Is anyone related to a WWII Veteran?

[JHuschke]

Hey guys, I was wondering if anyone was related or had a World War II Veteran in their family. If so, what was the Veteran's name? What did he do/take part in, in the war?

My grandfather, Eddie Dempsey was in the U.S. Marine Corps in World War II and Vietnam. He is a retired from the U.S. Marine Corps however, still alive and working to live..but he has never told me his age, so I wouldn't know that..I believe he was a Military Police at second, he never mentioned what he did first in the war.

[Platapus]

My grandfather was a radioman on a merchant ship. Our family has been trying to find out about the ship he was torpedoed on his last mission. He survived but never talked about it to his family.

[JHuschke]

Yeah, I can imagine all the bad things he has seen and the nightmares it probably gives him..I wouldn't talk about it either, brings back bad memories.

[Morts]

im not directly related to him (uncles girlfriends grandfather), but ive met him a few times.
He's a luftwaffe vet who flew on the russian front and got shot down and afterwards captured where he survived ofcourse
i belive he's name is Edvard Stark (Edvard Lanka during the war) and sadly i dont know much about he's wartime experience.

Then we have a guy on the croatian side of my family who served on the german side too (dont know hes name, unit or anything)
he came home after the war, and proceeded to hang himself in hes dad's barn shortly after getting home as he didnt know how the people in the village would react to him fighting for the germans

[AntEater]

My paternal grandfather was an assault gun driver, later gunner on the east front, my maternal one a mountain trooper in Norway and the east Front.
One of my grand uncles was an NCO in Luftwaffe ground troops, but I am not exactly sure what he did. Some other grand uncles apparently were in the Kriegsmarine, and one was apparently killed in the fighting off Normandy. One other disappeared after the Falaise pocket and was presumed dead and turned up alive in 1980.
Also I know that in WW1 my paternal great grandfather served in the Austro-Hungarian army on the Alpine front. He often told my father about warfare in the high mountains.

But I suppose nearly every European has ancestors that fought in WW2.

[Schroeder]

My grandfather was a "Kanzelwart" (a mechanic for the fuselage if I understood him correctly:hmm:) for Messerschmitt BF-109 fighter aircrafts in France. He didn't see much combat (except air raids of course). He was then transferred to an area near the German/Italian boarder. While being on the train they were attacked by fighter bombers which destroyed the power line and killed several of his comrades. After being stuck somewhere without transportation his group was "volunteered" to serve as engineers and to build bridges over some river to allow the German forces to retreat from Italy... Unfortunately they were neither trained nor equipped for such tasks and therefore these bridges were never completed. ;) After being send back to France his unit eventually surrendered to the US Army (where he almost starved being a POW).

Well the result for my family was no loss of lives but they lost there home (and all their possessions) twice to air raids. My family came from Stettin which belongs to Poland nowadays and is now called Szczecin, but after becoming a POW he claimed to be from West-Germany to avoid to be send back to Soviet occupied territory when his POW-time ended (He knew already that his family had fled to the west too).




My grandfather died in january 2002 and has never seen his home city again.:cry:

[Platapus]

My grandfather died in january 2002 and has never seen his home city again.:cry:


How very sad :(

No matter what "side" these people were on, we can all honour their service to their native countries :yep:

[August]

My maternal grandfather was an AA gunner in the Luftwaffe stationed on the eastern front.

[AVGWarhawk]

Two Uncles and one Aunt

Edward Schultheis..PTO, torpedo mechanic and aircraft mechanic still living in NJ
Charles Schulthies..ETO, B17 pilot. Shot down Kiel Germany June 13th 1943 did not survive.
Jean Schultheis..PTO, wife of Edward Shulthieis, WAVE, nurse WWII, passed on, natural causes.

[seafarer]

My Father served 4 years in the Canadian Navy (1941-45), on River Class frigates (crewed a K-gun as his action station), mostly doing convoy runs from NewFoundLand to Britain and later, Russia. He joined up at 17 and got his mother to sign the age waiver (told her if she didn't, he'd run away and join up anyway). His last ship was even sent to the Pacific in 1945, but the Pacific war ended before they had a chance to do anything there. They were paid off and discharged in Vancouver though (the ship was sold to the Indian Navy a year or so later). My uncle was killed (father's brother) in Italy while serving in the Canadian Army (he was a tank driver). We had another very good family friend who was practically an uncle to me who served with British Intelligence and I know spent most of 1942/43/44 in Europe, but he never really liked to talk about it much at all (I do remember he said he'd flown over in a Lysander at least once - I assume that was via 161 Squandron).

