Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Dan The Chainsawman]

B-17 Flying Fortress is what my best friend's grandfather served on as a belly gunner. The men who served in the bombers in WW2 as aircrew truly stand out as remarkable men. Amazing what they all lived threw aircrew, navy, or ground forces for that matter.



B-24 Liberator Bomber

[momworld]

My father fought in Papau New Guinea in World War II.

[itaewonguy]

[flambastic]

Moms father was German but he fought for the allies. Guess if he didn't he might of been accused of something. He made it back but died before I was born. Apparently I am the spitting image, according to my mom and her sisters. Would have liked to have met him......

[dogbert]

[capebretoncanadian]

My mothers father served overseas WW2. He was either one of the soldiers that landed on d-day or part of the later reinforcements (he died two months after I was born). Apparently he had little or nothing to say about the war....he left behind a parcel of medals, military issue binoculars and a crazy looking knife that he took off a dead German. When I was home I proudly laid a wreath for him every Rememberance Day. Everyone who knew him said he was a wonderful man, I feel at a loss for never having met him. My dad's father lucked out.....he had flat feet so was declared unfit for service(unable to march long distances) my dad and my brother inherited the same characteristic so they're cool if it comes down to war. I'm not so lucky. He's still kicking around at 93 the tough bugger. The Germans et al. are lucky he never suited up!

[itaewonguy]

[dogbert]

Good point. The Italians were quick to flip-flop in WWI too.

At least the Germans had the honor to stick it out.

[Pyongshin Sangja]

[joe_doufu]

My father's father was in the US Navy and served on the cruiser USS Canberra (yes, that's right) fighting the Japanese. I understand that he volunteered for the Navy because he figured he had a better chance of survival than if he was drafted into the Army. He couldn't swim, so he had a buddy take the swimming test for him.

His ship was torpedoed and crippled by a Japanese torpedo plane. The group leader decided to move on without it... they didn't tell the men on the Canberra, but they were to be bait for a trap. Japanese ships moved in for the kill, and the American ship group returned to ambush them. Or that was the plan, I don't know if it really worked that way.

The Canberra was towed to San Francisco and my grandfather spent the rest of the war helping to repair it. I never heard any war stories, but he had an awful lot of combat stars accessorizing his uniform, so I guess he was involved in several engagements or coastal bombardments or something.

Ironically, the Japanese didn't even scratch him until he was "safely" in San Francisco. He inhaled a lot of asbestos during the ship's repairs, which gave him lung problems for the rest of his life. He decided to treat this with a lifetime of chain smoking, and as a result he died in the early 1980s. You could call it a war casualty, or not.

My mother's father didn't serve, I think he was too old. Or he was a drunk, or something. I also never knew him well. My third grandfather, that is my mother's stepfather, well I don't know about him. I think he was too young.

I have an aunt and an uncle who joined the Army a year after Vietnam. Nobody wanted to be in the Army back then, I can't imagine what they were thinking. They have managed never to serve in a war zone. My uncle retired after 20 years and my aunt is still a Major in the reserves. They adopted three children while stationed abroad, and one is Korean.

[Moldy Rutabaga]

One of my great-grandfathers on my mother's side came to Canada because he didn't want to be in the Prussian army, so he ran away. There were several soldiers on my father's side. I regret that I would make a horrendous soldier. I must take after my mother's side.

Some of you are quite young if your grandfather was in WWII. My uncle was there and was captured by the Germans in '44 and sent to a camp. He's still alive, but I haven't seen him since I was a boy and I forget the few stories he was willing to talk about, except that he ate a lot of pea soup! Perhaps the fact that, as a German-Canadian, he spoke better German than English helped. After liberation he was quite sick and was sent to a British hospital to recover. He had to wait a long time in front of British war brides to get a ship home.

I always feel a lot of respect for veterans and a little bit of regret that I've never served. But then, maybe our generation can do something better by preventing war rather than fighting in one.

Ken:>

[waggo]

[nev]

One grandfather was a dentist in the war and though he didn't talk about it particularly much, he seemed to find it an interesting experience. He was in Israel (he talked about floating on the Dead Sea once) and somewhere in Africa. I don't think he was ever in direct danger.

My other grandfather was in supplies, in Holland. He speaks some Dutch as a result, and still visits there quite frequently. He was in danger, but seemed to have the time of his life. Rarely a conversation can go by without him alluding to the war.

I believe one of my grandmothers was also involved, something to do with strategies and having perfect eyesight and colour vision, but I'm unsure of details.

A great uncle who died a couple of years ago was known to have fought very bravely indeed and was involved in some particularly rough situations in Europe and Asia. He never talked about it. Apparently he has a road named after him somewhere in Italy (or a nearby country, I can't remember details).

When very young, I used to have a next door neighbour who met Hitler. She said that he seemed "very nice".

[SPINOZA]

By the way, Itaewonguy...even though I've contributed to the thread, I was unable to vote because my grandfather didn't fight as such, he was in Intelligence.

[Bulsajo]

WWII and the Korean War.
He never spoke much about any of it, and never asked me anything about Korea; He did get along very well with my wife.
He outlived 2 wives and died a month ago in Winnipeg.

My Grandma (on the other side) was a war-bride from Scotland (Forres, Whiskey-Trail country) who outlived 2 husbands and died a week ago in Brandon.