<p>Reminding everyone of “The War” a new Ken Burns miniseries beginning Sun Sept 23 on PBS. It profiles 4 American communities during WWII, and some of the ordinary people from those communities who fought or worked during the war. It also has an accompanying project to record personal histories of vets before they are lost to time.</p>
<p>Our community is one of those profiled, and DS’s APUSH class went to the “premiere” a couple of weeks ago, and saw parts of the series as well as hearing Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, the producers, speak about the production - he said it will be great, high praise from a 16 year old, even a history buff. One of the people profiled is the grandfather of a family in his school - that makes it even more personal, it is a small school so everyone knows this family.</p>
<p>My dad (a B17 pilot) offered information and images from the website he maintains for his 8th Air Force bomb group, and many local veterans have been interviewed. Look for the local supplemental programming, it promises to give a different touch to this series.</p>
<p>Just reminded myself of a few years back, going to the local small airport to “touch” a B-17 and B-24 with my S who was then about 9. He brought his computer game book about the B-17 and used it as a reference as we moved around the planes. </p>
<p>While aboard the B-17 by the waist guns, we came upon an elderly gentleman who was looking out the other side. With a friendly hello, we struck up a short conversation and found out the senior was during ww2, he was a waist gunner on a B-17. After a few minutes talking about his experiences, we thanked him and headed out. After about a minute, my S turned around walked back to the man and held his book out and asked for his autograph… </p>
<p>I don’t know if this has anything to do with the post, but it’s what came to mind as I read it…</p>
<p>To follow a bit on Opie’s post, I was doing contract work on the CT shore facing Long Island Sound about 8 years back or so.</p>
<p>I was privileged to see a B-17 and B-24 make a slow, very low level circle twice around a couple of small off shore islands. It was a clear, cloudless day and I was mesmerized as they swung even lower, hugged the beach and flew away. It seemed odd to hear the props rather than the sound of jets.</p>
<p>I wondered if they were doing a fly by tribute to a vet from that particular area. I found out in the evening paper they were on an airport to airport museum tour. </p>
<p>The memory always evokes the sacrifices made by so many in that era.</p>
<p>I guess it depends on where you sit. For instance…</p>
<p>Embracing Defeat – Japan in the Aftermath of World War II
By John Dower, Penguin Books, 2000,
Reviewed by Laurence Coates in Socialism Today magazine</p>
<p>“The book is a dossier on US hypocrisy and great-power arrogance. It shows how US General Douglas MacArthur ruled Japan like a ‘colonial overlord’, rescued the disgraced Emperor Hirohito, and ruled through the mandarin bureaucracy which had run Japan throughout the war. Following Japan’s capitulation on 15 August 1945, after atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the country became a de facto US colony under the Supreme Command for the Allied Powers (SCAP) headed by MacArthur. For Japan’s ruined masses this meant an extension of military rule, albeit ‘under new management’, for a further seven years until the US withdrawal in 1952.”</p>
<p>I support both since they served as a buffer zone against Russia’s influences. Just look at what happened to the eastern Europe. Oh and since this thread seems to be more suited for a memorial and dedication to the vets, we should make a new thread or maybe PM.</p>
<p>How bout just for today, we stick to the past? There are other posts to ***** about today using the past as a reference. Please don’t crap on the folks who served. </p>
<p>My other memmory of WW2 was that my dad was on Wake. He was “fortunate” to spend the War in a prison camp and survive, sort of.</p>
<p>Both my father and father-in-law were veterans of WWII. My father lied about his age to enlist. He rarely spoke of his experiences while awake, but had nightmares every night; I learned about the war by listening to the screams and yells, the leaps from bed when he thought he was under attack. The psychic wounds that result from fighting a war when you are 17 years old last forever.</p>
<p>Thanks to Ken Burns for giving everyone a chance to remember, and to thank those who are still with us. I never thanked my father or father-n-law sufficiently while they were alive, and I sorely regret that.</p>
<p>violadad, my older S and I were privileged to take one of those flights on a B17 in our area earlier this year. As the D of a WW II B17 pilot, I was especially moved by the flight, and came away with a much better idea of what those crews of young men, no older than my S at the time, had to deal with. And admiration for their courage and strength. And sadness that it had been necessary, and that so many were lost.</p>
<p>My father-in-law and WashMom’s uncle both started WWII as enlisted men in the Navy. Uncle was at Pearl Harbor shooting machine guns at Japanese planes, and was a rear seat gunner in a TBD torpedo plane at Midway where he was injured and won two medals. My FIL served on a minesweeper and onshore in Washington. Both went to flight training during the war, and both became pilots and career officers. The uncle served in both Korea and Vietnam, where he won two more medals for bravery and another Purple Heart. </p>
<p>Here’s the punchline. My FIL never saw the enemy in two wars – he retired just before Vietnam heated up – and spent his military career punching holes in the sky. His final job before retiring was as a test pilot. WashMom’s uncle earned two purple hearts and a stack of other medals, including one in Vietnam for landing his helicopter under fire to rescue the remnants of a Marine company being overrun. He did this in defiance of orders, earning him a medal and his commanding officer an early retirement. It’s funny how similar experiences can be so dissimilar.</p>
<p>(Oh, and both are remarkable men. Uncle went on to a earn a doctorate and a career in academia, and FIL went on to work on the Apollo and Shuttle programs for a North American Rockwell.)</p>
<p>My wife’s father made the slug up the boot of Italy, as a staff sergeant. Came in at Anzio, and made it through V-E Day. Silver star, but he never detailed how. Far too painful.</p>
<p>My dad was a bit luckier, was on a DE in the Caribbean on sub hunt duty. I remember the ship (or so he said) running up LI Sound when I was 4 or 5 before decommissioning. We actually pulled alongside in the family boat. Was a big thrill at that age for me.</p>
<p>Never did get much detail from either one about their experiences. They were both reluctant to talk about it.</p>
<p>Most of my father’s friends while I was growing up were WWII vets, and I never, ever, heard any of them sit around telling war stories. These were guys without high school degrees, in the front, carrying the guns. They preferred to forget.</p>
<p>Actually, my father did talk about the horrible plane and boat trips he made over the Atlantic. He never flew on another airplane and was none too fond of boats, either.</p>
<p>midmo- my hope was to able to pass both experiences on to their grandchildren. Most vets will only talk about their experiences with other vets, and more often than not the stories related are about others.</p>
<p>Perfectly understandable.</p>
<p>That’s why the late Stephen Ambrose’s oral history project and the D-Day museum has been so important. With the rate these vets are dying (1000 a day if I recall the most recent statistic) the everyday stories and tales of individual heroism are lost. </p>