They are all gone now though.

[Reece]

My farther served on a minesweeper stationed in Darwin during WW2.:)

[Blacklight]

My grandfather, Raymond Purcell, flew reconnaissance over Gemany for the US in a small plane that looked like a little private plane. He would fly over enemy targets and take pictures with his camera.
He said that he often would encounter the German reconnaissance pilots going the other way to do the same thing. They actually were friendly with each other and would wave as they went past.
Another interesting thing is that he nammed his plane "Diane" after his daughter (My mother).
His plane once experienced an engine problem and he crash landed it. There's a picture we have of him smileing, posing with his crashed plane in a field somewhere (I assume in France or Russia).

[Stealth Hunter]

My dad went to Egypt and fought the Afrika Corps as a small-time local resistance member.

Otherwise, not another soul in my family ever fought during World War II. My grandfather, however, did fight for the Ottomans during World War I.

[Fincuan]

My grandfather from my father's side was too young to join when the Winter war (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War) between Russia and Finland broke out in November 1939, but when the hostilies resumed after a year and a half in 1941 he was in. He served as an engineer in various places around the front, most notably in the battle of Tali-Ihantala (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tali-Ihantala), where the Finns finally stopped the Russian offensive of 1944. There he practically lost his hearing from one ear when some kind of grenade hit the rock he was sheltering behind, but otherwise he came out unscathed. The war stories he has told us have always been about the "happy times", like when they were fishing lobsters, when everyone got sick and was ****ting all over the place because there was a dead reindeer just upstream from their camp, when they found a cellar full of vodka and got so drunk they had to pull back momentarily etc. On new year's eves he used to build some nice devices(that went BANG) from the stuff he brought back from the front, but I guess he's already run out of it because it hasn't happened for a couple of years now. He's still alive and well and living on a farm in southern Finland.

[mrbeast]

Neither of my Grandfahers fought in WWII.

On my father's side of the family my grandfather was declaired unfit for service, he didn't have a very healthy heart probably due to a very poor childhood (he almost died of malnutrition when he was 4 and had been pretty ill too). Anyway he worked in forestry as a foreman during the war; was in charge of some Italian POW's. He told them on the first day that if they wanted to try escape he wouldn't try to stop them, none of them did; they were all sick of the war and were just happy that they weren't being shelled or bombed anymore!

My mother's father was too old to fight so he served in the Home Guard instead. He was mostly involved in 'Fire Watching' i.e. keeping watch over important sites like factories incase they caught fire during air raids.

My Great Uncle (my dads mother's brother) was involved in the Norwegen campaign. The transport he was on was bombed and sunk and he spent a while freezing in a lifeboat which was washed up on a beach with many other survivors. He was then straffed and bombed by the Luftwaffe pretty heavily until finally another transport came to pick them up; which was then sunk by a U Boat; so back in the water he went. When he got back to Britain he was very traumatised (he was always highly strung and later suffered from manic depression) so he was transfered to light duties on base in the UK. Later he was discharged for medical reasons after he was involved in an accident.

Both my Great Grandfathers on my dads side fought in WWI one on the Western front and the Balkans and the other in Mesopotamia and the middle east. Both survived.

[Polak]

Great grandfather, mothers side- Colonel in the Army, fought in WW1, fought against the bolsheviks in 1920 in the Polish-Soviet war, and finally WW2.
His brother a master chief served in the Navy.

Grand mother, mothers side- Fought in the Home Army during the Warsaw uprising.

Great grandfather, fathers side- Fought in the 27th Home Army Infantry Division against the nationalist ukrainian insurgent army in southeastern occupied Poland.

[Randomizer]

My father was in the Canadian Army and then the RCAF, doing thirteen "trips" over Germany as a Lancaster navigator. He was wounded over Stettin in early 1944 and then sent to a 1 Group (Bomber Command) OTU as an instructor. He passed away in 1999, I still have his log book and honourable discharge certificate.

My uncle (Dad's youngest brother) was in the RCN mostly on corvettes from 1943 but finishing the war as an Oerlikon gunner on the armed merchant cruiser HMCS Prince Robert. He had lied about his age and enlisted shortly before his seventeenth birthday.

