Happy 75th V-J Day!

[Guest Lobo]

I know it's not typically commemorated until 2 September in the U.S., after the ceremony on the Missouri.  But in my Navy household growing up, it was marked on 14/15 August (timezones 'n shit) because that was the day my Petty Officer grandfather didn't die off the coast of Japan (preparing logistics/supply chain for the Kyushu invasion that thankfully never happened).  Emperor Hirohito accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and Truman announced it to the nation, effectively ending the War.  The photographs of Times Square and San Francisco celebrations are well known.  We may never know national celebrations like that again, nearly four long and dark years for our nation...but we emerged victorious.  I'm still baffled about how little is known about what Japan was thinking in the week between Nagasaki and 15 August.  Thanks to all veterans of WWII, particularly the ones that won the 4 year shitshow in the Pacific.  300,000 are still with us today and I hope each one of them gets a call from a loved one today.  

Anyway, if you need an excuse...have a drink tonight and salute perhaps the United States' most impressive victory.  North Africa, Southern Europe, Northern Europe/Western Front, Aleutian Islands/North Pacific, Southeast Asiatic, South Pacific, et. al.  Nearly a dozen theaters came to a close with Hirohito's acceptance of Potsdam and if only for a little while---the world was at peace...and due largely to Us.  And if you're from a Navy family like mine, have several drinks tonight.  For we have ruled the seas ever since.  

Edited August 15, 2020 by Lobo

[RPM 26322]

I'll have a couple for the old man. He ran a Higgins boat at Iwo Jima.

[Guest Lobo]

My god, I'll have one for him if he had to make multiple beach landings at Iwo Jima.  1,000 U.S. casualties a day.  For 30 days.  I cannot fucking imagine. 

With all respect to Operation Overlord, the shit we had to go through for three years just to make it to Japan...to then have an outside shot at invading Kyushu and Honshu, and losing a million American troops in the meantime.  With nowhere friendly to fall back to for thousands of miles in any direction.  God bless 'em.  

[ztejas 43466]

Considering the current geopolitical landscape it feels especially important to say: never again. 

[Hate 20108]

I'll have a few drinks for my 99 year old Grandpa tonight. He was a crew chief in the Army Air Corps in Burma during WWII.  He later re-enlisted and retired a Major. 

 

[atomheartbevo 89695]

2 hours ago, Lobo said:

With all respect to Operation Overlord, the shit we had to go through for three years just to make it to Japan...to then have an outside shot at invading Kyushu and Honshu, and losing a million American troops in the meantime.  With nowhere friendly to fall back to for thousands of miles in any direction.  God bless 'em.  

Wish I had saved it, James Michener wrote an article/editorial discussing the atomic bombing and what necessitated it - remember reading it in, I think the Daily Texan, this was many years ago obviously.  I think he wrote similar articles at other times, as I went searching for it a while back, and came across something similar.  

Anyways, he was in the Navy at the time, and was traveling all over for some reason.  He wrote about how the Navy, Army, and the Aussies were building a massive hospital infrastructure across all of the islands they were capturing leading up to Japan.  They under the assumption that the invasion would be so brutal, they wouldn't have time or the resources to get the wounded back to the States or to Australia, so they would use the islands they had been capturing as supply points and massive hospitals.

I think the US 6th Army was estimating that they would need to be bringing in around 100,000 men a month, for the first three months, to replenish their combat units.

The airborne operations were going to dwarf D-Day.   If you are familiar with the Band of Brothers book/TV series, the guys in the 101st that were not senior enough to head home, were going to be heading to the Pacific.  Lewis Nixon had already volunteered to go to Japan with the division, and I think Winters was considering it.

That was going to be an insanely huge operation.

[Guest Lobo]

It would have been the largest single event in human history had it ever come to pass.  An invasion of an empire roughly the land size of Argentina (with mainland Asia strongholds included) with nearly 100mm people.  Seaborne and Air assault plans that had never even been invented, let alone taken place successfully.  With no friendly base of operations, all completed, with millions of U.S. troops brought there with a transportation network never conceived of, from 5,000 miles away.  Nevermind we didn't have the network to bring armor, hospitals, weapons, troops, and engineering to the theater...we didn't even have the damn fuel to get it there had we had all the shit together to begin with.  

