Comments on: Seasick warriors

By: Rhymes With Right

Rhymes With Right — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:07:51 +0000

Current Watcher’s Council Results…

Well, at last we are up to date with all Watcher’s Council Results from my time without a computer and various other catastrophes. I commend to your attention these fine submissions from around the blogosphere. Council Submissions First place with……

By: Watcher of Weasels » From Cairo to Israel - Obama Making It Up As He Goes Along

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 22:17:42 +0000

[...] Fifth place with 1/3 point – (T*) – Bookworm Room – Seasick Warriors [...]

By: Soccer Dad

Soccer Dad — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:09:54 +0000

Submitted 06/12/09…

This week’s Watcher’s Council submissions are up. ACORN’s Past Due Taxes – The Provocateur continues to look into the suspicious dealings of ACORN. This week we learn about embezzlement and tax fraud at the highest levels of the organization! Seasic…

By: The Colossus of Rhodey

The Colossus of Rhodey — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:59:16 +0000

Watcher’s Council nominations…

The Provocateur – ACORNs Past Due Taxes Bookworm Room – Seasick Warriors The Glittering Eye – “>The Perversity of the Publishing System The Razor – A Conservative Case for Animal Rights Right Truth – British National Party (BNP) – Are……

By: Watcher of Weasels » The Benjamin Button Society

Watcher of Weasels » The Benjamin Button Society — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:01:22 +0000

[...] Bookworm Room – Seasick Warriors [...]

By: Deana

Deana — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 02:33:10 +0000

It always sort of amazes me the number of people with relatives who were on B-17s.

I love all of these stories – I could read this kind of thing for hours.

Thanks, everyone!

By: Oldflyer

Oldflyer — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 23:27:08 +0000

You struck a chord, Charles. I mentioned my cousin earlier in the thread. He left the farm at 17 and went to Jacksonville, Fl to join the Navy. When he got there he had pneumonia and they sent him home. Later he joined the Army Air Corps. I was a little fellow, but I remember my Aunt saying he was going to be a mechanic. (She was very relieved because her husband had been a doughboy in WWI , and had legitimate fears about war). Much to her surprise he was a tail gunner on B-17s during the period when they suffered their heaviest losses. (He survived, went to pilot training and retired as a B-52 commander.)

The point is that the attitude among the young men and boys was so vastly different in those days. It wasn’t from ignorance, because as I remarked above many of them knew of the horrors of modern war from their dads. It was a sense of duty.

One other thought. I love to see the old guys (older than 73 that is) in their ball caps. Whenever I do, I make an attempt to strike up a conversation. I feel it is the least I can do to give them a chance to tell their story, if they want to. Met one the other day in a USS Franklin cap. (If that doesn’t ring a bell you should look it up). He was so pleased that I recognized the name, knew the story and had a few moments to listen to his experience. While he talked his wife stood by beaming with pride. Try this sometime, you will enjoy it.

By: Charles Martel

Charles Martel — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 21:21:46 +0000

My dad, a paratrooper, fought in the North African, Sicilian and Italian campaigns. He was wounded three times, but all of them were flesh wounds. He was finally felled by malaria in 1944 and came within minutes of death when his temperature reached 108 degrees. He remembers through his delerium a young doctor saying in desperation, “Let’s put him in ice.” They did, and the treatment, almost unheard of at the time, lowered his temp enough to get him stabilized.

The malaria mustered him out of the service. He has suffered periodic bouts of fever and shakes from it for years (he turned 94 on June 2), but he never talks about the war.

He joined the Army days after Pearl Harbor and wrote home to my mother during basic training to say that he was studying to be a cook. She did not find out until until he came home in his uniform that he’d volunteered to become a paratrooper so that he could earn $20 extra per month in hazard pay.

They were an unbelievable generation, the ones of fought WWII. Thank God there are pockets of America, such as the South and the Midwest, that still produce young men like them.

By: Bookworm

Bookworm — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 20:30:22 +0000

You’re right, George. My uncle was one of those good men. I also think in terms of the evacuation from Crete — my dad was one of those good men — so I forget Italy.

By: Al

Al — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 09:59:02 +0000

Thanks for the post, BW.
A member of our parish flew 50 missions in the 8th Air Force’s B17s. He rotated stateside after that. His plane was shot down on the next mission. He thinks about it every day.
Al