Good Hunting

[Sailor Steve]

My dad was #6 of seven brothers, and turned 13 on December 11, 1941 - the day Germany declared war on the US. He joined up at 19 in 1947, so obviously missed the war. Of his five older brothers, I'm not sure about two of them, but I'm told that three served in the navy during the war, and one of them was at Pearl Harbor. All of them survived the war.

[Kapitan_Phillips]

My grandad was in the Royal Engineers, he landed on Gold Beach and drove several tanks, including flame throwing ones and minesweepers. I always make a point to thank him whenever I see him for what he did for this country and the people of the free world.

[Kapitan_Phillips]

My grandfather was a "Kanzelwart" (a mechanic for the fuselage if I understood him correctly:hmm:) for Messerschmitt BF-109 fighter aircrafts in France. He didn't see much combat (except air raids of course). He was then transferred to an area near the German/Italian boarder. While being on the train they were attacked by fighter bombers which destroyed the power line and killed several of his comrades. After being stuck somewhere without transportation his group was "volunteered" to serve as engineers and to build bridges over some river to allow the German forces to retreat from Italy... Unfortunately they were neither trained nor equipped for such tasks and therefore these bridges were never completed. ;) After being send back to France his unit eventually surrendered to the US Army (where he almost starved being a POW).

Well the result for my family was no loss of lives but they lost there home (and all their possessions) twice to air raids. My family came from Stettin which belongs to Poland nowadays and is now called Szczecin, but after becoming a POW he claimed to be from West-Germany to avoid to be send back to Soviet occupied territory when his POW-time ended (He knew already that his family had fled to the west too).




My grandfather died in january 2002 and has never seen his home city again.:cry:


Apologies for the double post, but I saw a television documentary a few weeks ago where veterans from the British side and the German side met. Some of them were even shooting at each other. The whole show was very emotional, and there was mutual respect. One German fighter pilot spoke before a whole village and apologised for his actions. I dont think that was appropriate, as he was doing his duty and following orders, but still, to see two veterans of the opposite sides shaking hands and hugging was a very emotional experience for me.

[Oberon]

My great-grandfather on my mothers side served at the front in the First World War, although my great-granduncle on my fathers side I believe was hit by a sniper at Verdun and killed. My great-grandfather and grand-uncle both served in World War Two. My grand-uncle was in the Royal Navy on different ships (he nearly wound up on the Barham on her last voyage but missed his boarding by a stroke of luck so I've been told) and my Great-Grandfather was in the MP I believe, I was evacuated at Dunkirk then sent to Africa, where his troop ship was torpedoed, but he made it out alright and lived up until the 1980s IIRC. I did a big old post in an old thread about Grandfathers in the war :) Pics and all

Here we are:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=684262&postcount=8

:)

EDIT: Reading Kapitans post suddenly made me realise and hang my head in shame, I'd forgotten completely about my Nan, she was in the land army as well, after the war she was sent out to Belgium where apparently somewhere there there's a big statue that all the army men and girls engraved their names into and a soldier lifted her up so she could engrave hers there too. She throughly loved her time in the land girls, and it was when she was out in Singapore working as a telephone exchange operator that she met my grandfather who was stationed out there with 45 Commando. Apparently he used to dial the operator just to talk to her :P Thanks for jogging my memory there Kap!!

[Kapitan]

Grandad on mums side was a sapper in WW2
Grandad on dads side was a royal engineer was at dunkirk
Nan on dads side was in the land army

great grandad served in submarines in WW1 never saw combat he died on HMS K13 1917

nans brother on mums side served on submarines in WW2 he died unknown submarine know little about him

Stepdad served in soviet navy joined just after the 1962 cuban missile crisis left in 1977 to work on ULCC's left 1989 began lorry driving 1989 till 2004 however this was part time he lectured at St petersburg naval institue since 1990 and sometimes still goes to sea despite his age.

[Schroeder]

Apologies for the double post, but I saw a television documentary a few weeks ago where veterans from the British side and the German side met. Some of them were even shooting at each other. The whole show was very emotional, and there was mutual respect. One German fighter pilot spoke before a whole village and apologised for his actions. I dont think that was appropriate, as he was doing his duty and following orders, but still, to see two veterans of the opposite sides shaking hands and hugging was a very emotional experience for me.
I once watched a documentary about D-Day. There some people from different nations described how they experienced the battle at the beaches. One American walked up the beach on which he landed 60 years ago and finally met one of the German MG-gunners who had taken them under fire back then.

