A salute to badasses on Veteran's Day

[InkaUtexas 26252]

OK, I know on this forum we have active, retired, and kids of veterans. A thread where we can post about the bad asses ? 

Here is my dad with his recon team.  I love this picture. The way # 3 from the left is smiling. I have asked my dad so many times what joke he was telling and won't tell me. But I like to think it was something the Surly would agree with and appreciate. 

 

[InkaUtexas 26252]

Here is my step mom. This is right when her team entered Kuwait. 

First woman to run a USAF FAC team. A Bad ass. Right now sitting in N Texas hoping Chemo works this time. 

[Mother mopar 3326]

Here is one of my paternal grandfather who just passed this month. My folks came across this picture and sent it to me, one I'd never seen.

The second one is my maternal grandfather who was a mortorman in the Korean war and purple heart recipient.

[InkaUtexas 26252]

My step mom built a book about my dad. There is one picture of him on a C-119 heading to Lebanon back in the 1958. I need to get that digital. 19 years old and scared as shit. Was the assistant on an airborne .30 cal team. Bipod and ammo carrier basically. 

[RDCanecutter 26512]

Mom's side: Grandaddy, WWII. "Sergeant Mack."

Army Air Corps, Aircraft Electrician. Commanded a crew of 18 men who were like his sons, they went everywhere, helped build bases for the 9th Air Force, I know he was around and probably worked on P-38s and various tactical bombers. They had an old stray dog that he said must have been a soldier because it always knew when it was chow time. They rescued a teenaged girl who been abused and for some reason the Red Cross didn't want to help her. I don't think he ever gave to the Red Cross after that.

Was usually not on the front lines except for one time in Belgium when the Germans busted through in the Bulge. He was in the last village that Peiper got to but was not able to take. Peiper's men were the ones executing prisoners. I have a letter to my mom from him where he mentions being in a basement, hearing tanks, the most scared he'd ever been in his life.

He'd tell me stories when I was a child that I would understand in childlike ways, like how in the trip over to England they got sick of rations so they pooled their hidden civilian food and made Brunswick Stew (in my mind I thought he and a few others swam to an island, complete with one palm tree, and cans came floating by.) He talked about how they couldn't catch the German jets in the air, so they'd attack the German bases at night, blow their wings off. I pictured him and his friends doing this on foot, with sticks of dynamite under their arms.

Also on the Atlantic crossing, he got tired of being down in the hold with the guys puking everywhere, so he and some friends set up a laundry on deck for the officers, and got to sleep up there in the fresh air. They cleaned the uniforms with gasoline.

Edited November 11, 2020 by RDCanecutter

[Parliament 14357]

Three replies and no:

[Judge Roybeanbag 11821]

My maternal grandpa, Battery E of the 123rd Field Artillery In WW1.  This pic was taken after he trained at Camp Logan, which is now Memorial Park in Houston.  Lobbed a shit ton of artillery in France.  

Edited November 12, 2020 by Judge Roybeanbag
Edited he was the 123rd, 33rd Division from Illinois National Guard.

[RDCanecutter 26512]

My Dad's older brothers:

RT: Armored Infantry, served under Patton. Shot to pieces in Alsace where the Geramns were attacking at the same time as the Bulge. Survived. He rode in a halftrack and his job was to smash through the lines and raise hell. Once had his carbine clipped in two by a shell that left him untouched.

JC: Crew Chief on large aircraft. I don't know details about him. One time, I think postwar, he was crew chief on a big plane that clipped a wing and almost crashed because the pilots made a mistake. The General called JC in and blamed him, because, though enlisted, he should have smacked the pilots over the head and taken control, and he expected him to do it next time.

Bobby: Merchant Marine. Had completed one year of Chemical Engineering, so they made him Ship's Doctor. One night he and a fellow crewman got drunk, got in a brawl, and Bobby broke the guy's jaw. Well, 5 minutes later, still drunk, as Ship's Doctor he had to wire the guy's jaw up. Didn't know how to do it, but there was a picture book of laminated pages that showed how to do it, so he did.