I'm glad people still appreciate what we did in the European Theater.  But what we accomplished in the Pacific is beyond the imagination.  The heroism of island-hopping Marines was the key.  But the foundation lay with the fact that we brought an entire nation's military halfway across the world to seize entire seas and island groups so we could have just the chance to eventually sacrifice a million men to squash an empire.  It the most impressive logistical feat in human history, even more than going to the Moon.  

A nation the size of Montana almost brought the United States to its end before it really ever got started.  Thank you again the people that pulled this off...so far from home.  

[AUS-97HORN 11808]

1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

The airborne operations were going to dwarf D-Day.   If you are familiar with the Band of Brothers book/TV series, the guys in the 101st that were not senior enough to head home, were going to be heading to the Pacific.  Lewis Nixon had already volunteered to go to Japan with the division, and I think Winters was considering it.

I really think you are getting the two confused, Winters absolutely requested combat duty in the Pacific, the series clearly showed that interaction with Maj Gen Chapman in the final episode- Chapman told him to wait, and the 101 was scheduled to ship to the Pacific in Sept. Winters would have been an Airborne Battalion Comander for sure (normally have to be a Lt Col to hold this position, but could be done as a Major), depending on promotions, he might have actually been made an Airborne Regiment Commander (this is almost always a Bird Col, but in war it can be a Lt Col if there arent enough full Col).  I dont think Nixon's intentions were ever specifically reviewed, even in Winter's autobigraphy he talked about working at Nixon's company, but nothing about Nixon volunteering to go to Japan.

I did like how Winter's comment after surviving D Day that he promised God if he survived the war, he would find a quiet place and work there and never fight again were kept

In June of 1951 he was called up from the retired reserves and ordered to a muster site.  He doesnt want to be there, but duty calls and he volunteers to be with the Rangers, and is going to training in Seattle and about to ship out to Korea when an auxillary officer comes into the auditorium. Hes there with like 500 other active and inactive reservists who were voluntarily and involuntarily called up officers and the auxillary officer says "for those of you who were called up involuntarily who served in WW2 if you dont want to go to Korea, you can leave"  and Winters did just that.  he kept his promise. 

Edited August 15, 2020 by AUS-97HORN

[High Plains Drifter 11050]

4 hours ago, RPM said:

I'll have a couple for the old man. He ran a Higgins boat at Iwo Jima.

 

pos rep. So did my grandfather. Also at Guadacanal and Okinawa. He was awarded a silver star at Iwo.

His troop shit was the USS Millett (Milett, Millet?).

 

[Harrison Stafford 3335]

1 hour ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

pos rep. So did my grandfather. Also at Guadacanal and Okinawa. He was awarded a silver star at Iwo.

His troop shit was the USS Millett (Milett, Millet?).

 

USS Mellette was the name of your grandfather's ship.  My dad served as a sonar operator on a battleship in the Pacific Theatre.  He lied about his age when enlisting so he could serve.  He was on his way to Japan as part of the invasion force when we dropped the two atomic bombs.  Then, dad became part of the occupying force.  As maniacally as the Japanese fought for the islands they occupied, there's a really good chance I'm not here today if President Truman hadn't made the decision to use the A-bombs.  My dad passed away five years ago at 88. Miss you bigtime pops and will hoist a few in your honor.

[ztejas 43466]

My great uncle was a seebee in the Pacific. Wish I knew more about it. I'll have to ask my dad or his dad for some more details.

[washparkhorn 9939]

4 hours ago, Hate said:

I'll have a few drinks for my 99 year old Grandpa tonight. He was a crew chief in the Army Air Corps in Burma during WWII.  He later re-enlisted and retired a Major. 

 

Same as my Dad (RIP). He flew the Hump, went to Germany to round up Germans for America, Occupied Japan, Korea, Berlin Airlift, then Cold War through Vietnam. 

The Americans and British saved the Chinese in WWII. The China-Burma-India theater of WWII has some great stories. 

Give your Grandpa my thanks.

[TwiceHorn 31493]

My Dad's destroyer, USS Hall (DD-583) was sent home to San Francisco from Okinawa, arriving late June, early July 1945 for refit.

