Shook the hand of some disappearing history today. WW2 vet

[Tallbald]

Penny and I made it to Ryan's lunch buffet today. Ate more fried chicken than I should have. About halfway into our meal a fragile looking but proudly standing old man with a walker entered the place. I saw him before Miss Penny and pointed out to her his vet hat. Watched him be seated and a staff member arrived shortly to help him out which Penny and I had decided to offer had there been nobody so quick to arrive.
The staff lady got his stuff and meal choices together. He sat alone as if he was used to it. I took a chance and approached him. Apologized for interrupting his meal, to which he replied "that's fine" and smiled with vintage looking dentures and kinda cloudy eyes I associated with age. I gestured to his hat and told him my wife and I appreciated his long ago service. Asked him and he said was in Belgium and the tail end of The Bulge. Said he appreciated our thanks but that he wasn't doing anything different from anyone else there. Gracious modesty I rather expected. I concluded by telling him I was honored to shake his hand.
Waitress said he was a regular and that she worried each day if he didn't show up. A widower? Old bachelor? Who knows what his story was. But it wasn't my place to ask. It WAS however our place to tell him we appreciated what he did.
Don

 

[contender]

Yep,,, not many of those old warriors left. But by stopping & speaking to him,,, you did let him know he wasn't totally alone & was appreciated.

 

[Mobuck]

Last year, I had the privilege of interviewing a WW-2 veteran. After the Q&A, we had close to an hour of just chatting about our lives and things that happened "back then". He was one of the younger men who caught the very end of the war and so was not all that much older than myself.
I escorted Mom to a couple of Dad's WW2 unit re-unions after he died. After some "break-in time" I was accepted into the group and heard many of the stories that Dad had not told me. There were veterans at those unit re-unions from WW2 through OIF so some were actually younger than me.
I'm proud to have met these men and to have been accepted as an equal. Not many around here anymore. I sometimes attend the "Veterans breakfast" at one of the local food stores with MIL's "friend" (Korea era) and don't think there were any WW2 vets there last year.

 

[Brules]

My uncle was a WWII vet. Even though he didn't see duty overseas, he had some great stories. He was a guard at a POW camp in Colorado (I think) and showed me a letter he received from one of the Italian POW's thanking him for being so kind to them. The letter invited him to Italy after the war to meet the POW's family. He said the Italians were much nicer to deal with than the Germans. He claimed the Germans were very arrogant. What the Germans didn't know is my uncle was of German heritage. My uncle died at the age of 103.

 

[bogus bill]

I still have one uncle alive that was in the bulge. Uncle Art is around 99. He still has a sharp mind. He was a MP dog man. He told me he was assigned to drive General Patton a few times. I assume that might have been because he spoke German as he is first generation German American and dad said they didn't learn English until they went to school. I heard Art was the first draftee in our county. He froze his feet in the Bulge. He went through the entire war. Time creeps up. I recall when I took for granite that almost all old relatives and older men I seen were likely World War two vets. I was born April of 1941 and well recall all my uncles returning home from the war in what seemed like within a month. Seemed like a new uncle was always showing up that I never seen before. I recall a lot of partying going on. I had about eight uncles in.

 

[jic]

My Dad once told me that we are loosing ww2 vets at 500 a day.
He was a ww2 vet, B-17 tail gunner, he passed away a little over 4 yrs ago at 95.
He would have been 100 in June of this year.

 

[Don Lovel]

My uncle Don that I am named after was in Southern Belgium in that same time frame in 101st Infantry.
Counter attack by the Nazis huge mortar barrage he was wounded, died in Normandy hospital

 

[tom black]

Don your a good and decent man.
Tom Black

 

[Wyandot Jim]

Son has flown a few WWII Vets. He was going to fly another a couple of weeks ago when I was in Corpus but the whether was to bad :( :(
From is Facebook page.
"Honored to fly 3 generations today! 91 yr old WWII SBD Dauntless gunner, 12 yr old female 1st time flyer, Adventurer/Writer female 1st time flyer."

Here is a good news item on a WWII Vet
http://www.fox13news.com/news/local-news/236287607-story

 

[Danjet500]

Penny and I made it to Ryan's lunch buffet today. Ate more fried chicken than I should have. About halfway into our meal a fragile looking but proudly standing old man with a walker entered the place. I saw him before Miss Penny and pointed out to her his vet hat. Watched him be seated and a staff member arrived shortly to help him out which Penny and I had decided to offer had there been nobody so quick to arrive.
The staff lady got his stuff and meal choices together. He sat alone as if he was used to it. I took a chance and approached him. Apologized for interrupting his meal, to which he replied "that's fine" and smiled with vintage looking dentures and kinda cloudy eyes I associated with age. I gestured to his hat and told him my wife and I appreciated his long ago service. Asked him and he said was in Belgium and the tail end of The Bulge. Said he appreciated our thanks but that he wasn't doing anything different from anyone else there. Gracious modesty I rather expected. I concluded by telling him I was honored to shake his hand.
Waitress said he was a regular and that she worried each day if he didn't show up. A widower? Old bachelor? Who knows what his story was. But it wasn't my place to ask. It WAS however our place to tell him we appreciated what he did.
Don

Good for you. I try to do the same when I have the opportunity.

