My son and I were listening to the radio this morning and he was quite upset that they were not discussing D-Day. He looked at the time and started narrating what Easy Company (From Band of Brothers) would have been doing about 7 am on the original D-Day. It was very cool. I must be doing something right.

My father joined up at age 17, like so many others at the time, he lied about his age. He served in the Pacific theater. A toast in honor of all those who served and are currently servinghttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/suppo...s/beerchug.gifhttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1212775437.jpg

Your son may want to read this book:

Easy Company Soldier
by Sgt. Don Malarkey with Bob Welch

it's available through Amazon

My Dad was fighting those other bad guys, too.

+1!!!

My father also enlisted at 17, and served in the Pacific Theatre as a medic, front lines. Battles included were Nassau Bay, Salamau, Mt. Tambu, Buna-Gona, missed Biak due to Malaria. Bronze Star. Was on the first nightime landing in the Pacific Theatre, guess it scared the crap out of the Japanese.

I've been with him to the bars he drank in while he was in Sidney, including the one where he was when his shipped left the harbor for Melbourne....so effectively "jumping ship".... it's a great long story that's actually very funny how a couple of the members of his company get him out of the mess. I've never heard the real bad stuff.

He still puts flowers every year on Memorial Day on his buddy's grave who was killed beside him during the Mt. Tambu battle.

I'm lucky to have coffee with him nearly every day.

Here's to all those who have served and still serving!!!!!!!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/wat6.gif

Eric

My Grandfather joined the Navy as a Warrant Officer in 1942, serving for three years in the Pacific aboard the USS Breton.

His older brothers, both enlisted sailors before the war, served as Chiefs on destroyers. The youngest was a PT boat man.

They all survived and remain, in my memory, the funniest, best men I have ever known. I'll post the picture of my GF commissioning me as an Ensign as soon as I scan it.

My dad had a Turkey ranch when the war broke out. He tried to enlist, was told to raise Turkeys for the military instead. His two brothers both served. Gordon was a B-17 Captain. Forrest, the eldest brother, was a Stanford Grad, entered as an officer in the Pacific Campaign. He was a ham radio nut...ended up the war as head of Army Air Corps communications. Then stayed in, eventually retiring a full bird Colonel.

One fun memory...one of our stops during the 1957 BSA Jamboree was Washington D.C. Uncle Forrest gave me a tour of the Pentagon. I remember thinking the USAF was a cool deal...too bad I couldn't enlist at 13 as a Full Bird...;)

I've, kinda thought about not contributing to this thread as I have a hard time with the comparisons being made with our troops in the field. Who was or is the greatest generation, well the tradition is who has answered the call and who has stood the watch. It is easy to sit back and discuss the "greatest generation", it is meaningless. Remember those that so hurt us in Vietnam, the national leadership, were from the "greatest generation". So to compare those that serve and served is idiotic, IMHO. The kids over here are everybit as good as those that have gone before. However, I think that the real debate on the "greatest generation" includes all of us. The real problem comes down to a change in out ability to commit. Folks just don't get it anymore, once you go to war, you win, if you don't intend to win, than don't go. If Vietnam taught us one thing it was that very lesson. It comes down to a nation not a solidier to the level of commitment. When the going gets tough applied than, it applies now. So do not look at those that serve in uniform, look at those that fail to serve to their commitment.

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Semper fi!

Randy

My Son is in Iraq on his third tour with the USMC. I'm sure he connects with the "greatest generation"
I'm in awe of the men that landed on the beaches of Normandy as well as our troops that volunteered today.
God Bless Them All.

My dad volunteered for the Canadian army in 1940. He was just one of the many thousands that really defined the word sacrifice.

Sad that we are losing more and more of this generation every day....

For those that are interested, Richard Hammond of Top Gear did an excellent documetary last year about the D-Day landings on Omaha beach. It isn't the usual funny guy routine - there is nothing funny about it - just a very serious and interesting piece. You need the torrent downloader to get this but it is WELL worth watching.

Links here:

http://www.finalgear.com/news/2008/01/07/timewatch-bloody-omaha-torrent/

Paul, Your Dad defintiely served; and I do not mean that as a pun. It took a lot to feed an Army the size of the one we put together nearly overnight. It took a lot of sacrifice by a lot of people....well, EVERY person really. Kudos for him for doing that and to your uncles for their service.

Byron, you and I don't agree on a DAMN thing but I'm with you on this one, a toast to our fathers, uncles, grandparent, all the people of that generation for their service in and out of uniform. What these people did and sacrificed made it possible for us to be free to call each other names and act like jackasses on the internet. Here's to them all:)

I have nothing but respect for today's troops, or the troops when i served, etc, but nothing we ask our guys and gals to do today comes close to asking them to storm onto Omaha beach at first dawn. What's more, any Politician who put our troops into such a position would likely be booted from office in the aftermath.

And that is a good thing.

We do things completely, entirely different today, and our equipment is prohibitively superior to our enemies, which was not the case in WWII at all.

That being said, i have the utmost respect for todays troops as well.

Dan, I'm not so sure that those that served from the "greatest generation" were running the show during Vietnam, with the exception of J. Kennedy early on. Maybe others, but I don't have any of their names in mind. The guys pulling the strings on you and your comrades predominately didn't serve, even going to great length's not to serve. But I digress. I think you and the entire volunteer service that have been in harm's way for a number of years now, deserve the same accolades as those that we're discussing in this thread. Unfortunately, you guys probably won't receive the accolades due to the difference in times and the nation's feelings about the war. It's sad, as you all deserve our greatest respect.

Here, here. I agree completely.

We'll have to agree to disagree.

We still send people into harms way, just not in Higgins Boats: but they go into battle nonetheless. An up armored Humvee is todays Higgins boat. Courage, in my mind, is getting up every morning facing an uncertain fate.

"Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result..." was written by the guy who was missed.

Armored humvees, wearing body armor that will stop 7.62 nato AP, with absolutely unchallenged air supremacy and things like B-1s and A-10s flying top cover.

How todays US soldier goes to war doesn't even remotely resemble how yesterdays US soldier went to war. There hasn't been a US soldier killed by enemy air attack since the Korean war. In 5 years in Iraq, we've lost far less men than we lost in just Operation Overlord alone.

On the one hand we had the Nazi's bearing down on hopelessly outmatched GI Shermans in their ulber Tiger tanks, on the other hand we have lightly armed insurgent jihadists blowing off IED's in Iraq when US vehicles go by.

We had an entire Armored division gutted during Overlord. Something like 200 US tanks knocked out in a bare few miles of road leaving the Omaha beaches.

Iraq is a low intensity conflict, it is not even remotely comparable to fighting the Nazis or the Japanese.

But hey, todays troops get my respect too.

That isn't what we hear/see. In some ways it is worse. At least in '44 the enemy was clear as were your objectives. Today is a much more complicated operational environment.

That was Churchill IIRC.