He then embarked on armed transport USS Winged Arrow (AP-170) on 11 August  and was en route to Eniwetok to assist in assembling troops for the invasion when word of surrender came on 14 August.  He spent the next six months ferrying troops and personnel home from the Western Pacific.

[The Original CaliHorn 68]

My father (all of the age of 19 years) cut his first combat teeth as a F4F fighter pilot off the Fanshaw Bay during the Leyte Gulf campaign In 1944. I still have his leather flight helmet along with his goggles to this day and dreamed of following in his steps as a “Naval Aviator” but was failed on my flight physical due to an ACL injury in high school after graduating with a B.S. Aerospace Engineering degree in ‘86. Completely devastated me. He was a “cocky” individual but never discussed in detail the obvious Hell/Terror that someone his age almost certainly felt in the island campaign to defeat the Japanese.

For those that haven’t read “Killing the Rising Sun” by Bill O’Reilly, I would highly suggest. The level of atrocities by the German Reich pale in comparison to that of the Japanese.

[77horn 216]

Not my father (he was in Germany), but his 1st cousin was in the Lost Battalion and spent years in a Japanese POW camps.  He was in one about 100 miles from Nagasaki on August 9th.  From that camp he saw the mushroom cloud.  Didn't know what it was, but knew it was a good sign.  His oral history is in the University of North Texas at the Willis Library.

And yeah, what those guys did in the pacific was incredible.

[High Plains Drifter 11050]

2 hours ago, Harrison Stafford said:

USS Mellette was the name of your grandfather's ship. 

 

Thanks for the correction. His ship was part of the flotilla in Tokyo Bay when the Jap emperor formally surrendered.

 

[The Original CaliHorn 68]

By far......The Greatest generation of Americans our country has produced. Thank you for the sacrifice that you gave for all of us to have regardless of ideology and political affiliation. NO CLOAK ROOM!!!!

[Armybrat 40850]

3 hours ago, washparkhorn said:

Same as my Dad (RIP). He flew the Hump, went to Germany to round up Germans for America, Occupied Japan, Korea, Berlin Airlift, then Cold War through Vietnam. 

The Americans and British saved the Chinese in WWII. The China-Burma-India theater of WWII has some great stories. 

Give your Grandpa my thanks.

My Dad’s best friend from college days flew The Hump, and later became president of the Hump Pilots Association. He passed away 10+ years ago at age 97. Short in stature but walked taller than most men. Good man and a straight shooter.

For the first part of the war my Dad was stuck in the little known Aleutian Campaign to drive the Japanese off their only Occupied American territory. He was at the Battle of Attu and the Invasion of Kiska in 1943. He spent a total of 7 miserable months living in tents out in the snowfields of several islands in that distant part of the North Pacific.
The best highlight of that campaign came earlier in 1942 when he was lucky to become well acquainted with Bob Hope and his troupe on their first overseas entertainment tour. The Hollywooders got snowed in for an extra week before they could fly out.

Dad posing on Attu after the bitter fighting was over.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 16, 2020 by Armybrat

[ztejas 43466]

5 hours ago, ztejas said:

My great uncle was a seebee in the Pacific. Wish I knew more about it. I'll have to ask my dad or his dad for some more details.

So I found out more per my dad. 

It was my great GREAT uncle. He enlisted at 40 years old because he didn't have a family and felt that it was his duty - that we needed all the men we could find. He was a carpenter by trade and knew that the Navy needed good tradesmen and carpenters. His shipmates called him "pops". Stationed in the Aleutian Islands but rebuilt airstrips all over the Pacific following Japanese bombings. 

They don't make em like they used to...

[Cajun 11714]

I'd rather have a happy V-Jay day.

Been a helluva drought.

[Hate 20108]

39 minutes ago, ztejas said:

So I found out more per my dad. 

It was my great GREAT uncle. He enlisted at 40 years old because he didn't have a family and felt that it was his duty - that we needed all the men we could find. He was a carpenter by trade and knew that the Navy needed good tradesmen and carpenters. His shipmates called him "pops". Stationed in the Aleutian Islands but rebuilt airstrips all over the Pacific following Japanese bombings. 

