D Day

[old breed]

i've been thinking all day about this site. the people we have known and their stories that will probably die with us. my kids were young below 25 when their grandparents passed. they don't appreciate history. it's boring and that's our fault and the crappy public education system as well. you've got to have roots and you need role models and for inspiration you need God and heroes and heroines. i encourage my grand kids to read biographies historical fiction and the like. you know what they want to read? fantasy. once in a while they want me to tell them a story usually about their parents. they want to get some dirt on them. anyway it's an opportunity. all these things about our country ,memorial day , veterans day.pearl harbor,d- day, are great opportunities to ask questions and give answers. all of you out there have rubbed shoulders with heros who are pleased to live unremarkable lives. they need to know about old mr. heffner who loves music but as a young man he was in the second wave at omaha beach. or cloman bogart aeronautical engineer who was a navigator/bombardier on a B 24, shot down , prisoner of war who was on the german death march and ate bugs to survive. my kids knew this man because in his retirement he was doing electrical work for us. while eating lunch daughter no.2 spied a bug and threw a fit . bogie just had a big smile on his face and said bugs aren't bad. no explanation, little did i know .

 

[The.Tumbleweed]

It is not D Day but worth a look.
I am a few chapters in. Amazing information.
This is book 1 of a 3 book series.
Author also published the book
SIX FRIGATES.

View attachment 74820

Remember, each ship sank is a loss of nearly a thousand men, Battleships, and aircraft carriers are a loss of a minimum 4000 men.

 

[The.Tumbleweed]

I had an uncle who piloted a glider on D-Day, then became just another infantryman in his unit. He remained unscathed until the Battle of the Bulge, losing an eye to German artillery at Bastogne. He had a tough and seemingly very unhappy life. In Vietnam I served as a Captain in my uncle's old unit, the 101st Airborne Division and I was told that he bragged to everyone he knew about his nephew being an officer in his WWII unit. I was a young officer, with a growing family, and more than a busy life and I so regret not getting to know this uncle a bit better, and maybe I would have had the chance to hear from him some of his experiences during WWII. He died a relatively young man in his early fifties.

I had an uncle that was the aid to Omar Bradley, my father was in the Korean war, and another uncle in Viet Nam ..... all gone now.

Navy and Army veteran. Fortunately, I barely missed Viet Nam because of a broken foot, and spent my enlistments as a "cold warrior", I even missed Desert Shield by 24 hours, and similar for Desert Storm.

Apparently, God has other plans for me.

 

[old breed]

Remember, each ship sank is a loss of nearly a thousand men, Battleships, and aircraft carriers are a loss of a minimum 4000 men.

my uncle ralph was on the franklin. he lived but was never the same.

 

[steveodtw]

Remember, each ship sank is a loss of nearly a thousand men, Battleships, and aircraft carriers are a loss of a minimum 4000 men.

I just watched the movie Jaws again and the re-telling of the story of the USS Indianapolis loss. What a horror!

 

[old breed]

Remember, each ship sank is a loss of nearly a thousand men, Battleships, and aircraft carriers are a loss of a minimum 4000 men.

if you ever get a chance to go to pearl harbor there is so much to see. they have a very large memorial to the submarines lost with all the crew members names on bronze plaques. sobering .

 

[old breed]

Remember, each ship sank is a loss of nearly a thousand men, Battleships, and aircraft carriers are a loss of a minimum 4000 men.

i experienced being locked in our compartment during general quarters. fire on ship near the magazine. uss inchon 1972. i can understand the terror of being sealed alive in a metal coffin

 

[RC44Mag]

I just watched the movie Jaws again and the re-telling of the story of the USS Indianapolis loss. What a horror!

If you're interested in reading a great book about the Indianapolis this one fits the bill. Quint told a great short story but this is it from start to finish. you could find it elsewhere of course just for the cover, title and author. You can likely get it though your local library.
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/in-harms-way-doug-stanton/1005492387

 

[RC44Mag]

i experienced being locked in our compartment during general quarters. fire on ship near the magazine. uss inchon 1972. i can understand the terror of being sealed alive in a metal coffin

Based on your screen name USMC I presume?

