My grandfather and I are very close, he's like my father as I never had a father around when I was a kid. I knew Stan was in WWII and when I asked him what he did, he always said something like "I loaded guns" or "I put bombs on planes" and never gave any of us any details. He did insist that I watch "Saving Private Ryan" after I got out of the Navy and commented that it was "very accurate".
Now, the end is near and we are preparing to move him into our house and keep him happy and comfortable for the time he has left and my wife and I were going through papers, etc... and we came across his Army discharge papers. It seems that Stan was awarded 6 bronze stars and his list of campaigns included Normandy, Rhineland, Ardennes, etc...
Wow, my grandfather took part in many campaigns and was awarded 6 bronze stars and he never mentioned any of this to us! When I came back from Desert Storm I told him about my experiences and he listened but never really opened up about his experiences, just told me that "war is horrible" and he wished that nobody would have to go to war any more... My grandfather's generation was so humble and understated! I wish I was half the man he is, he really is special to me and I'm proud as hell to have him as my grandfather.
Here's a picture of Stan in my car this summer when he felt well enough to go for a drive in my car, it was a great day!
