World War II interview

If it gets to the point where you can, ask when he cried and why.

Best of luck with this journey.

 

My dad has great, funny sstories about going over on a POS troop ship and coming back to NYC on the Queen Elizabeth or Queen Mary, and of all the places he went to via train after being drafted and after returning from Europe and has no problem talking about them.

About Dec. 1944 through May 1945 as an 18-year-old in the Ardennes Forest, etc., not so much.

 

Joe, you are a star. I never had the time, so I thought, to ask my Dad about much. I did overhear conversations when I was little when a buddy would visit my Dad.

I put together some of those early memories, plus some research and was ready to talk with him when he died.

He also never ever want to leave North America again.

 

most important, just let him talk.

 

If he was in the trenches and wants to talk about specific battles, ask him about sights and sounds and smells. My grandfather -- a grunt in Korea -- had some pretty interesting things to say about that.

 

And ask him what his service number was. They didn't use the SSN back then.

Most of those old cats can still recall that number on command.

 

Good point, TBF. It's been 63 years an dmy dad can rattle his off in a second.

 

As him if there are any "cousins" running around Europe that the rest of family is not aware of ?

 

Cigarettes. Ask him about cigarettes.

That was one thing my dad – a medical corpsman in the Philippines – would usually perk up and talk about at some length, that and what it was like the one day a (week? month? i forget.) when the ration of beer was provided.

Good luck with your project.

 

My experience is that folks who don't talk about their experience in the war (especially with people who aren't vets) are really trying to bury things they did or saw.

The ones most vocal usually saw the least amount of action.

So I would not expect your grandfather to be real forthcoming on his own. You may need to ask questions and do follow ups to get him to talk.

 

The older you get, the more you want to talk about the past. Perhaps it's a product of getting your house in order, to make sense of a life lived. And to share. Perhaps to warn of mistakes that lie in wait for the next generation.

Few, if any, combat veterans ever want to go back. Most don't want anyone else to see what they have seen, do what they have done. They don't want history to repeat itself for their children or grandchildren.

At the same time, they want the next generations to know there are things worth fighting for.

It's an interesting and complex dichotomy.

 

Ace, I think you're right on about the willingness to talk. My grandfather saw some awful things in the Pacific during World War II and didn't utter a word about it until he told me everything last summer after a long illness. There was a lot of pain he had buried, combined with the feeling common with his generation that he really didn't do anything special. I've been blessed to do some cool things in this business; the talks with my grandfather about his war experiences blew them all away.

If you're doing this, as others have said, record it. You will treasure those tapes.

Ask about the things away from battle, going through boot camp, leave, down time. Some of best stories are there, IMO. I think of the still my grandfather and his buddies hid in the ductwork on their carrier.

See if he kept a journal. Many guys did, if for no other reason than there was so much down time. My grandfather was no writer, but he kept one and the details are amazing. And they gave me things to ask him about I wouldn't have otherwise known.

If he has old photos, newspapers, mementos, etc., from that era, go through them with him. Those can trigger a host of memories and stories.