Another time their engines went out and they had to drop out of the convoy. This made them sitting ducks, but the opposite happened-- a wolfpack of U-Boats ambushed the main convoy ahead of them, and when they fixed their engines, the next day they glided though a silent sea of wreckage.

At the end of the war, they had a shipload of new jeeps and trucks. When they heard the news, all those new vehicles went over the side.

Edited November 12, 2020 by RDCanecutter

[RDCanecutter 26512]

Cousin Felix. Commanded a Special Forces platoon in Vietnam (probably actually in Cambodia.) He has a spot on the Wall.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11821]

Grandpas dog tags. 

[Incredulity 11684]

Pos rep all around.

good stuff.  God bless them.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11821]

Interesting thing about memorial park, there are guys who run metal detectors there and constantly find buttons and dog tags from the WWI guys who served.

[troph 24916]

My girlfriend’s dad - Semper Fi - multiple tours in Nam, won’t tell stories, you know it’s Fallujah type shit - rose the ranks in combat. Ended his career a full bird in the pentagon. Testified before Congress in the Ollie North trial and would have made his first star but for politics as the presidents changed from one admin to another. Retired a tad early to his home in Texas. Married to the same woman for a gazillion years. When my girlfriend came out to him and her mom as a teen in the early 1980s he told the whole family and said we love her, she’s our daughter, she trusted us and we will show her she was right to do so. Not another word was mentioned about whether it was ok to be gay. Early 1980s. He is a good man.

[RDCanecutter 26512]

4 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

Interesting thing about memorial park, there are guys who run metal detectors there and constantly find buttons and dog tags from the WWI guys who served.

A metal detector guy told me, no matter how many times ground is detected, there's always something more, because the detector projects down into the ground as a cone with a tiny active tip . He said it was like trying to paint a parking lot with a magic marker.

[washparkhorn 9939]

Happy Veterans Day to all the vets out there. Thank you. 
 

 

[phdhorn 6224]

Dad, WWII, USN, S1C. Shore Patrol (SP). equivalent of army MP. His job was to beat the sbit out of rowdy, drunken sailors and get them sobered up. And as you can imagine in the Navy, that meant a lot of beating up.

He could take you, me, your family, my family, and the Texas Longhorn teams of the last 10 years on simultaneously and not break a sweat. Fortunately, he was a great guy.  RIP.

Also, shout out to my brother, Army private during Nam in the Signal Corps. Gentle giant at 6'7". Repeatedly won his platoon shooting contests. Wouldn't hurt a flea in real life.

Yes, they're badasses, so badass I'm one just from them breathing on me.

 

[TwiceHorn 31646]

ENS TwiceHornDad ca. 1942 at the ripe age of 21.

Torpedo and later gunnery officer on DD-583, USS Hall.

At anchor off Ulithi ca. 1944, probably between operations in support of the Marshall Islands invasion (Kwajalein, Eniwetok) and the Marianas invasions (Saipan, Tinian).

Edited November 12, 2020 by TwiceHorn

[InkaUtexas 26252]

1 hour ago, RDCanecutter said:

Cousin Felix. Commanded a Special Forces platoon in Vietnam (probably actually in Cambodia.) He has a spot on the Wall.

Only have seen my father break down four times. When my kids were born (He said I should thank a Spooky Pilot), when we went to the wall (ran across a particular name) and when drunk as shit on drambouie with some other Mike Force members. They were just happily singing a song about Pleiku when he lost it. 

He still won't tell me the joke, but he did tell me they were called off that mission, another team went in and they were all lost when hitting the LZ. 

[NAVY 6762]

I’ll jump in here. 
One grandfather was a Lexington officer and survived the bombing/sinking in the coral sea. Miss you so much Alvin, but the Cowboys still suck. 

Second grandfather was OSS. Wouldn’t talk about the shit he did in WWII and later Korea. Did mention one “fun” mission. He posed as a yachting playboy near the pacific entrance to the Panama Canal for a year. Was really there to spot Japanese subs. Much love Anson. See you on the other side. 