 

[old breed]

Based on your screen name USMC I presume?

yes, 0849, naval gunfire FO

 

[old breed]

If you're interested in reading a great book about the Indianapolis this one fits the bill. Quint told a great short story but this is it from start to finish. you could find it elsewhere of course just for the cover, title and author. You can likely get it though your local library.
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/in-harms-way-doug-stanton/1005492387

there is the movie about it with nicholas cage, USS indianapolis men of courage, 2016

 

[The.Tumbleweed]

i experienced being locked in our compartment during general quarters. fire on ship near the magazine. uss inchon 1972. i can understand the terror of being sealed alive in a metal coffin

I was on The JFK CV67. My battle station was in the engine room, and shaft alleys .....47 feet below the waterline. Every sound in the water can be heard through the hull.

 

[RC44Mag]

I remember seeing it but dont recall if I liked it or not, with Cage likely not. This book goes into great details that you won’t see in a movie as you know. Definitely worth a read. Semper Fi Marine.

 

[old breed]

I was on The JFK CV67. My battle station was in the engine room, and shaft alleys .....47 feet below the waterline. Every sound in the water can be heard through the hull.

the least likely place i'd want to be nads as hard as the crankshafts you worked on

 

[The.Tumbleweed]

the least likely place i'd want to be nads as hard as the crankshafts you worked on

Only a tad sobering when you touch the hull, and know the water is only an inch away.

 

[Jeepnik]

There is a book, written by one of the Indianapolis survivors that was much more realistic and also covered shipboard life in explicit detail.

 

[old breed]

Only a tad sobering when you touch the hull, and know the water is only an inch away.

46' below waterline. sounds like a submarine with out the top. 1" thick ,i kind of think about aircraft the same way. good thing God is closer than that.

 

[Watertender]

I was on The JFK CV67. My battle station was in the engine room, and shaft alleys .....47 feet below the waterline. Every sound in the water can be heard through the hull.

In the land of the Snipe! Just remember, everyone else is just along for the ride! I knew a crusty old 1st Class Boilermaker with red hashmarks from wrist to elbow who told a Commander that if wanted his ship to move he had better not bother him. I guess the Commander reported the Boilermaker to the Engineering Officer who told the Commander to step wide around Boilermaker and his ship would sail with no problem.

I learned a lot from him and when I became Chief Engineer tried to run my Powerhouse in that manner.I had the best fed crew and taught them that I gave them the credit and would take the blame for anything that happened. Everyone stepped wide around me and we handled all problems in house until a couple of months before I retired. That was when 2 morons got to fighting and went to management and the union to blow each other in.

 

[eveled]

Anyone know what this patch was from?

 

[WendyZXZ]

I never heard much from my kin about their service or much information. My husband and his brother did the research on their dad, he was a plank owner on the U.S.S. Gambier Bay and went swimming for a bit after the ship was sunk in the Battle Off Samar. He died when both of them were kids so never lived long enough where he would speak about his time in service.

 

[Watertender]

^^^ Navy Fireman Pipefitter Striker. Pipefitter was a rate from 1948 to 1958 and was rolled into Hull Technician from what I was told by a 1st Class Pipefitter. I have the rating badges from 2 deceased friends who were Boilermaker 1st Class and Pipefitter 1st Class

 

[The.Tumbleweed]

In the land of the Snipe! Just remember, everyone else is just along for the ride! I knew a crusty old 1st Class Boilermaker with red hashmarks from wrist to elbow who told a Commander that if wanted his ship to move he had better not bother him. I guess the Commander reported the Boilermaker to the Engineering Officer who told the Commander to step wide around Boilermaker and his ship would sail with no problem.

I learned a lot from him and when I became Chief Engineer tried to run my Powerhouse in that manner.I had the best fed crew and taught them that I gave them the credit and would take the blame for anything that happened. Everyone stepped wide around me and we handled all problems in house until a couple of months before I retired. That was when 2 morons got to fighting and went to management and the union to blow each other in.
View attachment 74955

We actually walked off the ship, and sat on the pier, just to get Cinderella liberty. Our CO at the time seemed to schedule the ship to pull into ports, for just enough time that the engineering sections got screwed out of liberty.
Not a lot they can do about it when the ship goes cold. It ain't goin' nowhere.
We did get our liberty, but there was hell to pay after.
Soon after, we got a new CO.
The new CO was a former engineering officer.
We may get hungry. We may get no sleep.
By God we got liberty.
The ship's not goin' nowhere without the men that sail below..

