As i was growing up in Rural Texas i had two heroes.
One was my paternal grandfather, he was a merchant marine, a sea captain complete with the white beard like you see in the movies, and a fine smelling high quality cigar never too far from reach. he was a man that to a 5 year old boy seemed large than life itself... and though his presence
commanded respect, he was probably the kindest and most gentile human being i have ever known in my life.
His home, but a stones throw from Mexico Beach Florida had a large brass ships wheel in the front yard, complete with a flag pole and a brass bell.
Some of my earliest memories involve standing out there in his front yard, at 5 years old not even standing high enough to see over the ships wheel. I steered us through a lot of rough storms and around a lot of battleships and submarines in that front yard.
and im almost sure of the fact that the bell drove the neighbors insane.
Being a sea captain, his home was replete with all things nautical and strange trinkets and what not from various parts of the world. As his area of responsibility was primarily the Atlantic ocean, most of the items within his museum of a house drew from his experiences in the Atlantic no doubt. It was truly a wondrous place to grow, and had he lived past my 12th birthday i probably would have gone to sea myself.
Burying that hero was probably the saddest day of my life.
My second hero, my maternal grandfather was an infantryman under Patton's 3rd U.S. Army who came ashore in normandy and stayed with that posting until VE-Day.
He was a coal miner, and a steel mill worker in the backwoods of Eastern Kentucky before the war. He literally was born in - and did most of his growing up in an honest to goodness log cabin (the remains of the chimney still stand deep in the overgrown mountains of Appalachia).
As a hunter, he was a natural as a U.S. Army sharpshooter and according to many verbal accounts from friends and family he "could hit a running rabbit at 100 yards".
He Joined the Army on December 8th 1941 like most young men, and due to illness was removed from his training and his unit and reassigned to another unit when his health returned. His old Unit went to the Pacific theater, and his new unit went to England.
He never really speaks much about his experiences during world war two. However, while looking for some scratch paper in the drawer of an upstairs bedroom one day i located his Honorable Discharge papers which were Dated in 1945. According to the document, he had served in every major campaign which patton's 3rd army had been a part of, and had been awarded several medals. Though he told us his profession in the military was "truck driver" the document listed him as being a "sharp shooter".
i always remember his home being decorated with commemorative pieces related to the Eurpoean Theatre of Operations.
And he even has his uniform hanging in his closet, decorated fully as if it had just been worn yesterday.
For me... it is difficult to grow up with two such heroes and NOT have a deeper appreciation for the Atlantic and the European sections of WWII versus the Pacific.
though i am highly familiar with the Pacific engagements and many of the signifigant events of the PTO... im just so much more passionate about the ETO.
thanks for reading.
thats an excellent question and i never really thought about it until now.
~GR