Missing My Dad Tonight
- Thread starter Vince
- Start date
salmonchaser
Ammo Smith
- Dec 13, 2013
- 5,247
- 5,921
The pacific was a tough place to soldier.
Guy Miner
Master Loader
- Apr 6, 2006
- 17,911
- 6,778
Vince - I'm hurting with you.
Dad was a WWII Pacific Theater Navy veteran, he passed a couple of years ago. I owe him so much... His older brother, my uncle, was a Marine infantryman who fought on Okinawa. Another uncle was on a ship that got hit with a Kamikaze attack. Dad's business partner parachuted in the night before D-Day in Normandy. All of them made it home and I knew all of them. Each made a big impression on me.
I miss them all. They were good men who did what they had to do.
God Bless and Semper Fi from this gray haired ol' Marine.
Guy
Dad was a WWII Pacific Theater Navy veteran, he passed a couple of years ago. I owe him so much... His older brother, my uncle, was a Marine infantryman who fought on Okinawa. Another uncle was on a ship that got hit with a Kamikaze attack. Dad's business partner parachuted in the night before D-Day in Normandy. All of them made it home and I knew all of them. Each made a big impression on me.
I miss them all. They were good men who did what they had to do.
God Bless and Semper Fi from this gray haired ol' Marine.
Guy
- Thread starter
- #4
Guy,
It’s men like our fathers that were the heroes.
As I watch these videos I develop a deeper sense of who they were. My Uncle, Dad’s brother, is buried in France. I know my Dad felt guilty about his brother going in. He was draft exempt but because Dad joined up he quit his job and joined up too. I’m thinking it had a thing or two to do with being the older brother and trying to look out for his younger brother.
I only knew my father as an old man. I’d love to have known him as a young man. The happy go lucky boxer. I wonder if he was like me when I was young and chasing rodeos. Now I’m like he was when I knew him. The only thing missing is the Seagram’s 7 and Lucky Strikes. He didn’t talk about his time in the war but did mention seeing stacks of dead Americans, like cordwood, and had what I now recognize as PTSD.
What that generation endured is beyond comprehension today. Those of you reading this that are lucky enough to have an older parent or grandparent get with them. Listen to their stories. Learn what made them who they were. You will wish you did when you’re older.
Vince
DrMike
Ballistician
- Nov 8, 2006
- 37,610
- 6,815
My dad was in the Aleutians as an Army Engineer. One uncle was on Iwo Jima as a Marine. Another Uncle was sixteen and in the third wave hitting Guadalcanal. His next battle was Peleliu. Peleliu killed him, though he didn't die for another twenty years. My wife's birth father was a Seabee on Okinawa. These all were great men in my eyes.
My father was lucky in that he got a free trip to Germany but the war had ended before he got there. His best friend, who had a huge influence on me, was not so lucky. He was a marine machine gunner in the pacific. Got wounded late in the war and sent home to heal up. After he got out he joined the reserve and got called up for Korea. Machine gunner has a prime target and he had a mortar round dropped on him. Later in life he became a religious man but always felt he could never be forgiven for all the men he killed. He told my father he had fired whole belts that every round had found flesh. He was as nice and quite of a man as I have ever meet but not a man to push or ignore when he did speak.
My dad worked in a war production plant and when attempting to sign up he was told in so many words "get back to your job you're needed there". Two uncles that served in the South Pacific one being a spotter plane pilot and the other ground forces. Both made it back in one piece with a lot of bad memories. Ground fire was a major headache for spotter plane pilots and his occasional stories would raise the hair on your back.
hunter24605
Handloader
- Apr 30, 2016
- 2,615
- 4,551
Vince, I’m with ya. My dad was in WWII and landed at Omaha beach on D-Day. Took shrapnel in his right biceps. Said if he didn’t have his arm up it would have went through his temple. But that’s about all he ever said about it, never really said much about the horror of it all. Come home and built a successful and “happy” life.
wvbuckbuster
Handloader
- Nov 5, 2015
- 2,832
- 2,820
My father was in the Army, European Theater WW2. Made it home and didn't talk much about it. Uncles were in the Army and Navy. Uncle Frank was KIA Corregidor Island Philippines Feb 19th 1945.
Bruce Mc
Handloader
- Oct 26, 2005
- 1,359
- 793
The Navy wouldn't take my father because he was too young so he went to the merchant academy on Catalina Island and then went to sea on a merchant ship. He was 16. He turned 18 carrying ammo to the navy gun crew on his liberty ship off Okinawa. He went through that typhoon that Halsey sent his fleet through.
My dad was a pilot in the Air Force in WW2, stationed in New Guinea. He didn't talk about it either. He flew a cargo plane and was attacked on take off, his plane caught fire and he was the last one out and was slightly injured. Our Boys took care of the threat.
He passed away in 2012 at the age of 93.
He passed away in 2012 at the age of 93.
- Thread starter
- #14
My ex wife’s Great Grandfather and Grandfather were captured on New Guinea and spent a large portion of the war as Jap POW’s. They both made it back home though. Home for them was Down Under mate.My dad was a pilot in the Air Force in WW2, stationed in New Guinea. He didn't talk about it either. He flew a cargo plane and was attacked on take off, his plane caught fire and he was the last one out and was slightly injured. Our Boys took care of the threat.
He passed away in 2012 at the age of 93.
Vince
