Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Dec.1,1979

Toughest post of the year. 44 years ago on Dec.1 my father left the party, much too young.He was one of the Greatest Generation,serving in Europe duringWWII With Patton's 3rd Army, in the 69th Infantry Division as a Combat Engineer. This was the outfit that fought in the Battle of the Bulge, in the Ardennes- the last place you would want to be in 1944- and broke through the siege at Bastogne to relieve the 101st Airborne Division. Dad earned two bronze stars in the Ardennes, And the 69th went on to fight at the Bridge at Remagen, liberate a sub-camp of Buchenwald, and meet the Russians at the River Elbe on VE Day.In his records he was noted as being gifted with a machine gun, and adept at clearing mine fields. This is him, at home with his Mother late summer 1945 awaiting orders to ship to the Pacific.After all that, he was not quite 20 years old when this pic was taken. Luckily, the Atom Bombs were dropped before orders came.Everything you own in life , everything you have known in life, you owe to men like this.

Sorry for your loss…actually all our loss. I too was blessed to have been raised by a Dad who gave all fir his country. America owes your and my Dad along with thousands of others a great debt.

Thanks to your father for helping bail out my Uncle Charlie.

Thanks for that.
dave

Kids becoming men...instantly.

A tip of the glass for your father tonight. He and men like him built this country, my grandfathers included. They're the true American heros.

Thanks to him and all the rest.

Thanks to your father, another hero.
“The bombs” likely saved my dads life, in that he was wounded on Okinawa, but patched up and would have been in the ground invasion of Japan, had it occurred.

True words have never been spoken!


God Bless the Ingwe Dad!

I thank him for his Service.

Hats off to him.

Never forget.

Thanks!

Thanks for sharing.

Many thanks to your father and all who have or are serving!
May he RIP

Humbled I am.

Yes we do!

20 years old…🫡

I think all of us had family who fought in that war. It's just us older ones, though, who knew them personally. My mother's brother was also in the Battle of the Bulge. He was with a roving team of engineers who traveled all over the place, wherever their skills were needed. Incredibly, he was never in a firefight, even when the bullets were flying all around them. Mom's other brother was navy. He was at Pearl and later piloted a landing craft during the Tarawa landing. My dad was also navy. He spent the war guarding both of our coasts from u-boats. He was 1st on a sub chaser doing convoy escort out of Florida. He then switched to flying blimps doing u-boat surveillance on both coasts.

Thanks to your Dad and a whole lot of others!

My Dad was in the South Pacific Islands also, he had been sent to an Australian hospital for recovery from getting hit in the head from an ejecting artillery shell, dysentery, and malaria. After recovery he was sent back to the Philippines awaiting a possible land invasion of Japan.

The A-bomb saved a lot of American and Japanese lives.

Ingwe, God Bless your Father, my grandfather,who was a paratrooper, and the two great uncles ( Pacific Navy) I never had the pleasure of meeting, and all the MEN like them.

Most 20 year olds today can't tie they're effing shoes.

Most all of my old friends of the Great - Generation are gone. Lost one of the last I know of last month. Dad, stepDad, FIL, all gone. Lost a piece of my heart with every loss. They all taught me something. Not a week goes by without someone being on my heart. Take Care Brothers. RZ.

my family and my wife`s family had soldiers there too, sorry for your loss , RIP . Pete53

I thank God for men like your Dad. They fought and died for this country. May he rest in eternal peace. Thanks for sharing Ingwe.

Jim

God blees your dad and all the others for their sacrifice

This should be taught in schools. Thank you to all of them.

A better man than I.



P

No truer words, ingwe. Your Dad sounds a lot like mine. I've posted his WWII Notes here before.

There will never be another generation like that one.

Never.

Our fathers generation was the best there will ever be.

My Dad also.

Truly the greatest generation !

The greatest generation for sure! Sorry for your loss.

Ron

Thanks for this lovely and most telling post. It rings with abundant truth.

Thanks to your Dad and the many like him who honored us and this nation with such patriotic and courageous service.

Thanks for the reminders. I was a child during WW2 and have tried to learn as much as possible about the events and heroes of that time. Fine men, uncles I was unable to ever know, never came home.

Thanks to all for your kind comments.

Your father was a STUD ingwe.

Tom,

Thanks for posting this, and sorry for your family's loss. I also have a lot of the previous generation, that fought for this nation during those times.

Many came home, but others are buried on foreign shores or were lost at seas. Many of those that came home, really never did come completely home, and those that did were never the same people who had left and went overseas.

We can call them our greatest generation, but to them, the greatest generation were the children that came after them.

I don't think I am incorrect, when I say that to your father, one of the greatest things in his life, was the son that he had to leave behind in December 1979.

Peace be with your father Tom, and peace by with your father' son.

you'll meet once again in the house of the Lord, and you both will be forever young and never grow old again, and will never have to fight any wars ever again.

Thanks for sharing and allowing us to honor your dad and what he gave and did for this nation in his youth.
cheers,
seafire

There is a reason they call them "The Greatest Generation" for they truly were. Born into a time that loved their nation and did whatever was necessary to protect it's values and way of life......


Frog---OUT!

Yes Hats off to our Fathers, they were the Greatest Generation!