In addition - the US alone will loses over 1000 WWII vets a day!! Some say more like 1500 a day. I read somewhere that the US will lose over 400K WWII vets this year. Just look at the obituary in your local paper. Ask your questions now. Dont be shy, most WWII vets I talk to are very open and more than willing to talk about it.

400k ww2 vets to die this year? staggering statistic..

just back from my hometown , little wake for my grandfather
his younger brother was there, we talked, he always was a great story teller, asked him about how they came back as kids, born in exile (parents fled from WW1)...he told how they basically lived in barracks and shelters, and the landscape was quite barren , it was still almost a moon landscape in certain areas ( i know what he means , Hill 60 was left just as it was , a memorial, it is crater after crater after crater )
he said that folks couldn't make a living , except for one thing, recycling shrapnell, copper from shells, and even high explosives... all in all a dangerous way to make a living...

gotta do more of this , he likes to tell these stories, and i like to hear em... it's worth it, might ask him if he minds getting them recorded, and get the stuff in the museum of my hometown..

good story, stijn. record or write down everything that you can. you might be able to get enough down to get a book published..you never know. i wrote a nearly 800-page fiction novel. if i'd only get off my butt, get motivated and get it published. the easy part it turns out was the three years researching and writing it.
ryan

well, my neece married and by now divorced the (cheating b'stard)dude who researches for the local museum... he did write a book about the reconstruction, i just ordered it online, it would surprise me if he hasn't allready visited everybody in our family from that era , after all , it is his job

dunno about me writing, i'm awesome at ranting, especially when properly fueled up , but actually writing a history book? me? not to sure about that...

you can do it, stijn..it's not over. was it over when the germans bombed pearl..? ;)

yeah, ze Germanz sure got wipped over that one, didn't they.

If you and the elder are in the same geographic area, I'd ask about old landmarks, what was there before the shopping center, where the great stores and car dealerships were "donwtown," and things like that.

Re: What would you ask an "old timer"?
 

Grandpa, if there is anything about your life you'd like remembered after you're gone, what is it?

Then sit back and listen. :)

I once asked Daddy what he did during the Great War. He said, "I shoveled ***** in Louisana."