Memorial Day - A Time to remember

[Scott Rose]

Memorial Day, a day to remember those that served the United States and paid the ultimate price for our freedom. I want everyone to take a moment and think about those that gave their lives to keep us free. I also want you to take a moment to thank the veterans in your lives, not just today, but throughout the year. I want you to take a moment to talk to them, listen to their stories and just get to know them a little better.

And veterans, or relatives of veterans, I encourage you to share your stories in this thread. They don't have to be combat stories, but tell us the stories that were a part of your service. Funny stories, sad stories, stupid stories, whatever. Let us share in your experiences. And help us learn to appreciate what service members have been through and continue to go through everyday.

Please take a few minutes and write your story down and post it here, in this thread.

Thank you all for serving and protecting our freedoms.

[Robbie Stuart]

Thank You Scott for this site, where we can pay respect to, & recognize the folks that do now, & have served our country.
Thank You Dad, 1st Lt. Charles F. Stuart JR. 381st Fighter Squadron, 363rd Fighter Group, 9th AAF, WW2.
Dad & "STINKY" B 3E

[sgt hawk]

My old company commander calls me every memorial day and veterans day. He calls about 15 of us and he is 71 years old. How I look forward to that is still something I can't explain.

[michaelharadon]

When my father was 15, he got his mother to sign papers saying he was of age to join the Merchant Marine. Ships were being sunk like soap bubbles popping in the bath tub, and I imagine that the people he gave those papers to didn't examine them very closely for particulars. I believed it even more when I found out from my mom that he didn't have a pair of shoes that fit from the depression until he enlisted. He told me that back then he and his friends worried that the war would end before they were able to get in to do their part.

For him there was the North Atlantic in winter with wave tops towering over his station on the wing of the bridge, knowing that there were stories or rumors, whichever, of liberty ships breaking up in storms because of structural weaknesses. There were U-boats and being torpedoed, plenty of bombs, and one time in sketchy weather water spouts close by from either bombs or a German navy ship said to be stalking the convoy. At Normandy ("Mike, you'll never see fireworks like Utah Beach at night on June 6") a shell exploded over his ship, killing several on deck that he was talking with and wounding him. And somewhere between the East Coast and the British Isles, in convoy, he told with tears in his eyes of passing by a torpedoed tanker so closely that he could see his best buddy hopelessly trying to launch a life boat that wasn't going to go down its rails because the tanker was listing in the wrong direction and my dad knew that between the flaming oil on the water and the cold-go figure-his friend was done for.

And then, at Okinawa, "we sounded battle stations and just as I got one leg swung over the gun tub I heard all the noise in the world coming at me from behind and I turned around and froze because it looked like the kamikaze was headed right for me. It was close enough for me to see the goggles and scarf on the pilot and he just cleared our masts and hit the next ship over." That's pretty much an exact quote; those words got seared into me forever the first time I heard them, as did the sight of him crying as he told them. Shame, fear, who knows. Whatever it was he was feeling, I had no idea how to give him love for it. It was pretty stunning to see him cry. I know I've mentioned it twice, but those were about the only two time I ever saw him cry.

The peace was signed while he was still 18. He was a brave man and a good father and raised a family with the same dedication he fought the Axis. The war ended for him the day he died in the mid '80's.

I'm missing him like I haven't since way back when he taught me how to make plastic models.

'If heaven weren't so far away, I'd pick up some beer and go for the day.'-from a CW song I heard yesterday.

"Oh beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife that more than self their country loved..."-America. I love how it's sung by Ray Charles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRUjr8EVgBg

Last edited by michaelharadon on Fri Jun 17, 2011 9:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[kalamazookid]

Thanks to my uncle Gerry. Killed in a KC-135 crash at Wurtsmith AFB. Gone, but not forgotten.

Thanks to my uncle Steve, who survived two tours in Vietnam, and my great uncle Pete, who served on submarines in WWII.

[Scott Rose]

My father told me a story about the time his EA-3 Skywarrior was part of a strike package hitting a target in Greece during a training mission. The flight was commencing a low level run in and were staying as close to the ground as possible, to the point of following the hills up and down like a roller coaster. Now in the A-3, the flight engineer/plane captain sits behind the pilot facing the rear. So my fathers view of the outside world was basically grass->sky->grass->sky etc... Well this blue-green cycle was interrupted by a explosion of white as they crested a hill and went down the far side, as the Whale pulled up all my father could see is several hundred sheep fleeing for their lives in every possible direction as the EA-3 and the accompanying Intruders overflew them and only several hundred feet.

I often picture some poor Sheppard cursing the U.S. Navy as he spents days rounding up his sheep.

Next time... how my father's plane was mugged at 10,000 ft.