In Honor of our Veterans

Parent Cafe
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<p>Sixty-three years ago today my dad was jumping out of a plane over Normandy. He also fought in the Battle of the Bulge and jumped during Operation Market Garden in Holland. He was awarded 2 purple hearts and a Bronze Star. He will be 89 in August.</p>

<p>My late father-in-law fought in the Pacific during WWII and helped liberate the concentration camps in Germany. He also fought in the Korean War.</p>

<p>I’m sure others here have parents and grandparents who served, or know someone who did. I would like to thank and honor all of our veterans today.</p>

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<p>Sixty-three years ago today my dad was outside Portsmouth in the War Room with Ike. In the months leading up to that day, he and others like him in the army OSS had been planning Operation Overlord.</p>

<p>If those like my father who served can now be considered heroes, then it must also be admitted that he was a reluctant one. Older than most, he had been pressed into service by some military brass who had seen firsthand his skill as a civilian contract engineer. As the only son and brother to his family, he refused to attend officer candidate school due to the time it would have taken away from them before his posting overseas. He married my mother on a weekend pass just before he left for Europe. Due to his part in planning the airborne invasion, he became known as “the corporal with the responsibility of a general.” The logistics were a nightmare, working as they were from only sketchy maritime maps. After the war, he was involved in the partitioning of Berlin.</p>

<p>He never spoke of that time. Growing up, all my siblings and I knew was that he had served in England. Decades later my brother, who was by then a jet jockey in the navy, asked him about it. In reply, my dad asked, “What’s your security clearance?” (Answer: Pretty blessed high.) Only then did my father talk a little about what he did. </p>

<p>Post-war he was asked to stay on as part of the new CIA. He refused. He had answered the call when needed and that was enough. He had given my brother some glimpses into a covert life: cloistered, 24/7 armed escort (including bathroom breaks). One of the men in his unit let slip a tiny reference to the invasion over dinner one night; my father never saw him again. </p>

<p>Following the success of the mission, very occasionally my father was allowed to request a night’s leave in town. When he could get two tickets to the opera or ballet, he always gave them away to the first serviceman with a date that he found.</p>

<p>Last summer I met a man who’s been to what is now a memorial in the War Room. He said some of my father’s papers are on display there. I do plan to visit someday.</p>

<p>Unbeknownst to my father at the time, his cousin had graduated in the second class of WASP. That group’s story is truly harrowing and inspiring. So many of them died serving their country, and so few of us today know of their sacrifice. Because they were women and blocked from enlisting during the war, they were not “officially” recognized as having served, for the purpose of obtaining some benefits, until the 1970s–thanks to the efforts of a champion in the form of Barry Goldwater who supported them tirelessly against the formidable opposition of then-President Jimmy Carter and the VFW, among others.</p>

<p>My father is gone now, as is his cousin. My FIL, who earned a Bronze Star in the South Pacific theater, is still with us at age 88. His memories, which he’s shared with my husband, stand as first-person testimony to the horrific nature of war. Combat changed him, and the other young men like him, forever even though they were able to go on and live happy, productive lives. </p>

<p>Thanks for posting, over30. Here’s to the memory of The Greatest Generation and gratitude to all who serve.</p>

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<p>Sixty three years ago today my father in law was in the second wave that landed at Omaha Beach. He never talked about it either.</p>

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<p>My father was an Army sergeant who landed on Omaha Beach late in the invasion, after most of the action was over. All he ever said about it is that the situation was far more chaotic than what was portrayed in the movies. He went on to fight in the Battle of the Bulge but didn’t talk about that either.</p>

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<p>My father also refused to talk about the war when my sister and I were growing up. It was only after my husband was commissioned in the army that we would talk about it, and then only to my husband. For the last 15 years or so he has talked more about it with the family, and has had some horrofic stories to tell. For the last 5 years he has been going to reunions, and has traveled to Holland for a rememberance. He’s met and become friends with a young historian and corresponds with him. He’s also going to some kind of a jump school program and meeting up with the pilot of his D-Day plane and his radioman. </p>

<p>Marian, our fathers may have served together.</p>

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<p>

Thank you for remembering over30. My grandfather was in the third Armored Division and received a Bronze medal for the Battle of the Bulge and the Belgian Croix de Guerre. </p>

<p>My older son loves military history and has spent many years talking and interviewing veterans for the Veterans History Project. He formed many close relationships, but it took real patience and real understanding for many to openly discuss events. Though my grandfather has passed away, my son felt like he knew him from the over 400 letters of his that he transcribed and preserved. Really moving and insightful; we don’t write letters like that anymore it seems.</p>

<p>His graduation gift last summer, thanks in large part to his grandmother, was a trip to retrace the steps of his great-grandfather from Normandy, Belgium, Holland, to Berlin based on his letters and pictures. He also visited London and Churchill’s underground bunker. He is a real WWII specialist, and it was an especially moving journey and a real capstone to his high school years.</p>

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<p>Aack!! My bad, sorry grandpa–that would be the Bronze Star, not medal.</p>

<p>Still a newbie poster around here folks.</p>

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<p>You know I’ve had such a bad couple of days that I forgot what today was. Now my problems are that big anymore. Thanks to all who served in WW2. My dad was on Wake and spent the war in a prison camp. Thanks to all who kept fighting to get him and others back.</p>

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<p>Due to having polio/meningitis as a young teen, my father had an atrophied leg and was refused for service during WW2. When going through my parents’ stuff, we found records from several physical exams when he attempted to enlist but was refused. He worked in an airplane factory during the war instead.</p>

<p>On the other hand, my aunt (his sister) was in her last year of nursing school on Pearl Harbor Day, which was her 21st birthday. On that day, her whole class decided to enlist as a group when they graduated in the spring. They served in Europe, treating the injured in many of the famous battles. </p>

<p>Their generation is truly remarkable.</p>

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<p>over30: I wonder if my dad was one of the pilots flying the planes that your dad and others jumped out of. A Bronx native, he was 22 when he enlisted and flew the big transport planes, sent out for the first time the day following D-Day. He flew transports that dropped parachute troopers and also tanks and other big equipment. He flew the supply planes for the Battle of the Bulge and also flew into designated meeting spots to pick up wounded in the field. For the most part, he and his colleagues flew without escort and sometimes through enemy fire without the protection of fighter planes. He only spoke about it once in awhile so my details may be off, but I’ve always understood it to be the case that he flew the planes that dropped supplies ahead of Patton’s army and then flew behind to pick up wounded. He came under fire in one terrifying story he told, but the thing that almost killed him was a bout of flu that put him in the hospital for more than a month. He lost 23 pounds and looks like a very skinny Tyrone Powers in the photographs. He’s 84 now. He’s always been my hero.</p>

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<p>So only WWII vets get honored here?</p>

<p>Keep in mind that some parents of current collegians also served.</p>

<p>Here’s to all those parents who served in Viet Nam or since then. </p>

<p>And don’t forget those who are taking shots in Iraq now. Like the Iraq war or not, those folks over there (men and women) are dying and being maimed at a horrible rate.</p>

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<p>No one is minimizing the contributions of other veterans. It is just that the parents of many of the posters on the Parents board are from the generation who served in WWII.</p>

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Not diminishing the service of all our veterans, the thread was an acknowledgement of the anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1944.</p>