They don't make em like they used to...

A lot of things get lost in the "glory of war" that were just as much a part of the victory as anyone who ever dodged a bullet.  The battles could never have been won without men like your great uncle and women like "Rosie the Riveter".  It took an entire nation to win that war regardless of what anyone's personal contribution turned out to be. 

[Armybrat 40850]

7 hours ago, Hate said:

A lot of things get lost in the "glory of war" that were just as much a part of the victory as anyone who ever dodged a bullet.  The battles could never have been won without men like your great uncle and women like "Rosie the Riveter".  It took an entire nation to win that war regardless of what anyone's personal contribution turned out to be. 

That included the truck drivers on the “Red Ball Express” too.

 

Edited August 16, 2020 by Armybrat

[Cajun 11714]

Tip of the cap to my Grandfather, WT Potter.  He told me the raw version of this story about a year before he died.  The pic is him in the blue shirt...

[Eastwood 4394]

Horace Hamilton is a living Pearl Harbor survivor who resides in Burleson County. I got to meet him at his home a couple of years back and he was kind enough to show me anything and everything he had involving his service in the war. A small town Texas boy who enlisted in the Navy in June of 1941 and was stationed in Pearl Harbor immediately after training. Was aboard the USS Phoenix and saw a ton of naval combat in the Pacific Theater.

Spoiler

We are losing our World War II veterans daily, and with them their memories of their experiences in the war. There is one group that has few left to recall the greatest event of their time, the day it all started.

Those veterans call themselves the Pearl Harbor Survivors. Horace B. Hamilton, who lives near Caldwell, is one of those survivors who lived through that fateful day.

As recalled by Hamilton, “I had graduated from Leander High in 1941 at the age of 16. I was born in Florence, Texas, on June 2, 1924, and didn’t turn 17 until after I graduated. I wanted to join the Navy, so with my parents’ permission, I joined on June 13, 1941. I did my boot training in San Diego and was sent to Pearl Harbor to go aboard the USS Phoenix, a light cruiser.

 

“One of the first things we did after I went aboard was escort three presidential liners filled with troops to reinforce Corregidor Island in the Philippines. I didn’t realize at the time that most of those guys would be dead or serve out the war in a prison camp if they survived the Battan Death March.

“We had returned to Pearl for about a week before the attack. That Sunday started out like any other morning aboard ship. I had my breakfast and was on the fantail, the back end of the ship. We saw some planes coming, but didn’t think too much about it because our pilots used the Utah as a target ship. They would fly in and drop sand bags, like they were bombs, for target practice.

 

“About the time they started dropping their torpedoes and bombs, we saw the red sun on the sides of their planes. One of the guys yelled ‘Those are Japs!’ The torpedo planes were the first to hit. Pearl was shallow, and those torpedoes were set properly and they knew which ships to fly to. They had very good spy work before they hit us that day.

 

 

“On Battleship Row, the USS Nevada got underway and was trying to make it around Ford Island when they took a bomb down their smokestack. Instead of clogging up the harbor, they pulled to the side before it sank. That act kept the channel open. The next ship was the USS Arizona, and it went down quickly. They hit the Maryland, the Tennessee; the Oklahoma capsized, then the West Virginia and the last one of the battleships, the California, took a torpedo.

“Several waves of planes came over us – torpedo planes, dive bombers, higher-altitude bombers and fighter planes. They also had a midget sub in the harbor. On the Phoenix, we had a lot of near misses. Before we could return fire, we had to have the Marines, who had 45s, shoot the locks off the ammo lockers because no one had a key. We were shooting so much that we shot the liners out of our guns. We and the Detroit, along with four ‘tin cans,’ destroyers, got underway and made it out of the harbor.

 

 

 

“Our orders when we got to sea were to search out and engage the enemy. For three days we tried to find the Japanese, but they had left the area. It is a good thing they had left, because if we had found them, it would have been a massacre -- ours.

 

“When we pulled out of Pearl, a picture was taken of the Phoenix. It is probably the most famous photo taken at Pearl. It shows the Arizona and the Maryland in the background, on fire and with all the black smoke filling the sky. In the foreground of the photo is a periscope sticking out of the water from that Japanese sub. We didn’t have one casualty or take any direct hit. From that day forward, we were called the ‘Lucky Phoenix.’