And then there is my dad. He was part of the naval blockade of Cuba during the missile crisis. Lots of secret shit he couldn’t talk much about. Fucking scary shit is all he would say. Man, I miss you so much dad. 

Badassas all. Navy runs in our blood back to the early 1800s. Gulf war was my turn. 
 

 

 

[NAVY 6762]

Also, I put the uniform on this morning for my daughter’s 5th grade zoom class. Felt good. Fuck yeah, let’s go good. 

[InkaUtexas 26252]

31 minutes ago, NAVY said:

I’ll jump in here. 
One grandfather was a Lexington officer and survived the bombing/sinking in the coral sea. Miss you so much Alvin, but the Cowboys still suck. 

Second grandfather was OSS. Wouldn’t talk about the shit he did in WWII and later Korea. Did mention one “fun” mission. He posed as a yachting playboy near the pacific entrance to the Panama Canal for a year. Was really there to spot Japanese subs. Much love Anson. See you on the other side. 

And then there is my dad. He was part of the naval blockade of Cuba during the missile crisis. Lots of secret shit he couldn’t talk much about. Fucking scary shit is all he would say. Man, I miss you so much dad. 

Badassas all. Navy runs in our blood back to the early 1800s. Gulf war was my turn. 
 

 

 

Man, thanks for posting. Yeah, Grandfather (WW2 and Korea) lost 2 of his 3 brothers in the Coral Sea. 

From an 11B to a Navy man, Go Army, Beat Navy! 

[Sandman 3420]

My grandfather was an artilleryman in WW2. My uncles said he wouldn't talk about what he saw with anyone but his buddies at the VFW hall. Both of my parents were USAF, they met in tech school. After they got married in 1969, they were told one of them had to GTFO, so mom left. Dad was active duty from 1967-1993, started as a medic and retired as hospital administration. Never got sent to Nam, closest we got was the Philippines in 1976. When I was a kid, I asked him why he didn't go to Vietnam. He shrugged and said "President Nixon didn't tell me to go." I didn't get it as a kid, but I laugh about it now. 

[Scheiss Meister 8416]

My step grandfather, for whom I was partially named, was a Marine machine gunner during WWII.  To my great shame I can't remember which regiment he was in, but he was in the Fourth Marine Division.  From family stories, he faught on Saipan and Iwo Jima, and may have done some mop-up on Okinawa.  From what I have pieced together, he saw about six months total of combat.  He was one of eight men in his regiment who ended the war without any physical wounds.  I have what remains of his fighting knife.  (He used it extensively for hunting and butchering, then it was not cared for from his death in 1959 until I found it in 1980.)  After the war, he spent about a year in the woods along the Mississippi in Louisiana and Mississippi, unwinding.  He had a heart attack and died two years before I was born.  I wish that I could have known him.  RIP, Melvin.

My grandfather, my mom's dad and Melvin's predecessor, was in the Army.  He chased Pancho Villa in Mexico under Blackjack Pershing and faught the Huns in WWI.  He was gassed, sent to the rear to recover, then was put back in the line, even though he could not breathe normally.  Soon after that an artillery burst shredded the right half of his face.  The armistice happened while he was recovering from that wound, and he was put on occupation duty when he recovered. 

He told my mother once that he was housed with a German family during the occupation, and they treated the Doughboys like kings.  He asked them why they did that, and they explained that they had a son who was killed in the fighting, and they wanted to treat the Americans the way they hoped he had been treated.  A few days later, my grandfather had been on a cold, wet patrol and asked where he could hang his coat.  The lady of the house opened a closet door and told him to hang it in there.  Inside the closet door was a full size picture of their son.  My grandfather saw it, got sick, left the house, and went to his company commander and asked to be moved to a different house.  He had recognized the son as a soldier that he had killed with a bayonet in the trenches.  When he explained that, he was allowed to move.  He was haunted by that until he died in 1942 from complications to the injury in his lungs from the gas attack years earlier.  I wish I could have known him, too.  RIP, Robert.