 

[old breed]

Anyone know what this patch was from? View attachment 74986

understand i'm a marine but i'm pretty sure it has something to do with the navy dentists that took care of us

 

[The.Tumbleweed]

understand i'm a marine but i'm pretty sure it has something to do with the navy dentists that took care of us

Yeah, I feel your pain there.

 

[vito]

There are literally thousands of official patches of all kinds that were present during WWII and since then, both individual rank and other insignia as well as unit patches. While some of those are still in existence today, such as the 82nd Airborne Division or the 101st Airborne, there were literally thousands of units that were disbanded at the end of the war, never to be resurrected. I assume that there are collections of those unit patches somewhere in some WWII museums, but I doubt that anyone or anyplace has a complete collection.

I well recall that when I was a young officer in the Army in the 1960's, and traveling in uniform, I would meet middle aged WWII veterans who would want to talk about the units that they served in, or bases that they were trained at or assigned to, and I would have to tell them that to the best of my knowledge those places and units no longer existed. The discomfort that this knowledge gave these veterans was often very visible. They often could not imagine that some little base in Texas or somewhere that was so critical to their early life was no longer a reality. Nowadays I am that old veteran who sometime laments the changes today from what I remember during my 24 years of active duty which ended 35 years ago. I have a niece married to an active duty E7 whose Army is radically different from the one that I remember. And I chuckle at the uniforms that the Army now wears, thinking they are very reminiscent of the WWII era that I think of as so old fashioned compared to what I wore.

 

[old breed]

There are literally thousands of official patches of all kinds that were present during WWII and since then, both individual rank and other insignia as well as unit patches. While some of those are still in existence today, such as the 82nd Airborne Division or the 101st Airborne, there were literally thousands of units that were disbanded at the end of the war, never to be resurrected. I assume that there are collections of those unit patches somewhere in some WWII museums, but I doubt that anyone or anyplace has a complete collection.

I well recall that when I was a young officer in the Army in the 1960's, and traveling in uniform, I would meet middle aged WWII veterans who would want to talk about the units that they served in, or bases that they were trained at or assigned to, and I would have to tell them that to the best of my knowledge those places and units no longer existed. The discomfort that this knowledge gave these veterans was often very visible. They often could not imagine that some little base in Texas or somewhere that was so critical to their early life was no longer a reality. Nowadays I am that old veteran who sometime laments the changes today from what I remember during my 24 years of active duty which ended 35 years ago. I have a niece married to an active duty E7 whose Army is radically different from the one that I remember. And I chuckle at the uniforms that the Army now wears, thinking they are very reminiscent of the WWII era that I think of as so old fashioned compared to what I wore.

i like the new uniform look for the army. but i'm prejudiced nothing looks sharper than a crayon eater in dress blues

 

[Watertender]

i like the new uniform look for the army. but i'm prejudiced nothing looks sharper than a crayon eater in dress blues

Does the 64 count box of Crayola crayons confuse you or do you stick with the basic 8 count box? Semper Fi!!!

 

[old breed]

Does the 64 count box of Crayola crayons confuse you or do you stick with the basic 8 count box? Semper Fi!!!

do not eat the black ones, i say again don't eat the BLACK ones

 

[41Dude]

do not eat the black ones, i say again don't eat the BLACK ones

Do not tell me what to do. I am too busy eating my Play-Doh

 

[Jeepnik]

Yeah, I feel your pain there.

Trust me it ain't just navy dentist. One botched my impacted wisdom teeth removal. Made such a mess, then tried to hide it, I ended up going septic and spending time in the hospital.

What I didn't know as an 18 year old airman was medical officers could bet the military to pay for school then have to serve to pay it back, so to speak. These types of officers are just marking time. And couldn't care less about their patients.

Now understand this. Those types of medical professionals are an extremely small minority. I worked and was, at various times, treated by some of the most professional and dedicated medical folks. Heck, if it weren't for them I'd have been dead at 19 instead of still haunting this forum.