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I WAS IN THE FUTURE, IT WAS TOO LATE TO RSVP
Member # 709
posted
This afternoon i was stumbling downstairs in my usual half-waken stupor to hit the head when i noticed a manuscript sitting on the table..
The enclosed letter was from a former coworker of my grandfather, who is a retired electrical engineer or somesuch. ive never talked to him much about his job except when we would actually be doing something electrical and he would pull out some random technical knowledge. ive also never talked to him much about his days as a soldier, except when he would pull out a random story of something he felt okay talking about.
but anywho, his old friend is publishing a book of war stories, WW2. he fought on the japanese front and was compiling anecdotes from all his old coworkers, and wanted my grandfather to read over the chapter of the recollections of his stories.
My grandfathers war exploits have always been a foggy area of my knowledge. my father told me he was a Soviet POW and was badly mistreated, i know my grandfather hates when i wear my red star tshirt, but nothing else.
I grabbed the pages and read, they were the coworker's second hand recollections of the stories my opa had told him. My grandfather had been a German tank commander and had fought in N Africa for a summer and on the Russian front in winter. He was court-martialed 3 times, once for blowing up a cow for target practice (the writer of the book noted that almost everyone he interviewed, American, German, Japanese, had been court martialed a few times). My grandfather had been good at math (trained as an engineer) so he could do the range calculations in his head to successfully find enemy tanks, its just like the video game, you have to get the range and the arc right, its all math. when he got back from the POW camp he was too feeble to climb stairs and preferred sleeping on the floor to his bed for a few years.
Its amazing that I have a large collection of military history texts and read up on it so much, but I'm to afraid to approach this subject with my own Opa. Does anyone else know what I mean?
Registered: Sep 2001
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
It's the personal touch. He never talks about it, & this is a man whom you respect & treasure, & you don't want to risk offending him in any way.
If you're actually interested, what I might suggest is asking him if he'd like to just go for a wlak with you somewhere. Once out of the house & along the way, mention that you read the manuscript & the stories within. Tell him that you never knew, but that if he's willing, you'd like to hear them from him--not for any historical knowledge, but because it's HIM & HIS LIFE.
If he agrees, well done. If he refuses, don't push it, but mention that it will stay between the 2 of you.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
Don't drop the hammer on him. He's probably more uncomfortable (for the lack of a better term) about exposing his past by opening up to you... than you feel about raising the subject.
Let him take point... if he wants to reach out, be a listener... that's all you can do.
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
Cows for cannon practice, now those were the days. (Did you say your grandpa was in the Wehrmacht???)
I hope you do get the opportunity to listen to him, some of the most interesting things can hide in the wake of previous generations, especially when one discovers how alike he was to you, in young years. He's just aged a lot but it's the same guy as on the photos. That's an aha-experience.
I got to interview my grandfather about his days in Africa once, though he of course couldn't understand why anyone would be interested in that!
And my own father is beginning to soften up about his service with the UN there during the 60's, I have to keep track of that. But he's a secretive sonofabitch, "Alone is strong" and all dat. Not that he didn't work on his father to do memoirs, the hypocrite. :-)
-------------------- "I'm nigh-invulnerable when I'm blasting!" Mel Gibson, X-Men
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
Dad didn't talk about it much, but in his later years he went to reunions for his division(28th). He also went to X-POW meetings. He suffered from Post Tramatic Stess Disorder for most of my life. I think being around all those guys made him feel better about getting treatment. Several of the 28th division and Ex-POWs visited the house. It was good for all of them.
-------------------- Sparky:: Think! Question Authority, Authoritatively. “Believe nothing of what you hear, and only half of what you see.” EMSparks
Shalamar: To save face, keep lower half shut.
Registered: Jun 1999
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posted
I haven't really talked very often to either my grandpa (RAF, post war) or my great uncle (RN, WWII). I've talked more to my dad and his friends (RAF, mostly); althought dad has told me some of the stuff grandpa was in. It does come up occasionally, usually if dad's talking about something he's been doing and then grandpa will say something, it's hard to know how to bring it up though.
-------------------- "I am an almost extinct breed, an old-fashioned gentleman, which means I can be a cast-iron son-of-a-bitch when it suits me." --Jubal Harshaw
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
It seems as though a lot of military folks don't talk about their service much.