They had a long talk and the American eventually said: "You're the best enemy I've ever met." (or something similar to this). It is always nice to see that the wounds of that war are healing.:D

[kiwi_2005]

Apologies for the double post, but I saw a television documentary a few weeks ago where veterans from the British side and the German side met. Some of them were even shooting at each other. The whole show was very emotional, and there was mutual respect. One German fighter pilot spoke before a whole village and apologised for his actions. I dont think that was appropriate, as he was doing his duty and following orders, but still, to see two veterans of the opposite sides shaking hands and hugging was a very emotional experience for me.

I read about the same kinda thing happening during WW1, one christmas day both sides cease fire and celebrated Christmas - shook hands, traded cigarettes celebrated Christmas together then they ran back to their trenches and started firing at each other again.

[mrbeast]

Apologies for the double post, but I saw a television documentary a few weeks ago where veterans from the British side and the German side met. Some of them were even shooting at each other. The whole show was very emotional, and there was mutual respect. One German fighter pilot spoke before a whole village and apologised for his actions. I dont think that was appropriate, as he was doing his duty and following orders, but still, to see two veterans of the opposite sides shaking hands and hugging was a very emotional experience for me.

I read about the same kinda thing happening during WW1, one christmas day both sides cease fire and celebrated Christmas - shook hands, traded cigarettes celebrated Christmas together then they ran back to their trenches and started firing at each other again.

I read about a similar kind of thing happening in France in 1944 to a British airborne sniper.

IIRC, as he was going out for his watch he turned a corner and almost walked into his German equivalent doing the same thing! Both of them were standing there stunned, in a kind of stand off, niether with his weapon ready to shoot; so the Brit whipped out his packet of cigarettes and offered the German one. So for the next 5 minutes or so they had a smoke together and then went on their separate ways.

Was the kind incident that demonstrates the futility of war.

[OneToughHerring]

Both grandfathers were in the Winter war fighting for Finland against the Soviets and the Continuation war fighting the Soviets and subsequently driving the Germans out, one as artillery NCO and the other as a message carrier, very demanding task. I guess their brothers were in the war too, haven't really found out if they had any brothers. Maybe I should perform some geneology research.

[FAdmiral]

My father-in-law was in the Battle of the Bulge. He said he got to see some
King Tigers up much closer than he would have liked. He spent nearly 30 days
outside (hard winter) going to Bastogne on foot....

JIM

[Schroeder]

King Tigers a very impressive. I saw one in a museum and it is much larger than all the other WWII tanks they had there (Panzer III/IV, Sherman, T34).:o

[JHuschke]

-Thanks for posting guys, to the Veterans who survived, tell them I said thank you for what they have done for ours and their country.
-To the men who didn't, I am sorry for your losses, and thanks to them for what they have done as well.

[geetrue]

My father was a US Navy personelman assigned to the Commador in the war against Japan in Alaska. Got some letters my mother had in her keep sake box when she died. They were from him talking about having a knife in case the Japs were to attack in the middle of the night.

Both are dead now ... that's what happens when you get old.

[Kapitan_Phillips]

My dad frequents a British Legion club near here, and I went down with him once. That place is brilliant for listening to old war stories and sharing a pint with the people who fought for this country.

[danurve]

My Father served and got trapped behind the lines in Ukraine durring Barbarossa.

[Tchocky]

My grandfather was a sentry/air-raid spotter on top of the Bank of Ireland, later a Vickers gun instructor. Didn't see any action, naturally. Which puts me in an interesting position, I very much dislike Ireland's WW2 neutrality, but if we participated I may not be here today :hmm:

[Schroeder]

I very much dislike Ireland's WW2 neutrality
Me too, we would have badly needed you.... oh,...err....he means siding with the other side...ok.:oops:


Sorry, couldn't resist.:p:roll:

[Terrax]

My Grandfather on my mothers side, Kyle was in the infantry and took part in the Normady invasion. He passed away in '88 but lived on the other side of the country so I didn't see him much. But I got a few stories second hand from my parents. He never talked about combat, but said he got a major case of sea sickness waiting to hit the beaches, and that he enjoyed the french wine and grateful French women.

I'm skeptical about this one. Mom said that he hated officers, and twice he was promoted from Sergeant to Lieutenant. Both times, he promptly slugged the first green 2nd Lieutenant that he could find, and was busted back down to Sergeant. According to Kyle, the CO liked him and the fact that he wouldn't leave his buddies from his unit and also got a kick out of the reactions of the shocked Lt's. A good story I like repeating, but I'm not sure about the truth of it. But he did have that type of personality.

