Memorial Day - Thank you!!!

[msucolt45 4063]

As veteran from the Desert Storm era, I personally didn’t have any counterparts/service members KIA within my unit during DS. I’ve had members “pass” during training duty and that was rough enough.

 

Hats-off to those that served while their unit members fell during combat, regardless of the action and era. Heart felt gratitude to all of those that had family, friends, and acquaintances fall during their service to our country. May their family and friends remember their fond memories of the service member’s lives and cherish those.

 

Thank you for their service!

 

Hook’em!!!

[Biff Tannen 45691]

About to fire up Band of Brothers. 

[msucolt45 4063]

I started early, as I watched three episodes last night.

Hook’em!!!

[South Austin 52519]

My dad lost a few fellow Marines in Vietnam. He never really talks about it, and I know it still haunts him. But I think he’s tried to live the best and most honorable life he could have as gratitude for their sacrifice and a recognition that it could’ve easily been him.

[morehornsepower 887]

Hats off to all those who have given their lives in service to our country.  Lost my father after Vietnam (fuck you Agent Orange), but I know he wouldn't have traded his military service for anything in the world.

*salute*

 

[Biff Tannen 45691]

Grandfather passed two years ago at 96.  He was a marine in the Pacific.  I got to interview him about 10 years ago about his life and experiences.  I have it recorded on my phone and plan to transcribe it and make it into a book for my dad for Father's Day.

[msucolt45 4063]

Grandfather passed two years ago at 96.  He was a marine in the Pacific.  I got to interview him about 10 years ago about his life and experiences.  I have it recorded on my phone and plan to transcribe it and make it into a book for my dad for Father's Day.

Do it! It’ll be priceless to you, your family, and others tied to his service.

Our greatest generation has almost completely left us. I’ve been to the WW2 Museum, in New Orleans, recently. Definitely a treasure of lives into service of our country.

Hook’em!!!

[South Austin 52519]

1 hour ago, Biff Tannen said:

Grandfather passed two years ago at 96.  He was a marine in the Pacific.  I got to interview him about 10 years ago about his life and experiences.  I have it recorded on my phone and plan to transcribe it and make it into a book for my dad for Father's Day.

That’s awesome. There’s a guy at my church who flew for the Marines in the Pacific, and I think he may be the last living WWII vet in our congregation.

[InkaUtexas 25989]

2 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

Grandfather passed two years ago at 96.  He was a marine in the Pacific.  I got to interview him about 10 years ago about his life and experiences.  I have it recorded on my phone and plan to transcribe it and make it into a book for my dad for Father's Day.

Happy to help. 

Dad did 7 years in VN and 38 total. Went to a lot of Funerals with him. 

May all we lost be blessed this and every day. Wish I was in DC.

Walked Arlington with Dad one Memorial Day just checking out his friends who will sleep there forever. 

[Hate 20115]

Hats off to all those who have given their lives in service to our country.  Lost my father after Vietnam (fuck you Agent Orange), but I know he wouldn't have traded his military service for anything in the world.
*salute*
 

Your dad can be added to The Wall if you really wanted him to.

[InkaUtexas 25989]

He should be. Just lost Sgt. Major Parks, AKA Spider, and the legacy remains. 

[morehornsepower 887]

2 hours ago, Hate said:

Your dad can be added to The Wall if you really wanted him to.

He's listed on the "In Memory Honor Roll" now. 

[Carl Spackler 3486]

Watching as much of Band of Brothers as I can while I do shit around the house, and I'm recognizing and appreciating the sacrifices that so many made.

[msucolt45 4063]

Watching as much of Band of Brothers as I can while I do shit around the house, and I'm recognizing and appreciating the sacrifices that so many made.

Especially when you realize the average age of those that served during WW2. Could we “do that” with today’s generation? I digress.

Hook’em!!!

[Nonbryan 173]

Thank you indeed! 

[InkaUtexas 25989]

15 minutes ago, msucolt45 said:

Especially when you realize the average age of those that served during WW2. Could we “do that” with today’s generation? I digress.

Hook’em!!!