“After we returned to Pearl, we took aboard about 40 men off the Nevada and supplies and ammo. We had to cut off our gun liners and repair them. As soon as we could get that done, we took a convoy of wounded, civilians and dignitaries back to San Francisco. On the Detroit, they had loaded all the gold they had in Hawaii to take to San Francisco. We made two of those trips to San Francisco.

 

 

“After that, we escorted the Queen Mary and the other ships to Australia. We were the first American warship to dock at Melbourne in 30 years. We were re-supplied and operated along the western coast of Australia, patrolling the Indian Ocean and what was then the Dutch West Indies. It was here the Japanese would sink the Quincy, the Ashton and the Houston.

 

“After MacArthur took over as commander in the Pacific, he would sometimes come aboard the Phoenix and we would be his flagship. We began our part of the campaign to take back the Pacific with our first action in the Solomon Islands at New Britain, and then Guadalcanal. The Phoenix made every battle we were involved in on every island landing, including Leyte Gulf.

“In 1943, we headed back to the east coast of the U.S. for an overhaul. After the overhaul we took aboard Cordell Hull, then Secretary of State, to Casablanca, Morocco, where he and President Roosevelt met with Churchill and the other allied leaders at the Casablanca Conference”.

 

 

The USS Phoenix and Hamilton would return to the Pacific for the battles leading up to the invasion of the Philippines. There they would be involved in the greatest naval battle in history.

 

Part two

Horace B. Hamilton of Burleson County was one of the survivors of Pearl Harbor aboard the USS Phoenix. After Pearl Harbor, the Phoenix would be called the “Lucky Phoenix” because she did not incur any direct hits or suffer any casualties during the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor.

 

That title of “Lucky Phoenix” would stay with the crew of the Phoenix until the war’s end. The Phoenix would be involved in one other epic event in the Pacific, the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

According to Hamilton, “We aided the invasion of the Philippines and were offshore when General MacArthur waded ashore and proclaimed, ‘I have returned.’ This is where we started to have a lot of air attacks by the Japanese. Again, we were lucky and suffered no direct hits by the Japanese planes. What we didn’t realize was we were about to be in the next great naval battle of the Pacific, the Battle of Surigao Strait.”

 

 

Hamilton has an account of that event that was compiled shortly after the battle. It states in part: “It was a blustering hot day in the Philippines when word came that the Japanese Fleet was on the move toward our position and a huge naval engagement might be expected within a matter of hours. Our ship took on an air of its own, as if feeling the pulse of the crew and our long-sought chance to prove our worth.

“The dinner hour was strangely quiet as each man pondered over what the future might hold. Word passed of the size and strength of the Japanese fleet, so all hands were aware of the problem facing us.

 

“Our force consisted of battleships, cruisers and destroyers reinforced by a sizable number of PT boats who served as advance spotters. We had all heard Tokyo Rose boast about the Japanese’s one big strike to destroy the American Fleet, and here it was. We knew the fate of the Philippines lay in the balance.

 

 

“We got underway and took up our battle lines shortly after sunset. Most of the crew was on deck, waiting for the call to battle stations. Hours passed. It began to look like the Japanese had turned tail and run. Under a full moon, our ships were clearly visible and everyone was uneasy at the delay.

“Suddenly, word went out that our spotting boats, the PT boats, had located the Japanese Fleet. It was now 1:30 a.m., and the Japanese were expected within the hour. The PT boats attacked the fleet as best they could, some venturing into the Japanese Fleet formation.

“Still, the Japanese fleet came on. Our destroyers picked them up several miles away and passed the word. Already guns were beginning to train out, getting the range for the first salvo, the most important thing in an engagement like this. Few on the ship had ever witnessed a naval battle before, yet everyone handled themselves like veterans.

 

 

 

“The Seventh Fleet was ready as the Japanese edged closer. We knew at any second the big guns on one of the ships was going to explode, then all would open up. At 3:53 a.m. our battleships opened up, the cue for all the ships to let go. Tracer shells shot out at the surprised enemy as ships seemed to fire from every conceivable angle. A Japanese battleship was the main target, and shells landed around it in a never-ending stream. The first salvos were near misses. After that, there were no misses. Every ship poured shell after shell into the now-flaming Japanese warship until the blaze lit up the horizon for miles around. The flames told us how well we were succeeding.