[TexPx 2326]

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Hate 20154]

As always, thanks to all of you who served and thanks to those families that sacrifice every single day to keep our country safe. 

My Dad, KIA in Vietnam August of 1970.  Either here or the other site I posted a story about the incident when he was killed.  He was a helicopter pilot and was shot down by an RPG the Army swore the Vietnamese didn't have. 

 

 

My Grandpa who turns 100 in about 3 weeks.  He was a crew chief in Burma and Malaysia  during WWII.  He got out of the Army Air Corp after the war and re-enlisted as an officer.  He made it to Major before he retired.  He could have easily made Colonel but my Grandma didn't want him sitting around the O-club drinking scotch.  Oh well.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

Grandpa, in the middle, in the USS Lexingtons photo booth with his best buds c. 1942 or 43. This is such a great image, regardless of the family connection. I'm looking into having this enlarged to something much bigger than the original pic. Just trying to determine how much pixel quality I'm gonna lose.

Edited November 13, 2020 by Onboard 2.0

[DaysOff 7988]

Paternal grandpa DaysOff in the Great War.

[BehoId, The Underminer! 11669]

My dad was on a carrier in the pacific during the Cuban missile crisis.  It’s a pretty tense story. They were full dark, zigzagging around, with nukes on the deck.  

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

1 hour ago, BehoId, The Underminer! said:

My dad was on a carrier in the pacific during the Cuban missile crisis.  It’s a pretty tense story. They were full dark, zigzagging around, with nukes on the deck.  

I was swimming around in my moms womb that week.....  I remember it being dark, and scary.

Edited November 13, 2020 by Onboard 2.0

[Guest]

Great Uncle served in the Marines and was in a pile of  KIA at Iwo Jima until a Corpsman saw him move.  He was straight up 0311 and probably the toughest sumbeech I ever knew.  He didn't ever talk about it around the family, save for one reunion after I had joined.  It was just he and I talking and he opened up about that hellscape.

Grandfather was a mechanic in the Army, and did not see combat, but he supported the operations through the Bulge and into Germany.  I need to share the pics he gave me that were 'liberated' from a Nazi camera.  I will look for them soon...  One of them I am pretty sure is a military parade at Olympic Stadium in Berlin.

Dad was in the Navy, fuck him.

Uncle is retired Supplyman,  Air Force.  Cousin is retired Torpedoman, Submariner in the Navy.  Multiple other cousins in family served across all branches ranging from AWACS mechanic in the AF to Arabic interpreters in USMC to grunts in the Army; but all of those were one or two contracts, enlisted.

Never did see combat in Desert Storm/ Shield, nor have my boys seen that kind of duty. My oldest son is Army, Engineers, Route Clearance( eliminating IEDs and threats.)  Coolest thing he has done is training with our  allies in Poland and as a shiny new LT, addressing an assembly of leaders and dignitaries at a NATO conference about the whole operation.  They work with vehicles equipment like this:

Youngest son is in the Navy and is in Mass Com/ Media Specialist.  Basically he is a much quieter Adrian Cronauer.

Another badass who I will mention is a younger friend of mine who was a mortarman in the Army in Operation Phantom Fury, the second 'Battle of Fallujah."  His unit took heavy casualties and he deals with some pretty bad PTSD and survivor's guilt, to a certain degree.  We have a common hobby and once he figured out I was prior service and I heard his story; we became very close friends.  Many a night we have spent with him talking and me mostly listening.  Inside his head( and heart) some of the battles still rage.   It sucks. He does receive professional care for dealing with the PTSD.  In the civilian world, he continues to serve the public as a paramedic.  He and his wife have a 2 year old girl who obviously is the light of his life.   He continues to have contact with his buddies from his unit, which is priceless as far as support goes.  It just wears on my how they continue to deal with what they experienced.