Four brothers. All from North Texas. Three died in the pacific. Only one to make it was my grandfather. Was a paratrooper in D-day. Got hurt and transferred to the third Army. Next assignment was Patton's move to the Ardennes. 

Before he went off he adopted my father. We still talk about the great Uncles I never met. 

Calling dad now. Might get hit with allergies. 

[BillyGoatHill 4312]

6 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

Grandfather passed two years ago at 96.  He was a marine in the Pacific.  I got to interview him about 10 years ago about his life and experiences.  I have it recorded on my phone and plan to transcribe it and make it into a book for my dad for Father's Day.

I've mentioned him before somewhere on the site but I think his story bears repeating on Memorial Day.

My grandmother's (dad's mom) three brothers all served in the Pacific. Uncle George was a Sergeant in the Corps and would survive the war, once telling us kids tales of fighting the Japs hand to hand on one island and having a landing craft shot at and sunk from underneath him on an assault on another. He only survived by watching a more senior Marine pull out his K-bar knife and start cutting away his gear and heavy equipment so that it would not drown him (like opening scene SPR) once entering the water. Uncle Guiseppe (Pep) was a SeaBee that built many airfields on different retaken islands, most of the time while under fire. He and Uncle George would often banter at family gatherings after the war about who saw the most combat.

The youngest brother (16 yrs younger than his oldest sister, my grandmother) Jasper ( he went by "Bunch" a nickname given to him by his mom) was a favorite of my dad's and was only 9 yrs older than him. He was 4F due to accidentally  shooting himself with his .22 in the foot as a young teenager while hunting frogs. The Army and Navy had both turned him down for service (one of them twice). Undeterred and with US casualties mounting later in the war, he was accepted by the Marine Reserve upon turning 18 and first saw action on Guam. He only weighed around 120 lbs but was made a BAR man for his company. The Browning Automatic Rifle was very effective, having been proven in the trenches of WW1, but the later version weighed 24 lbs., (not loaded with the 20 round magazine). The Japanese also made it a point to single out those carrying the weapon due to it's accuracy and firepower.  After Guam, his Regiment, 21st Marines 3rd Marine Division, were supposed to be held in reserve  and not used for the invasion of Iwo Jima, but with casualties mounting for the 4th and 5th Marine Divisions and the landings stalled, the 21st was ordered in late on the first day. 

On the day following the flag raising, D+5, his Company K along with I, would spearhead the attack to take Motoyama Airfield #2 ( the airfield still used on Iwo Jima today). Jumping off time was set at 0910. The fighting was of course fierce and both Company commanders were killed in the assault along with 35-50% of each Company. The letter written to my great-grandmother has Uncle Bunch being killed while crossing the runway after being hit by a mortar. But during the early 2000's, my dad's cousin, while doing research on the action, found one of the officers that had taken over the assault and said that Bunch had survived the crossing and was part of the bunker clearing on the other side led K Co. XO 1st LT. Raoul Archimbault (awarded the Navy Cross for his actions) and Lt Stanley Tsigounis. Lt Tsigounis wrote that Bunch was killed during the bunker clearing around 1100 with himself also being wounded around 1130.  Either way, my great-grandmother was said to have never gotten over her son's death. 

Uncle Bunch had just turned 19 yrs old 3 weeks earlier.

K Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Marines, 3rd Marine Division would be awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for it's actions that day, 24 February 1945.

Originally buried on Iwo in the 3rd Marine cemetery, he was reinterred to his home town in South Texas after the war. 

 

In the pics below, one is him with his mom and two of his sisters. My grandmother is on the far right. She lived to be 94 and luckily I asked her some questions about her brother a few years before her passing. Always sharp, she remembered everything about her youngest sibling.

[HenryJames 66125]

 

[YGIFS 19452]

Thank you to everyone past present and future.  I'm sure I'm jinxing us.  But between both sides of my family, dozens have served, most in active combat in Navy, USMC, Army, and Air Force.  From WW2, to Korea, to Vietnam, to Desert Storm, to Afghanistan and Iraq again...multiple family members in combat in every single war.  And they all made it home alive.  And every one of them instilled in me the patriotic solemnity of this day.  I still have three younger cousins in the service, two on active duty abroad.  