“For 45 minutes this battle raged on with the Japanese. After their major ships were aflame and sinking, they turned and ran. Early the following dawn, we could see the actual damage we had done. Jap ships were ablaze, belching smoke thousands of feet in the air. As we came upon them, we turned our guns on the sinking cripples so they would never again threaten the American Fleet. All hands were tired but supremely happy after a hectic night. One of the greatest naval battles in history was ours, and we knew it.”

 

 

 

Hamilton and the crew of the Phoenix would return to Leyte Gulf and continue to assist the American invasion of the Philippines. One of their last duty assignments of the war was to take aboard the survivors of the Battan Death March and deliver them to hospitals in the area. These were the same men they had delivered to Corregidor just before the war started with the surprise attack conducted at Pearl Harbor.

When asked about his time of service, Hamilton stated, “I’m glad I did it. I’m glad I did my part. Freedom is not free. You have to pay the price, and that price is usually the blood of the veterans.”

Hamilton's story originally ran in The Eagle in August 2008.

https://theeagle.com/veterans/horace-b-hamilton-wwii-veteran/article_ac889dc2-1941-11e6-8dc6-77448c976f4d.html

If you want to send Mr. Hamilton a letter or card to thank him for his part in getting us to V-J Day, you can send it to

P.O. Box 1281

Caldwell, TX 77836

[D_Goose 489]

Great uncle was a POW who survived the Bataan Death March. My grandmother told us about how when he finally made it back to Texas the whole family prepared a huge elaborate meal to celebrate his safe return. My great uncle had become so emaciated he could barely eat a bite, his stomach had shrunken so much from prolonged starvation.

The cruelty and hardship those soldiers endured is really unimaginable to me- by any comparison I've lived such a safe and easy life.  

 

[RPM 26322]

POWs in the Pac had it nearly as bad as Jews in Germany. They were treated like subhumans because they surrendered or allowed themselves to get captured.

At least for the most part POWs in the ETO were treated less harshly. They had food and decent shelter.

[RamjetFDO 10577]

My grandfather (RIP) was a Flight Engineer on a B-29 stationed on Tinian. He flew a number of missions over Japan (and later Korea), and said that there had been discussions with his crew that they would've been one of the next crews trained, had there been other bombs made ready.

He's far left, back row.



Photo of Mt. Fuji that he took with other B-29s from his group.



He knew the two atomic bomb flight crews... It wasn't a huge island, much less a massive base, although there were a large contingent of B-29s there.

He would've been 99 this year - he passed away 4 years ago. I was lucky to have taken him on his Honor Flight experience.



I'll have one in his honor tonight.

[BillyGoatHill 4312]

23 hours ago, ztejas said:

My great uncle was a seebee in the Pacific. Wish I knew more about it. I'll have to ask my dad or his dad for some more details.

I also had a great Uncle that was a SeeBee in the Pacific. His and my grandmother's other two brothers were Marines. All three saw heavy fighting. The youngest, and not very much older than my dad, had been turned down from enlistment by the Army, and the Marines at least once each due to him accidentally shooting himself in the foot with a .22 when he was sixteen while hunting frogs. They all had him as a 4F. He was undeterred and eventually got into the Marine reserves and served in K Co. 21st Marines, 3rd Marine Division as a BAR man in his company. The BAR weighed 23 lbs (if my memory is right) without any ammo and my great uncle only weighed only around 120 lbs soaking wet. He and his SeeBee brother both served at Guam and he had a watch band made from the aluminum metal from a Japanese Zero that was shot down over the island. Many Marines did this as the humidity would destroy leather watch bands. He pin holed palm trees as a design on the side and scratched his initials and unit on the inside.

For the Invasion of Iwo Jima, the 21st Marines were in reserve for the 4th and 5th Marine Divisions and were only to go in if needed. They were brought in either on the first or second day due to the heavy casualties suffered by the two divisions. Because of that, he was there on the day of the flag raising February 23rd.