So I said all of that to get to this:  We celebrate badasses, maybe sometimes a little too often.   In the end, they are just like you and me with their human needs, but the scars and burdens they carry often require special care.  Please be aware of this and if someone seems a little off or is showing signs of emotional struggle, you probably are NOT the one to fix it, but you can listen... and let them know they are loved/ or that someone cares. It might be like trying to move a house by yourself, but try to steer them towards help, if they have not sought it.  Veteran suicide is very real.  The help you offer can be too.

[WillUSAF 226]

My great grandfather. Was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for actions in the trenches in WWI...... Unfortunately is demons came home with him. 2 years after returning from France he killed my great grandmother and then killed himself.

 

I still visit his grave a couple of times a year

Edited November 11, 2021 by WillUSAF

[OneOfTheOutOfFocusGuys 2100]

wow

[Trey3216 15380]

Pictured: 

1st Picture is my Grandad's (Dad's Dad) plane (Bottom Right) on a bombing mission over Germany.  He was a tailgunner, and flew 40+ sorties over Italy, Germany, and The Netherlands.

2nd Pic is Dad at Da Nang doin his thang on the airbase (He was basically in charge of the bombery, making sure the planes were loaded and fueled and off the ground every 30 seconds)

3rd Pic is Dad's dad in his Army Air Corps uni

4th pic is Mom's Dad, who served in the Army and fought in Korea.  

 

Don't have as many pics of them in uniform, but my Godfather (Dad's cousin) also served in Vietnam, mom lost one of her cousins in Vietnam, and have numerous other uncles, cousins, friends and business colleagues serve in various theaters for our nation.  I can't tell you how proud of their sacrifices I am, because it wouldn't do it justice.  
 

Happy Veterans' Day!  

[Knoxtnhorn 6072]

Anyone know of the best route to get service records?  I'm the family historian and only have a partial idea of what both my grandparents went through.

One was in The Pacific; the other a sniper in Europe.  The latter got there late, but I recently found out he may have been in The Battle of the Bulge.

[WillUSAF 226]

6 minutes ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

Anyone know of the best route to get service records?  I'm the family historian and only have a partial idea of what both my grandparents went through.

One was in The Pacific; the other a sniper in Europe.  The latter got there late, but I recently found out he may have been in The Battle of the Bulge.

Military Records and Identification | USAGov

 

I hope this helps. Good luck!

[You don't know me 1161]

7 minutes ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

Anyone know of the best route to get service records?  I'm the family historian and only have a partial idea of what both my grandparents went through.

One was in The Pacific; the other a sniper in Europe.  The latter got there late, but I recently found out he may have been in The Battle of the Bulge.

It depends on the branch of service and the years.  Your best bet is to probably start by getting the DD214.  This page has some good links:

 

https://nvf.org/how-to-get-a-copy-of-dd214/

 

Be warned that some records were lost in a flood or fire or something like that.  I think it was St. Louis, but I really can't recall.  I ended up having to go to Headquarters Marine Corps for my DD214 because of it.

[You don't know me 1161]

I posted this picture in the USMC Birthday thread, but it's also very appropriate here.

A picture of my old man (far right) in Korea circa 1950.  Marine Corps Sergeant, mortarman, and the reason for my joining the Corps.  Good man with faults, and a great father.  He passed way about 8 years ago and I miss him every day.

 

 

Edited November 11, 2021 by You don't know me

[You don't know me 1161]

22 minutes ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

Anyone know of the best route to get service records?  I'm the family historian and only have a partial idea of what both my grandparents went through.

One was in The Pacific; the other a sniper in Europe.  The latter got there late, but I recently found out he may have been in The Battle of the Bulge.

PM sent.  I thought of another way to get service records.

[Sandman 3420]

20 minutes ago, You don't know me said:

I posted this picture in the USMC Birthday thread, but it's also very appropriate here.

A picture of my old man (far right) in Korea circa 1950.  Marine Corps Sergeant, mortarman, and the reason for my joining the Corps.  Good man with faults, and a great father.  He passed way about 8 years ago and I miss him every day.

 

 

What's up with your Pops smokin' and jokin' with his doggone hands in his doggone pockets??!!?!