My birthday always falls on/around Memorial Day and growing up, I have fond memories of hanging out in the backyard that weekend with my father and his brother (Navy and Army, respectively) and all their Vietnam-era veteran pals.  I'd get to eat spicy sausage and allowed to have a few sips of beer and play lawn darts or cards.  After sunset, I'd head into bed and I could hear them laughing and swearing.  After awhile, they'd get quiet and I'd doze off.  It wasn't until I was older I realized why their laughter turned to silence.  The friends that didn't make it home with them. 

This day reminds me I need to do a better job of seeing how I can help veterans deal with the stress and sadness that comes  with remembering the person next to them that didn't come back with them.  When the laughter turns to silence and then to darkness.  Reach out to somebody this week who came home without the guy next to them.  See how they're doing.  The service members in the ground are in the ground, we can't change that.  I wanna help one who's still here who carries that weight that can be too much to bear.  

Thank you all again for all you've done and continue to do.  

[Biff Tannen 45691]

5 hours ago, msucolt45 said:

Especially when you realize the average age of those that served during WW2. Could we “do that” with today’s generation? I digress.

Hook’em!!!

Got through Bastogne today.  Made my wife watch it again and I think it hit her a bit harder this time.  I've seen it 20+ times now.  As I get older, it hits harder.  I'm forever grateful that my generation didn't have to fight a war.  I'm forever grateful that we were able to live our lives.  That said, I do wonder if we are missing something because of that.  I don't ever want to think that war is a good thing, because it's not, but I do wonder if older generations have a different perspective on life because they had to fight.  

[Hate 20115]

I can tell you that I would vote for any service member to never again face someone willing to kill them.

[BabaYaga 15301]

10 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

Got through Bastogne today.  Made my wife watch it again and I think it hit her a bit harder this time.  I've seen it 20+ times now.  As I get older, it hits harder.  I'm forever grateful that my generation didn't have to fight a war.  I'm forever grateful that we were able to live our lives.  That said, I do wonder if we are missing something because of that.  I don't ever want to think that war is a good thing, because it's not, but I do wonder if older generations have a different perspective on life because they had to fight.  

I've told this story before, but the medic:  Roe.  His grandson used to work for me.  Him and his wife are both Plano LEO's.  His email is at the bottom of the site and he does love to interact with people that have questions about the actual soldiers of the 101st that he's met.  Him and many of the actors every year take a trip back to Europe and the sites of all the places they fought.  Bastogne is a special one.  He told me Garnere (sp?) is everything you think he was from the series.  Wild.  Funny.  He said they were walking and Garnere found the foxhole (he thinks) that was his during the siege.  

Pic of Roe, the medic and Chris with the actor that played his g-father

Doc Roe Publishing

Take it all in, then remember the Marines in the Pacific had it so much worse.  Glad The Pacific was also made.  

[BabaYaga 15301]

10 hours ago, Hate said:

I can tell you that I would vote for any service member to never again face someone willing to kill them.

And yet they'd still volunteer to go

[YGIFS 19452]

My god, he looks exactly like his grandfather.  It's uncanny.  

On the Pacific Theater:  one of my grandfathers was Navy, mainly in the Pacific from 1941-1945.  Rotated back to San Francisco/Half Moon Bay for a short time in 1942, long enough to conceive my father (thanks gramps!).  But his myriad convoys and carrier group were involved in a few surface warfare exchanges.  Thankfully nothing too treacherous.  He was assigned summer of '45 to the logistics task force that would move supplies and vehicles from Okinawa to the Main Island for the final siege where we would likely have lost nearly a million men.  Likely him since his ship would be in the first convoy when Japanese shore entrenchments and artillery were still robust.  And the bays and harbors would have mined within an inch of their lives.  Thankfully, that didn't happen.  