It took my step-grandfather's death for me to learn that he'd been in the Navy during WWII (and gotten into a lot of trouble when he and some swabbies 'jumped ship' to visit some island girls).
My dad was a Marine, but only for a short while prior to Vietnam and they 'kicked him out' -well, that's how he refers to it; they game him a medical discharge - because he failed some bloodwork (high triglycerides).
My Uncle was career Army, was in Intelligence, went to Vietnam and never talks about what he did there (although I know he earned a couple of Bronze Stars and possibly a Silver Star,) came back and stayed in Intel and travelled all over. I know he'd been stationed in South Korea and in Germany at some points, that he participated in the US invasions of Grenada and Panama, And was one of the higher-ups during Desert Storm (but we never saw him on TV). He was also Base Commander at Fort Monmouth, NJ for a time. He retired as a full Colonel some years back.
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
How would one talk about doing things that defy all logic, running in to hails of gun fire, killing other humans, and that sort of thing. I haven't run in to a vet yet that will talk a whole lot about what they have done while in a war zone, other than some of the partying and the less violent memories.
The way I see it all combatants do make a huge sacrifice, that of giving up their mental well being, unless they have no respect for life anyway.
-------------------- "You are a terrible human, Ritten." Magnus "Urgh, you are a sick sick person..." Austin Powers A leek too, pretty much a negi.....
Registered: Sep 2000
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My Uncle was career Army, was in Intelligence, went to Vietnam and never talks about what he did there (although I know he earned a couple of Bronze Stars and possibly a Silver Star,) came back and stayed in Intel and travelled all over. I know he'd been stationed in South Korea and in Germany at some points, that he participated in the US invasions of Grenada and Panama, And was one of the higher-ups during Desert Storm (but we never saw him on TV). He was also Base Commander at Fort Monmouth, NJ for a time. He retired as a full Colonel some years back.
Its a wonder he isn't on FoxNews!
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
My dad, my uncle and I pestered my grandfather a couple Thanksgivings ago about what he did in the war. He was an officer with the 83rd Infantry, and participated in the Battle of the Bulge -- lost the top of his right ear to a "potato masher" fragment.
He recollected a cute story about having to reign in some grunts who got control of an artillary piece and started shelling La Havre when they first landed in France.
He enlisted in the Md National Guard when he turned 17 in 1930. A few years later, to draw more money, he filled out the neccessary paperwork to be comissioned. When one of the officers retired a few years later, he was comissioned a 2nd Lieutenant. When he was shipped out to England a few years later, he did so as a First Lieutenant, returned as a captain.
My grandfather is the YOUNGEST of thirteen brothers and sisters (he was born in 1913, his oldest brother was born in 1887). My great uncle Stanley, who died in '93, was a vet of WWI. No other of my grandfather's brothers and sisters served during WWII, but as you can imagine with his immediate family, he had a whole wealth of nephews and cousins who served in every branch (more than a few never returned).
My mom's dad never served in the military, but after Pearl Harbor, he went to Hawaii and server as a depot manager for several years. My uncle Bill (on my mom's side)'s dad (he married my aunt) served in the Marine Corps during the war, and was in the first wave on Iwo Jima.
posted
My grandfather served in the Army during Korea, but he never went into action. He was sent to Alaska. He was also the second generation of only sons, I believe, so I have no idea if that had something to do with it or not. And my father hit 18 a year after Vietnam was over...
My mother's boyfriend was a Marine during Vietnam. He flew one of the chopper out of Sigon that you see in clips. After that, he worked in the Pentagon for a while, then was the top recruiter on the West Coast for a bit, and was finally discharged after an automobile accident left him partially deaf. It's kind of cool to hear some of his stories tho...
-------------------- Are we having fun yet?
Registered: Dec 2001
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quote: and participated in the Battle of the Bulge
Dad was captured during that battle. I think the entire unit was captured. He was never really clear on how many were captured, but the lines changed so fast that one minute they were on their own side, and the next they were surrounded.
-------------------- Sparky:: Think! Question Authority, Authoritatively. “Believe nothing of what you hear, and only half of what you see.” EMSparks
Shalamar: To save face, keep lower half shut.
Registered: Jun 1999
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