J/K, SFMF

[You don't know me 1161]

2 minutes ago, Sandman said:

What's up with your Pops smokin' and jokin' with his doggone hands in his doggone pockets??!!?!

J/K, SFMF

Yeah, I guess they had different standards in combat.  We always called them Army gloves.  My sister sent me that picture this morning and it's the first time that I have ever seen it.  After seeing his face and recovering from the dust in the room, I thought "Look at the old man wearing his Army gloves!"

[M12BH 545]

My great-uncle Herman Hochman was the bad-assest of all the badasses out there.  I've posted his story before but I'm gonna keep posting it as long as I have breath to draw.  He died in his early 90s.  I believe the last of his "gang" , J.C., died just last year at a very advanced age. My uncle always carried a deep and abiding love for the Italian people, and told me before I visited Italy a few years ago that if I saw any redheads to say hi because "they might be kin".  So apparently fighting wasn't the only thing he did over there.  

https://www.airforcemag.com/article/valor-behind-enemy-lines/

Spoiler

He had the wire-cutters in his coat sleeve. The prisoner next to him had stolen a pair of spectacles, and that's actually what the guards were searching for.  The spectacles were found and that guy was shot in between the eyes and left for dead.  

 

[tx 3 putt 77650]

grandfather - ww2, in the pacific he jumps out of a ditch and a japanese machine gun tries like hell to cut him half. he falls back, and by pure chance falls onto a medic (probably saved the guys life). my grandfather was a goner, medic jumps to action and gets his body parts back in him and packs it down. he's quickly evacuated to the beach and stabilized, surgery #1 on a ship. 9 months of recovery in Australia. Local paper ran a story about him, so he finally gets home and the post office has a job waiting for him. he worked there 50 years. 

my father's uncle - he joined the army 4th of July 1943, at the age of 15. he was a tall kid. he trains for the next 11 months for D-Day. hits the beach day 1. gets his pic in stars and strips dday+6, 16 years old. dday+7 germany tried to take him down, he survived but badly wounded. he gets shipped to fort sam in SA fo rehab. entire place loves him. they ask him what's he going to do when he gets home, him - I promised my mom I'd graduate from HS and he tells them his real age. Like I said, entire place loved him. they found him a job on base, helped him get his GeD. He worked at that base 55 years I bet. Sometime in the 70's, he bought some land way outwest,  north of boerne and that proved to be a very wise decision. 

my uncle - vietnam, part of a huey crew. shot down 3 times. 3rd time it was him and the pilot left, they'd both agree'd to shoot each other if over ran. my uncle said they were done, charlie was coming down on them hard. he said the hills or bank looked like it was full of ants. he said, out of nowhere F-4's come in screaming and loaded with napalm. in a blink of eye a wall of napalm appeared, he told me he could hear every scream and the bodies burning away. along the way, the pilot passed and he was the only survivor. rescue crew finally showed up

Edited November 12, 2021 by tx 3 putt

[conVINCEd 21474]

Grandfather spent 3 days swimming in the Pacific after his ship was torpedoed.  I hope he is enjoying his scotch today, despite my grandmother’s objections.

Edited November 12, 2021 by conVINCEd
They’re dead. That wasn’t clear from my initial post.

[OneOfTheOutOfFocusGuys 2100]

21 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

grandfather - ww2, in the pacific he jumps out of a ditch and a japanese machine gun tries like hell to cut him half. he falls back, and by pure chance falls onto a medic (probably saved the guys life). my grandfather was a goner, medic jumps to action and gets his body parts back in him and packs it down. he's quickly evacuated to the beach and stabilized, surgery #1 on a ship. 9 months of recovery in Australia. Local paper ran a story about him, so he finally gets home and the post office has a job waiting for him. he worked there 50 years. 

