survived. He died of natural causes about fifteen years ago.

I have other ancestors who were veterans dating back to the war of 1812. My dad's great grandfather was a confederate soldier who was captured by union forces, but later escaped. My great grandfather was a sailor in WWI, and I have two uncles who were sailors on the USS Ranger during the Vietnam era.

My dad was a combat engineer, from N. Africa to Germany.
Served overseas a full 3 years.

Damn! Almost forgot about Mom! She was a WAVE, a Morse instructor.

My moms dad was in ETO as well as a couple Uncles from my dad's side. Another one of the uncles was on Mt Suribachi when the famous flag photo was taken.

My dads father was in WWI, lost a lung due to mustard gas IIRC.

My dad...D Day+10 to the end of the war, will all the scenic stops in between.  Purple heart and Bronze Star w/ V device in there somewhere.  

He hardly ever spoke about any of it...although there were a couple of times right before he died that we got enough scotch into him so he loosened up.  Mostly he told funny stories, about the stuff that happened when they weren't getting shot at.  I got the impression he didn't want to relive the bad shit.  

My Grandpa was a combat engineer in the army in the Pacific.  Took a bunch of islands and was stationed in Korea for a while after the war.  My mom's uncle was a bomber pilot, in the Pacific I think.

Maternal grandfather was a cook in the Merchant Marine in the Pacific.

Paternal grandfather was an AAA gunner on the USS Salt Lake City in the Pacific.  About 5 years ago he wrote an 80-page book about his service in WWII, and gave a copy to me my siblings & cousins.

Luckily, they're both still alive and kicking, so I can still get some stories out of both of them when I visit.

My father-in-law was an Army medic. He went into Europe on D+7 or so, according to what my wife recalls. He doesn't talk about it at all.

My stepfather was in the Navy during the war. He was a photographer attached to the anti-submarine warfare training installation in - get this - Bermuda. Somebody's got to do it, I suppose.

In just a few hours it will be sixty years to the day that my grampaw was wounded. He, a radioman, and an officer were in the Hurtgen Forest moving forward very slowly up a slight incline when incoming artillary started coming in. One landed within yards of them killing the radioman and the officer instantly. My grampaw had half his foot blown off and serious damage to his lower calf. It was his ticket home after spending several months in a hospital in Ireland but I'm sure he would have preferred it be a different way. When I saw the movie Band of Brothers where they are in the forest outside of Bastogne I think of how that must have been how it was when my grampaw got hit.

He taught me how to fish when I was a kid and he use to buy us the best fireworks for the 4th of July. When I was older he gave me $10,000 for the downpayment on my first home. He died ten years ago of Lou Gehrig's Disease. I miss him. Grampaw, you will never be forgotten. RIP.

PS. Thank you all for the warm welcome. And also, thanks for your stories as well.

My dad was in the Pacific on an LST. He was involved in the landings at Tarawa, Guam, Saipan,
the Phillipines, Okinawa, and the occupation of Japan. He's still with me.

Grandfather, Army Air Corp in the Pacific

Grandfather, Navy Destroyer, Pacific

Great Uncle, Army, 29th Infantry A company, Died on Normany Beach.

Great,Great Uncle: commanded the First Marine Division at Guadalcanal, later became Commandant of the Marine Corps.

Never got to talk to either grandfather about their experences. Like a lot of vets, you'll never hear most of it again.

My Moms Dad was a Captian in The German Army in the begining of WWII(1st A.H. Division), he deserted after the Battle of Posen (Poland) I think he knew what the fate of the German army was going to be.
He was a mean old man and wouldnt talk about it.

A real close friend of mine, his wifes grandfater was in the same unit, he didn't fair so well. just goes to show it is a small world
On my Dads side, his older brother was a Tanker in the 4th Armored Division.
I had a lot of respect for that man  too.

My dad was in Korea, 52-53 Army

Both my great grandfather and grandfather on my father’s side were in WWII state side (great grand father was served in WWI and WWII as a ships caulker in Boston when ships were wood.)  My grandfather lost his right eye to TB as a child and tried to enlist a couple of times in each of the services, but was denied each time.  He was finally drafted and put to work as an ambulance driver in Kentucky.  He never saw any action and the only thing he talks about is the old shotguns that he has hanging on his walls, they were both last fired on the day we won.

Grandpa on mom's side, para glider with the 101st, captured on D-day.

Step-grandpa, in the navy, offshore gunboat, or something like that.

other grandfather, was to old, stayed stateside guarding italian prisoners.

Great uncle George, was at Pearl Harbor, his ship tried to get out of the harbor.

Uncle wilbur was with the tank destroyers.

All that I Know of off the top of my head.

My father was in the 96th Infantry and one of Darby's Rangers in the Phillipines and Okinawa.

My grandfather's brother fought at Iwo Jima.  

Till this day he won't talk about it.