The following day, February 24th, his company (K), along with others of the 21st Marines, were tasked with taking Motoyama Airfield #2 (the airfield in the middle of the island that is still in use today). Midway across the airfield, being up front with his BAR, my Great-Uncle "Bunch" (his mother had nicknamed him that when he was a young boy) was hit and killed by a Japanese mortar. He had just turned 19 years old a couple of weeks earlier on February 3rd, a young man that didn't have to serve, but did anyway.

Originally buried on the island with the other 6000+ killed, he was reinterred to Crystal City after the war.

Around 15 years ago, I was trying to find out any info about him and did a search on the 3rd Marine Division website. Surprisingly, I got an email about 3-4 months later. Turns out, my dad's cousin Fred,was given all of Uncle Bunch's affects after the passing of my great grandmother. He was able to send me copies of some pictures, the war department telegram regarding his KIA status, and letters fom Bunch to his mom, along with the letter from his Commanding Officer that details him and his death.

Fred also still has his watch with the hand made wristband from the Zero. He winds it every Memorial Day and says it keeps perfect time. 

RIP Uncle Bunch.

 

Edited August 16, 2020 by BillyGoatHill

[Armybrat 40850]

3 hours ago, D_Goose said:

Great uncle was a POW who survived the Bataan Death March. My grandmother told us about how when he finally made it back to Texas the whole family prepared a huge elaborate meal to celebrate his safe return. My great uncle had become so emaciated he could barely eat a bite, his stomach had shrunken so much from prolonged starvation.

The cruelty and hardship those soldiers endured is really unimaginable to me- by any comparison I've lived such a safe and easy life.  

 

A friend of my Dad survived the Bataan Death March and his years in the POW camps. His health was broken by the time he was repatriated, but remained in the Army until the 1950s when he died a relatively young man. He was stationed at Fort Hood with the 2nd Armored Division in 1948-49 and lived near our quarters.
RIP Major Webb.

[Ignatius 4017]

Imagine the annual party if we’d ever won a war against Denmark....

[Armybrat 40850]

16 minutes ago, Ignatius said:

Imagine the annual party if we’d ever won a war against Denmark....

Lego of that thought, dude.

[washparkhorn 9939]

16 hours ago, Armybrat said:

That included the truck drivers on the “Red Ball Express” too.

 

That is a great story. American logistics played a pivotal role in winning that War - and the Cold War. The US produces brainpower, brawn and bravery.

I have no doubt we are well equipped to demonstrate the certainty of the guarantee the US dominating any foreign enemy nation-state. US Defense has their eyes on international threats - whatever realm or theater of war. . 

WWII Vets are the real McCoy and they set the standard for a professional military career.  That was a bloody war.

Hitler was a soldier from WWI.  WWI was "Mad Kings go to War affair." WWI war was barbaric and senseless. 

US WWII vets proved the US could make war more surgical and humane, when they returned to the States. They succeeded. Efficiency does work when examining leverage points with enemies. That credo was, and is, a valiant step forward that benefits all of humanity. Barbaric warfare tactics must be grossly inefficient for any enemy use against the US. The weapons of war are getting smarter and more efficient. Just like the Red Bullet Express was a step forward in the tactics of moving "men and materiel" during war.
 

 

 

 

️

2

Spoiler

 

Materiel has a much broader definition these days, including cyber.

The world is dividing between two worlds - again. Those choosing have an option between the Chinese economic world or the highly developed nations' economic world. .The world is largely mixed on the fringes of those camps. China is making threatening gestures and there is an active tug of war over monetary policy.

And just like WWI ushered in WWII - the end of the Cold War ushered in this present battle, the emergence of China as a military threat after the Soviet Union disintegrated and abandoned their sphere of influence into the wind.

How would a WWII and/or Cold War vet attack the problem of China taking an imperialist tilt with their State Capitalism facade? Do you have any book suggestions, perhaps? 

The ChiComm Party has a grip on that nation's economic levers and data assets. We made a little mistake giving the ChiComms the blueprints on how we run our economic system. They just duplicated it and declared themselves ruler of their economic system. Now they want other nations to join them and unseat the dollar. 