my father's uncle - he joined the army 4th of July 1943, at the age of 15. he was a tall kid. he trains for the next 11 months for D-Day. hits the beach day 1. gets his pic in stars and strips dday+6, 16 years old. dday+7 germany tried to take him down, he survived but badly wounded. he gets shipped to fort sam in SA fo rehab. entire place loves him. they ask him what's he going to do when he gets home, him - I promised my mom I'd graduate from HS and he tells them his real age. Like I said, entire place loved him. they found him a job on base, helped him get his GeD. He worked at that base 55 years I bet. Sometime in the 70's, he bought some land way outwest,  north of boerne and that proved to be a very wise decision. 

my uncle - vietnam, part of a huey crew. shot down 3 times. 3rd time it was him and the pilot left, they'd both agree'd to shoot each other if over ran. my uncle said they were done, charlie was coming down on them hard. he said the hills or bank looked like it was full of ants. he said, out of nowhere F-4's come in screaming and loaded with napalm. in a blink of eye a wall of napalm appeared, he told me he could hear every scream and the bodies burning away. along the way, the pilot passed and he was the only survivor. rescue crew finally showed up

Mercy. 

5 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

Grandfather spent 3 days swimming in the Pacific after his ship was torpedoed.  I hope he is enjoying his scotch today, despite my grandmother’s objections.

Eleven hundred men went into the water. 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945.

[conVINCEd 21474]

Just now, OneOfTheOutOfFocusGuys said:

Mercy. 

Eleven hundred men went into the water. 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945.

Wrong boat.  Grandpa went down on the USS Helena. 

[tx 3 putt 77650]

2 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

Wrong boat.  Grandpa went down on the USS Helena. 

while attempting to intercept a Japanese reinforcement squadron, Helena was torpedoed and sunk in the Battle of Kula Gulf. Most of her crew were picked up by a pair of destroyers and one group landed on New Georgia where they were evacuated the next day, but more than a hundred remained at sea for two days, ultimately making land on Japanese-occupied Vella Lavella. There, they were hidden from Japanese patrols by Solomon Islanders and a coastwatcher detachment before being evacuated on the night of 15–16 July. Helena's wreck was located in 2018 by Paul Allen.

[conVINCEd 21474]

2 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

while attempting to intercept a Japanese reinforcement squadron, Helena was torpedoed and sunk in the Battle of Kula Gulf. Most of her crew were picked up by a pair of destroyers and one group landed on New Georgia where they were evacuated the next day, but more than a hundred remained at sea for two days, ultimately making land on Japanese-occupied Vella Lavella. There, they were hidden from Japanese patrols by Solomon Islanders and a coastwatcher detachment before being evacuated on the night of 15–16 July. Helena's wreck was located in 2018 by Paul Allen.

My grandfather talked to that coastwatcher, who was from New Zealand, pretty regularly for the rest of his life.  I’m going to make that journey one day and see what Vella Lavella looks like.

[RPM 26374]

11 hours ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

Anyone know of the best route to get service records?  I'm the family historian and only have a partial idea of what both my grandparents went through.

One was in The Pacific; the other a sniper in Europe.  The latter got there late, but I recently found out he may have been in The Battle of the Bulge.

Good luck finding their records. A bunch of service records were destroyed in a warehouse fire. My Dad's was among them. He was a Boatswain's Mate 1st Class in the Coast Guard. Served on LST and a LCVP coxswain. Iwo Jima was among the islands they took.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11821]

Wasn't sure which thread to post this in, either this one or the newer Veterans one.  My brother went to visit my 91 year old aunt, who is the last remaining child of my maternal Grandfather, who served in WWI.  Some of his stuff (Felix Arthur Kirby) is posted in this thread.  She had a couple of medals I'd never seen, plus a special tool for a M1903 Springfield rifle that he carried in a belt, which I now have.  Cool stuff.  

Good stuff. 

[Brisketexan 105478]

Damn.  I need to rep every post on this thread.

And yeah, as Slorch noted, what makes these folks badasses isn't that they were BADASSES.  It's that by and large, they were regular people, doing their duty.  In a way, that makes it that much more heroic.  Everyone expects Sergeant Rock to storm the enemy machine gun emplacement.  When it's Uncle Eugene, the farmboy....that's a whole 'nother level.