I'll give another example of his off the wall behavior. My Dad and Mom have sworn that this is true. He lost his leg just above the knee after the War in a car accident. There was a tiny one level hospital in the town where he lived and Kyle knew the doctor that treated him, who was a vet of the war also. He talked the doctor into letting him take his leg home with him! It was kept in a freezer in the garage.

It was standard procedure that when one of his daughters had a boy come over, he would send them to the freezer to get him a beer. The girls would always warn the boys but they never took it seriously. And there in the freezer was the leg. That caused most of them to just get the hell out of there. When his time came, Dad was horrified when he saw the leg, not believing Mom's warning. Mom said Kyle rolled with laughter as Dad stumbled in pale as a ghost, before telling him that he forgot to bring the beer in.

I really wish he had visited him more in my late teens so I could have heard those stories, and probably a few more. Mom's not so sure that would have been a great idea. She's says I'm too much like him as it is. :D

[Tchocky]

I very much dislike Ireland's WW2 neutrality
Me too, we would have badly needed you.... oh,...err....he means siding with the other side...ok.:oops:


Sorry, couldn't resist.:p:roll:

:lol:

[peterloo]

My mum recalls that my great grandpa (on mum's side) was working against the Japanese when the Japanese invaded during the 1930s and he was caught and later killed (someone betrayed him, I believe:down:). He probably saw more actions in the civil war which infested China for more than 20 years but this is something I'm not sure

My grandpa (on mother's side) was born when the war broke out, in 1937 if I'm right, so he had to escape to Hong Kong. When Hong Kong was attacked in 7 Dec. 1941, the day which Pearl Harbour was attacked, my grandpa had to escape back to mainland China and hid in the villages, and survived the war.

(I personally disliked the pro-Japanese pose which most Western countries took in 1930s)

I havn't heard of any accounts of direct actions, through.

[Enigma]

My Grandfather served her Majesty's Royal Engineers in WWII. My great grandmother lost her best friend in England as a result of German strafing. I've heard some stories.....:o

[supersloth]

my grandfather on my father's side drove a supply truck for the KMT in southern china during the japanese invasion. always told me about how he ate like a king during the war since he drove the truck he had first dips on stuff like shoes, chocolate, cigarettes, whiskey, etc, lol.

my other grandfather on my mother's side was an officer in the KMT during the japanese invasion and the ensuing chinese civil war. his job was to root out corrupt officals and suspected communists. one story my mother told me was when he invited a warlord over to his home to try and convince him to join the govt in the fight against the japanese. before the guy showed up, he gave my grandmother a pistol and told her to shoot herself if he should get killed lest she be raped by a gang of thugs. my mother tells me that he was given an award by the CIA for something he did against the communists, but he didnt get to keep the award and its on file somewhere in the CIA archives i guess. its be pretty cool if i get to see it.

both were wartime buddies. they actually introduced my mom and dad to each other when they moved to the US. both lived in the US for almost 20 years and died well into their old age.

[Ishmael]

My father was a merchant seaman beginning in 1939 and was 2 days out of Pearl on his way there from SF on 12/7/41. His ship was about 200 miles south of this ship, the first American casualties of the Pearl Harbor attack:

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/4013/colsonui1.jpg

and heard her distress calls. He pulled into Pearl on Dec. 9th to find out he had a critical job skill and a draft deferment for the entire war. His critical job skill was taking troops to invasion beaches and dropping them off. As a merchant seaman, he took part in the invasions of Attu, Kiska, North Africa, Sicily, Salerno, Anzio and Iwo Jima invasions as well as the Japanese occupation. He was shot at by representatives of all three AXIS powers and only used a firearm in the commission of two armed robberies which netted him a year in San Quentin from mid-43 to mid-44. After the war, he was drafted in the Army in 1946 for about 3 months before obtaining a hardship discharge.

His brother, my Uncle Emmett, was a Lt. Cdr in the Naval Reserve and was port captain in Noumea during the war.

[Schöneboom]

My father was in the US Army 1st Cavalry, trained in Texas, & as a Filipino he naturally participated in the liberation of the Phillipines. He was wounded by shrapnel, captured by the Japanese, and fortunately escaped.

[Jimbuna]

My father (almost 85 now) lied about his age in 38 and joined a merchant ship (Euphorbia) that ran guns to the Spanish Government in the Spanish Civil War.