In WWII, we were so far ahead of the game on the tech and logistics of moving service members, supplies, and information in every theater. Peace is always the first choice and it is the policy of the United States to prevent foreign wars waging inside the US. We speak softly and carry a big stick on foreign policy - that which we learned from WWII and the Cold War. This is an economic war at presently. The US and China have a mutual interest in solving this peacefully.  

I certainly expect the ChiCommCaps to understand they remain in Zugzwang according to combinatorial game theory. If not, they have badly miscalculated the board.

 

The Red Ball Express was beautifully planned, trained for and executed. It was laser focused. It's a great story and vital to that invasion. D-Day had remarkable and advanced plans never seen in war. We had scalability. 

 

[washparkhorn 9939]

Army Information office film on logistical teamwork against the Nazis. 

The sound is not the best but it gets better. 

[Armybrat 40850]

5 hours ago, washparkhorn said:

That is a great story. American logistics played a pivotal role in winning that War - and the Cold War. The US produces brainpower, brawn and bravery.

I have no doubt we are well equipped to demonstrate the certainty of the guarantee the US dominating any foreign enemy nation-state. US Defense has their eyes on international threats - whatever realm or theater of war. . 

WWII Vets are the real McCoy and they set the standard for a professional military career.  That was a bloody war.

Hitler was a soldier from WWI.  WWI was "Mad Kings go to War affair." WWI war was barbaric and senseless. 

US WWII vets proved the US could make war more surgical and humane, when they returned to the States. They succeeded. Efficiency does work when examining leverage points with enemies. That credo was, and is, a valiant step forward that benefits all of humanity. Barbaric warfare tactics must be grossly inefficient for any enemy use against the US. The weapons of war are getting smarter and more efficient. Just like the Red Bullet Express was a step forward in the tactics of moving "men and materiel" during war.
 

Spoiler

 

 

 

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Materiel has a much broader definition these days, including cyber.

The world is dividing between two worlds - again. Those choosing have an option between the Chinese economic world or the highly developed nations' economic world. .The world is largely mixed on the fringes of those camps. China is making threatening gestures and there is an active tug of war over monetary policy.

And just like WWI ushered in WWII - the end of the Cold War ushered in this present battle, the emergence of China as a military threat after the Soviet Union disintegrated and abandoned their sphere of influence into the wind.

How would a WWII and/or Cold War vet attack the problem of China taking an imperialist tilt with their State Capitalism facade? Do you have any book suggestions, perhaps? 

The ChiComm Party has a grip on that nation's economic levers and data assets. We made a little mistake giving the ChiComms the blueprints on how we run our economic system. They just duplicated it and declared themselves ruler of their economic system. Now they want other nations to join them and unseat the dollar. 

In WWII, we were so far ahead of the game on the tech and logistics of moving service members, supplies, and information in every theater. Peace is always the first choice and it is the policy of the United States to prevent foreign wars waging inside the US. We speak softly and carry a big stick on foreign policy - that which we learned from WWII and the Cold War. This is an economic war at presently. The US and China have a mutual interest in solving this peacefully.  

I certainly expect the ChiCommCaps to understand they remain in Zugzwang according to combinatorial game theory. If not, they have badly miscalculated the board.

 

The Red Ball Express was beautifully planned, trained for and executed. It was laser focused. It's a great story and vital to that invasion. D-Day had remarkable and advanced plans never seen in war. We had scalability. 

 

One reason I mentioned those men is because I knew one in the early 1960s when I worked at the Austin public library branch on Exposition. The janitor Sylvester was a humble but humorous bachelor who was always friendly. He didn’t talk much about his experiences in France (I don’t know if he was a driver or a mechanic), but he did say he brought home his M1 Carbine disassembled in his duffle bag.

[NeverMarryAStripper 21907]

14 hours ago, Ignatius said:

Imagine the annual party if we’d ever won a war against Denmark....

I'd prefer a victory over a Jamaican/Jordanian alliance

[Guest Lobo]

Bump---Happy 245th Birthday to the U.S. Navy.  The sweetest smelling Navy...in the World.

I can't wait for the 250 party out at the Nimitz Museum.  I'm guessing there might be a hosted bar.