I had three uncles in the service during WWII. Two in the Navy and one in the Army. Both of my grandfathers served in the Army in WWI. All gone but certainly still remembered.

 

[Merle1948]

Penny and I made it to Ryan's lunch buffet today. Ate more fried chicken than I should have. About halfway into our meal a fragile looking but proudly standing old man with a walker entered the place. I saw him before Miss Penny and pointed out to her his vet hat. Watched him be seated and a staff member arrived shortly to help him out which Penny and I had decided to offer had there been nobody so quick to arrive.
The staff lady got his stuff and meal choices together. He sat alone as if he was used to it. I took a chance and approached him. Apologized for interrupting his meal, to which he replied "that's fine" and smiled with vintage looking dentures and kinda cloudy eyes I associated with age. I gestured to his hat and told him my wife and I appreciated his long ago service. Asked him and he said was in Belgium and the tail end of The Bulge. Said he appreciated our thanks but that he wasn't doing anything different from anyone else there. Gracious modesty I rather expected. I concluded by telling him I was honored to shake his hand.
Waitress said he was a regular and that she worried each day if he didn't show up. A widower? Old bachelor? Who knows what his story was. But it wasn't my place to ask. It WAS however our place to tell him we appreciated what he did.
Don

That was a very nice thing you did, and probably the highlight of his day. :D

 

[Merle1948]

My Dad once told me that we are loosing ww2 vets at 500 a day.
He was a ww2 vet, B-17 tail gunner, he passed away a little over 4 yrs ago at 95.
He would have been 100 in June of this year.

Not long ago it was 2,000 a day - guess that means there aren't that many left. :cry:

 

[BearBio]

About 35 years ago, my boss brought his mother to the office to show it to her and take her to lunch. When we shook hands, I noticed a tattoo on her wrist==six digits preceded by a capital "A". Being a student of history, I knew what it meant. After lunch, I asked Herb why she didn't have it removed. Was she afraid she'd forget? He answered "She keeps it so others don't forget!"

Being in my mid-sixties now I remember we had a Scout Master (dad of a friend) who had survived the Bataan Death March. I had a Lodge Brother who was on PT boats and another who was part of the bridge crew on a DE off Okinawa when the were kamikazed.

My youngest brother still says the Holocaust is a myth.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

My youngest brother still says the Holocaust is a myth

.

Curious as to how he could believe that. He would have to be a complete idiot to think like that. How old is he???

 

[bogus bill]

I used to work with a far right wing guy. He believed that too. He also was a bit actor. I had a uncle that was with the first group of guys that stumbled on a concentration camp and they liberated it. I dont know which one it was but he told me about it when I was a boy.

 

[Colonialgirl]

When I'm at the VA Hospital or even out grocery shopping and I see and old vet with a cap that says Korea or a unit from WW2, I always greet them and spend a few minutes chatting with them. They always smile when I tell them I served in Korea from 1967-1968 and am very happy I never had to fight a war there.
Had an uncle that had been a Paratrooper in WW2, forget if it was the 101st or the 82nd, but he never talked about it . He was also 1/2 Cherokee.

 

[mistermills357]

I had a friend who was a Normandy vet, he was as deaf as a post, and most people avoided him. We became buddies and he told me about some of his battles there in Normandy.
The one that I remember is when an SS man, jumped him from the branches of a tree and tried to kill him with a knife.
Turns out it was a young man of about 16, but he still tried to kill him, and it is a wonder that he didn't.

 

[turd]

Good of you to visit with the man and thank him, Tallbald.

My dad is 90, navy veteran of WWII. He was 17 when he enlisted, had his parents sign for him so he could get in. Was in late '44, so he wasn't in long before it was over. He served on a destroyer, I think, part of a group accompanying freighters with supplies. Didn't see any action so to speak, but spent some time in Singapore at the very end of the war. One of the few remaining around here, when he goes to the VA hospital, they treat him like royalty.

Don't know how much longer he'll be here, has a very weak heart (heart attack years ago). Will miss him when he goes. Great guy, loved to hunt geese and ducks. Taught my brother and I an awful lot about the outdoors and how to be a man. Not too many like that anymore.........