Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire My father, one of the Last of the Greatest Generation,

My Dad is 86 also, living with his wonderful 81 year old girlfriend. Dad has Alzheimer's and she is a marvelous caregiver. I speak to them every evening on the phone. His physical health is good and his Alzheimer's seems to have stabilized for the past 3 years or so. He still enjoys life and even jokes about his memory loss.

Dad was on a minesweeper during the war. He experienced Kamikaze attacks off Okinawa and the great typhoon that ravaged Halsey's fleet. His ship was assigned minesweeping duties at both Hiroshima and Nagasaki shortly after the surrender. The ship's crew was actually granted liberty in both cities.

He has suffered from skin cancer for many years and if it wasn't for the fact that one of his best friends was a dermatologist, he would have died from it long ago. He has a spot of cancer cut off his head about every 4 months. Of course, we are sure his cancer stems from the radiation he was exposed to in Japan.

He is one of those who made his generation the greatest.

My dad is 89 and in a hospital bed as I type. A total of 5 weeks so far this year but is supposed to come home tomorrow. My wife and sister in law got dad to write down some of his numerous stories of growing up on a farm during the 1920's and 30's as well as his war experiences.

Drafted in December 1942 after graduation he served most of his time in the states, but went to Europe as a replacement during the Battle of the Bulge and stayed until the Spring of 1946. It was nearly a year after the war ended before he came home.

My wife compiled his stories and numerous family photos into a book which we had enough copies printed for all the kids and grandkids to own. I'm not tryng to sell it, we wouldn't make anything anyway, but the 1st 15 of about 150 pages plus the front and back covers can be viewed here. It is amazing what can be done today.

http://www.blurb.com/books/1731636

I'm glad we were able to put this together for my dad while he is still with us. He shows his copy to everyone. If you still have family living from that era get them to put as much down as they can and put together something like this.

What a treasure trove Sir. My Dad never spoke of the war and we never found anything in his stuff save a picture of him at Ft. Jackson, SC in 1943 while recovering and waiting for reassignment as a Tech Sgt. training G.I.'s in the Linn halftrack. I do know he was in N. Africa and then after recuperating from wounds was back in Europe till the end of the war.

wonderful story, George. they are leaving us so fast now.....lost Daddy on Good Friday. The only time he was in the Phillipines was after they were secured....he got dengue fever and they sent him to a tent hospital on Luzon. RIP.

+ 2

a hardy respectful salute to him...

Many thanks gents for the comments and for sharing your stories.

Ingwe, and the rest too, you must read UNBROKEN by Laura Hillendbrand. This a WWII epic story told by an author who writes a "page turner." If that isn't enough, it's all true -- one of the most compelling books I've read in a long time.

George..if its about Americans that were Japanese POWs..I'll probably pass...
Read one called " Prisoners of the Japanese" by Gavin Dawes..true stories, my uncle was even mentioned.
Until I read that book I didnt know the printed word could bring a grown man to tears....

It is about Americans imprisoned by the Japanese. But it's so much more than that - Paul Harvey would say "it's the rest of the story". I couldn't put it down.

I appreciate your sharing with us. Ken

George,
thanks for sharing such a wonderful post....It's good to be reminded what others have given for this great country...you sure have a dad to be proud of.

Yea Ingwe, I understand that now too. Western Judeo-Christian ethics have permeated our culture, laws, amd conventions; thus, we treated our prisoners relatively well. Ironically, the diabolical Nazis, other than the Gestapo and SS, had some sense of propriety too at least for American prisoners. This was not so of the Japenese as reflected in their treatment of Those they captured.

My uncle, the medic, who was held two years never was talkative about these things but I got the impression Germans treated medics a bit better yet. He finally got a message out to an underground contact who had a contact who....had a short wave radio and broadcast to the states that he was safe amd well. It filtered down to his parents, my grandparents.

My dad and his brothers were all sensitive, brooding types, intellegent, and in some cases with fragile psyches. As i mentioned my uncle who served on the USS Marblehead was reclusive afterward and i think suffered greatly of traumatic stress syndrome.

tip of the hat to a hero

Thank you for posting, and for sharing the story. Your father sounds like a great man.

I agree completely.

John, my dad came home amd went on to school on the GI bill. Taught high school, then college, going to graduate school along the way at the Universary of Iowa, some at the Univ of Wyoming, and Princeton. He then taught some thirty years in the history department at Northwestern College in Orange City, IA. It is a small but very highly rated liberal arts college.

I lost my dad 10 years ago next month to prostate cancer. He was 80, and served in the Army Air Corps in New Guinea and the Philippines. Just like your dad, he didn't talk about the war, and he had a box of souvenirs, much like your dad's. I am thankful he was in pretty good health when he went, and did not suffer long. I am looking forward to meeting him and my mom (whom I lost in 1968 at age 46 to breast cancer) in heaven when I die. I have no fear of death, only a positive looking forward to of inheritance of my mansion in my Father's House.

Dad joined ten days after the Japs hit Pearl. My Uncle was already in the Marines and had left Pearl only a few days before the attack. His brother, my other Uncle, was at Omaha Beach. Another Uncle served in the Navy.

About a year ago I was speaking with another of my Uncles who'd never spoken about the war much. It turned out that he'd crossed the Rhine with Patton.

Another good read is "Hell's Guests" by Glenn D. Frazier. We knew him as Dowling Frazier and he was from my home town of Fort Deposit, AL. The book is about the Bataan death march.

I was shocked to learn that the march only lasted six days. I knew of a couple of men from Greenville who were also on the march.

Dowling wrote of his hatred of the Japanese but also wrote of his ability to forgive after he became a Christian. It's a powerful book.
He threw his dog tags into a mass grave (I can't remember the exact reason he gave) but his father never believed that he was dead. When he got back to the states he called home and three of the females in his household fainted, one by one, when they heard his voice. Then his father got on the phone and told Dowling that he knew, somehow, that he was not dead, but he had three women laid out in the kitchen that looked like they were.

I knew MANY Bataan vets, when I was young - 10%, or so, came from New Mexico. I'll never forget the hollow, sunken eyes. Most carried a special "look".
Mark

I was born on VE Day, and grew up with the greatest generation. They were in charge of things when I began my working life. As they retired from the scene, things began to deteriorate, until by the time I retired they were sorely missed. These were people forged in the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl and by doing difficult work well. They knew things, they could do things, they didn't whine, but they did on occasion sit staring off into a distance that may have held dreams of what could have been.

My father was not of the Greatest Generation, he predated it having been born in 1893. He served in The Great War, in the Army Flying Corps, and during World War II built landing craft for the Pacific Theater. My mother was born in 1908, she welded those same landing craft together. Yet my father suffered from what today we call PTSD, as evidenced by his nightmares. He died when I was ten years old. We can only offer our love and honor to these great individuals, yet that will never be enough to heal their scars or quite the nightmares. I rest assured that they are held in the loving arms of their Father where all wounds are healed, their mind set at peace, and the heart is once again made blameless.

If there is one simple statement that can be said, it would be: Well done.