"Guys like that.."

Stories of those like Doc Bradley, and my grandmother who was in a Japanese internment camp, are invaluable to the current and future generations. They are the stories that are not found in high school history books.

 

I used to frequent the History Channel's discussion boards quite often and one time I was lucky enough to come across this letter. I quickly cut and pasted it and emailed it to myself so that I would always have it. It is about the men of Flags of Our Fathers. Part I

 

Part II

 

Chris, thanks for sharing that -- it brought tears to my eyes.

If you have relatives -- grampas, dads, uncles, cousins, friends -- who served in WWII, TALK TO THEM! Most of us are reporters, get out those tape recorders, camcorders and notebooks and START GETTING THEIR STORIES.

A year before my grampa died, six years ago, I discovered that he was part of the invasion at Normandy Beach, and out of the 70 men on the boat he was on, only four made it out alive. I had never heard him talk about WWII before that day seven years ago. And we were very close.

I have tried as best I can to write down what stories I do remember him having told. But I will always regret that I never had the chance to really talk to him and find out more about his service.

 

My grandfather was in the Bataan Death March and he actually is writing about his experiences, just as something to have for himself and the family. I have the pleasure of getting to edit it and type it since he's hand writing it. Some of the stuff he saw and went through is just amazing when I see how well he functions now for someone who is 85.

 

The Library of Congress is trying to compile lots of these veterans oral histories. They have some great accounts online, and they're always looking for more. I'm sure they'd appreciate any publicity you could give them as well.

 

Both my grandfathers have passed on, but one of them was a career Navy guy who was a WWII vet and retired after I was born. He had plenty of profane advice for young Football_Splinter, which pleased my grandmother none too much.

 

my grandpa fought in okinawa but instead of moving on to iwo jima was in china training and waiting to invade mainland japan. every time i hear about how awful it was that we dropped the a-bomb on hiroshima (and of course i agree that it was horrific) i think that i probably wouldn't be alive if we didn't drop it. we'd have lost hundreds of thousands of troops fighting our way up honshu if it came to that. unfortunately gramps won't talk about the war at all but he's living proof that there are two perspectives to every issue.

 

I think I've mentioned on here that my father-in-law told me about his service a few years before he died. I was able to tell my wife, who hadn't heard most of it, and our kids about it. I found after he died last year that he'd talked to a guy doing a book on the Battle of the Coral Sea, in which my father-in-law's ship played a key part. So now I've got that book, too.

Thanks for posting that, Chris. Also thanks to Allen, Three Bags and anyone else who served.

 

I mentioned this once before, but my father, who was in the Navy -- and, leo, in the bombardment group firing onto Okinawa over your grandad's head! -- always believeed that, at least, the second A-bomb was unnecessary militarily, although he was in favor of dropping it anyway as payback for Pearl Harbor. He thought the naval blockade and air raids would have been enough to force an eventual surrender. This was common among the USN and USAF guys. The guys on the landing crafts, naturally, had a different perspective.

 

When I came back from Desert Storm at the ripe age of 20, my grandfather shared most of his WWII stories with me, including details about occupation of Japan and, much earlier, the rape and murder of some nuns by the Japanese and how he was so angry and upset, he literally shit his pants.

 

If your grandfather was in the Bataan Death March, have you read Ghost Soldiers about the rescue of the prisoners from the original march?