But I grew up on a steady diet of European Theater movies, books, and documentaries.  I remember giving a talk in like 6th grade about Germany in WWII and the teacher was like, "What the fuck is wrong with this kid?" (I still get that a lot).  And most of us had grandpas who served in WWII, being a working class neighborhood just outside Chicago. so many talked about their grandpas.  Only one kid mentioned the Pacific.  Grandpa was an island-hopping Marine.  I don't remember what he said, but I asked my dad how come I didn't really know anything about that whole part of the war after Pearl Harbor?  Grandpa talked a little about it and was happy to do so, cool stuff about all the different classes of ships he served on.  And I asked my Dad how come I never hear any of the older men talk about fighting on those islands like I hear some other old guys talk about fighting the Germans?  

He basically told me, "You can't hear them because those guys don't say anything out loud.  It was a different type of war.  Nobody had seen it before and hopefully, nobody will ever see it again."  

[BabaYaga 15301]

10 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

My god, he looks exactly like his grandfather.  It's uncanny.  

On the Pacific Theater:  one of my grandfathers was Navy, mainly in the Pacific from 1941-1945.  Rotated back to San Francisco/Half Moon Bay for a short time in 1942, long enough to conceive my father (thanks gramps!).  But his myriad convoys and carrier group were involved in a few surface warfare exchanges.  Thankfully nothing too treacherous.  He was assigned summer of '45 to the logistics task force that would move supplies and vehicles from Okinawa to the Main Island for the final siege where we would likely have lost nearly a million men.  Likely him since his ship would be in the first convoy when Japanese shore entrenchments and artillery were still robust.  And the bays and harbors would have mined within an inch of their lives.  Thankfully, that didn't happen.  

But I grew up on a steady diet of European Theater movies, books, and documentaries.  I remember giving a talk in like 6th grade about Germany in WWII and the teacher was like, "What the fuck is wrong with this kid?" (I still get that a lot).  And most of us had grandpas who served in WWII, being a working class neighborhood just outside Chicago. so many talked about their grandpas.  Only one kid mentioned the Pacific.  Grandpa was an island-hopping Marine.  I don't remember what he said, but I asked my dad how come I didn't really know anything about that whole part of the war after Pearl Harbor?  Grandpa talked a little about it and was happy to do so, cool stuff about all the different classes of ships he served on.  And I asked my Dad how come I never hear any of the older men talk about fighting on those islands like I hear some other old guys talk about fighting the Germans?  

He basically told me, "You can't hear them because those guys don't say anything out loud.  It was a different type of war.  Nobody had seen it before and hopefully, nobody will ever see it again."  

There are some really, really good books from some of those guys - Sledge's book might be the best: with the old breed .  Leckie's book Helmet for my pillow is great as well.  Flags of our fathers was a recent read as well.  Chi-Chi Jima, adjacent to Iwo Jima was the first target.  It was their communications hub.  The shit that went on there with downed airmen (cannibalism) was unreal to read about.  Or the rescue of Papa Bush who went into the water off the coast and was rescued by a patrolling US sub.  Wild shit.  

[YGIFS 19452]

Yeah, I read those two after watching the series.  "Retribution" by Max Hastings was another great one as was "The Battle for Okinawa" by Feifer or Pfifer, something like that.  The Eastwood movies were very well done as well.  And of course, when I can't sleep...I'll find a free version of "Tora Tora Tora" or some other 1950's era movies about it.  One of my prouder moments was when my wife's grandfather opened up to me around his 95 or 100th birthday about his time in the Pacific.  He was a heavy machine gunner in the 7th I.D. from the Aleutians to Okinawa and every shithole in between.  Lost dozens and dozens of friends, more than one should have to count.  We got him a commemorative plaque at the Nimitz right by grandfather.  I've spent days in that museum and could spend months more and never appreciate the gravity of what happened out there on those rocks.  

csb/ he's famously reclusive so I wouldn't want to approach him.  But I used to see Terrence Malick at my neighborhood Randall's of all places.  I always wanted to approach him and ask him about "The Thin Red Line" and how he captured so much of that theater.  But I was afraid he's spray me with mace.  And then my wife would ask why I got sprayed with pepper spray.  And I'd wonder what kind of life she thought I led that I'd know the difference between mace and pepper spray.