We had our monthly American Legion meeting tonight . We have 1 WW11 vet that still tries to make every meeting . I never really talked to him before , but I did tonight for a bit . I'll condense this down as much as possible . He retired from the military in '65 . He was in the Army ,,,, the Navy ,,, and retired in the Air Force . He was born in 1921 ,,,,yep , 97 years old . He said most of his time during WW11 , he was in the Navy . He was a Gunners Mate . During this story , He said he was in the Phillipines , he said you could look out over the bay , and he said it looked like there were 500 ships scattered out . He said he had to go ashore , work his way down to another cove , and get out to another ship to do some repairs . He said he told his Chief , he would try and do some horse trading to try and get a few 50 cal.s . The chief said , you get'em , I'll mount'em . We'll , he was able to get a couple , and they mounted them . He said a few days later , he walked out on the deck of the ship , looked up and saw a plane flying over , he looked again and saw it was a Jap plane . He thought , why the hell ain't nobody shooting at him . So he said he grabbed ahold of their newly mounted 50 cal , and started firing . He said , he believes the 2nd round hit the plane . So evidently , no one was allowed to fire without orders to fire . He just grabbed the gun and let loose . About that time , his chief walked out onto the deck just before he started shooting . As he said , the 2nd round hit the plane , and when it did , she started smoking , and spiraling to the water . He said luckily , the plane exploded before it fell to the water and hitting one of the many ships anchored in the bay . He never did say if there were any casualties from the crash , or if he even knew of any . But , he did say , that right after everything calmed down , his Chief asked him , " Where'd you learn to shoot like that " ,,, He said ,,," Back home shooting ducks and pheasants ". I can listen to these stories forever . I hope this ole fella makes it to see 100 . So , to the many members we have on here who have served , tell your stories to someone . They are meaningful to some , and they are sure to be passed on from them to someone else as well , and most likely will stick with them for the rest of their life as well . The reason I say this is , a few days ago , I was talking to a buddy of mine that I met 30 something years ago when I got out of the Corps . We were talking and he mentioned something I said when we were working together with a crew of about 5 - 6 of us . He said we were working , it was hot , bugs and nats and skeeters were buzzing and biting , everybody was slapping and bitchin' , to the point we weren't getting anything done . He said I looked at all of 'em and said , Ya'll are going to kill the whole damned squad slapping at them skeeters . But your stories can have a positive impact on people , so tell them if you can .
I talked with a couple of old Vets and heard a couple of good stories. One guy was a WW2 Ranger in Italy. During the Battle of Anzio his unit was cut-off for several days and all they had to eat was orange marmalade. When folks asked what he ate it with, he replied, "a spoon". Said that he used to like orange marmalade, but hadn't eaten any since. The other Vet was a USAF pilot in the Korean War. He flew some of the first jet fighters and bombers. He was shot down late in the war and was a POW for 6 months.
Talked with another WW11 Army vet. He ended up a battlefield commissioned officer. Fought the Germans somewhere in the mountains. Said they would get a push and take over the Germans trenches and hold them for a week or two and have to smell their dead and rotting bodies. When the Germans got on a push, they’d be pushed back to their own trench lines and had to smell our own dead soldiers. He said that made it were you couldn’t eat. He got wounded and said he stayed in a hospital for 6 months, mainly from malnutrition.
My three favorite "There I was " type first hand accounts of WWII are in no particular order : "Up Front" ...by Bill Mauldin "Shots fired in Anger"...By Lt. Col. John George "Company Commander " ...by Charles MacDonald For a excellent WWI account try "Fix Bayonets"...by Captain John Thompson USMC While none of the above is like being there , talking with the fella himself...they are all excellent reads with a intimate feel of a conversation. Andy