I believe they were the first British merchantmen to be bombed (Barcelona Harbour) by the German Condor Legion.

http://lacucaracha.info/scw/diary/1938/may/index.htm

He made numerous trips to Dunkirk evacuating Allied troops and was aboard the last ship to leave Marseille before it fell, taking off some French Admiral (the Royal Navy left 24 hours earlier).

He was in the only convoy to sail to Murmansk without an escort (these were held back for duty in Operation Torch).

12 or 13 ships set out and only 4 or 5 returned (thankfully he was on one of the survivors).

For this he received the princely bonus of £50 and was honoured/rewarded approx 20 years ago by the Russian Ambassador in London who presented those still living with a medal.

It is only in the past 5 years or so the feat of these brave seamen was recognised by the British government who gave them a crappy little lapel type enamelled badge.

On D-Day his ship beached at Courseulles-sur-Mer to offload heavy vehicles at Juno Beach in support of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade about 2 hours after the initial landing.

My father was luckier than a lot of our loved ones......especially when compared with his own father (my grandfather) who sailed as a 2nd engineer and whose ship went missing without trace whilst carrying every seamans favourite carge....Ammunition.

[panzer 49th]

My grandfather was the radio operator Sheffield (participated in the Bismark attack).

And my dad's friend's grandfather was Albert Speer.

[Jimbuna]

Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, commonly known as Albert Speer :hmm:

Interesting :yep:

[JALU3]

My father was in the US Army 1st Cavalry, trained in Texas, & as a Filipino he naturally participated in the liberation of the Phillipines. He was wounded by shrapnel, captured by the Japanese, and fortunately escaped.

Was he assigned directly with 1st Cav Div or was he assigned to a higher until such as the many specialized units utilized by 6th Army during its campaign in the Philippine Islands.

My Paternal grandfather was a naval steward and retired after giving a good amount of his health life to the US Navy. Back then that was all filipinos were allowed to be. He's buried now back in San Marcelino, where he was born.

My maternal grandfather was stuck in occupied Philippines and participated in guerilla activities. After the war he worked at Subic Bay Naval Base and retired after more than 30 years. He's now buried here in San Diego.

My wife's maternal grandfather was part of the new Philippine Scouts which were reconstituted upon the liberation of the islands and was involved in occupation duties in Japan. He later became a member of the PNP and retired doing so, and was eventually buried in Anao, where he was born.

I have no idea about my wife's paternal grandfather.

[CrushDepthCarl]

My father was a SeaBee in WWII in the Pacific. He was an aerial photographer who took pics of island invasions while they were taking place. After the war he went into government service, eventually rising to head of the visual department of the U.S. State Department. He took pics of many visiting dignitaries, treaty signings, etc. I have some sweet pics of the Bikini atoll H- bomb tests(picture a cruiser getting swept UP into the stem of the mushroom cloud), as well as signed pics of JFK and Jackie, as well as Hull and a few others. The best souvenir though is one of the original seven copies of the Declaration of War with Japan, that rests on my mother's living room wall.

A few years after his passing I was watching the History channel and got a glimpse of him in an old newsreel when the shot panned accross the press gallery at National Airport during a visit by a foreign head of state. There he was in the front row.


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[Sailor Steve]

WELCOME ABOARD!:sunny:

Good story.

[Jimbuna]

Welcome abooard Kaleun CrushDepthCarl http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/pirate.gif

You've obviously got some excellent keepsakes there http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/thumbsup.gif

[JSLTIGER]

My grandfather was initially trained as a medic and assigned to be deployed to Italy. The night before he shipped out, however, he came down with a kidney stone. As a result, he was reassigned to an army hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

My great-uncle, Tech5 Don Most, fought with the 100th division in Europe. He was wounded and awarded the Purple Heart in the push through France. He spent some time in occupied Germany and survived the war but after getting home was clipped by a drunk driver and killed while on his motorcycle in 1947. His father (my great-grandfather) fought in World War I as a new immigrant from Russia attaining the rank of corporal and earning his citizenship through service in the Army.

[JALU3]

The best souvenir though is one of the original seven copies of the Declaration of War with Japan, that rests on my mother's living room wall.

A few years after his passing I was watching the History channel and got a glimpse of him in an old newsreel when the shot panned accross the press gallery at National Airport during a visit by a foreign head of state. There he was in the front row.


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That must have been a great moment for you and your family. Don't forget to insure that document . . . and have you thought of having it professionally preserved so that way it doesn't begin to deteriate more then it probably already has? Loaning it to a museum?