WWII Vets - How Many Left?

[redhawker]

I was just thinking, as we just passed the 70th anniversary of VJ Day, I wonder how many WWII Vets are left now. My dad, thankfully still alive and in very good shape for 89 years old, was in the fight in the Navy from '44 to '45 when he was 18 and 19 years old. I know, in my dad's case they have a ship reunion every year, and he usually goes, but they're down to about a dozen or so of his shipmates left and the majority of those are not in any shape to travel any more. Interestingly enough some of the children of these sailors have gone along with their fathers the last several years and are keeping the reunions alive, at least so far, making them a sort of ship's crew and ship's crew's children reunion combined. Being that most who served were probably older then my dad I'm just curious if there is any statistic out there stating the number of WWII vets that are still around? Also, just out of curiosity, how many of our forum members served in WWII?

 

[Coogs]

According to statistics released by the Veterans Administration 492 are passing PER DAY with an estimated 855,070 remaining of the over 16 MILLION that served. God Bless them all, and all vets! Coogs.

 

[Bob Wright]

We have three WW II veterans, that I know of, as members of our church. One was a bombardier who by his story spent his missions bombing targets in Texas, testing bomb sights and bomb profiles. My sister spent her time as an instructor at Brooks Field, Texas, teaching instrument flying. Another man was with the Third Marine Division on Bouganville, Guam, and Iwo Jima.

This last man recently joined our church, after the death of my brother-in-law. My brother-in-law served with the Third Marine Division on Bouganville, Guam, and Iwo Jima. Can't help but wondering if the two ever met or at least passed one another during that time.

Bob Wright

 

[Rick Courtright]

Hi,

It's been a while since I ran into a WWII vet, despite the fact there are still a lot of folks in this area who are of the right age to have served. I wonder if they're just not getting out much any more due to infirmities, disease and the like. Average age of a WWII vet must be about 90 right now...

A client serves on an honor guard detail for local military funerals, and his group covers maybe a half dozen cemeteries. Riverside National Cemetery (RNC) is the closest, and busiest, one they serve. I believe he said RNC alone averages 3-4 services per day, a heavy percentage being WWII vets, and I think that's six if not seven days a week.

A few months ago, my brother in law and I were headed for the range after breakfast at our usual spot. An elderly Japanese gentleman was coming toward the door, with a younger woman, his daughter, helping him. He wore a ball cap that said 442nd Regimental Combat Team on it, so we stopped to talk to them. Unfortunately, the fellow was now deaf, but his daughter was kind enough to give us the nickel tour of his service. Two friends have now lost their Dads, also vets of the 442nd, and he kinda reminded me of them... Go for broke, guys!

The saddest part of losing these fellows so quickly now is there are far too many stories they brought home which should be recorded for posterity, but aren't. So every one who leaves us takes a valuable part of history we'll never know completely...

Rick C

 

[hickoryhillbill]

Rick the sad thing is a lot of them did not want to tell their stories. They just wanted to put it behind them. My Dad was one of them. Combat engineer 28th Div. Penn. National Guard . He finished out his career with the Air Force.

 

[Rick Courtright]

Rick the sad thing is a lot of them did not want to tell their stories. They just wanted to put it behind them.

Hi,

So true.

My BIL's Dad was like yours: he flew Corsairs (USMC) in the South Pacific, and we'd have never heard a word about his experience if the TV show "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" hadn't come on, giving us an opportunity to ask if it was even close to accurate. After he'd passed, I ran into a fellow who'd also been a Corsair driver in the Marines, and he told me what little my BIL's Dad had said was "a lot" compared to what most of the guys he'd known would say...

And Titan, I'd offer that ALL the stories warrant telling once. Then we can filter out which ones deserve retelling.

Rick C

 

[Wyandot Jim]

Rick the sad thing is a lot of them did not want to tell their stories. They just wanted to put it behind them. My Dad was one of them. Combat engineer 28th Div. Penn. National Guard . He finished out his career with the Air Force.

As with most wars, not all the stories warrant telling.

Well what you may not understand is. Most all the guys of that age group had a story that wasn't much different than the other Combat GIs just a different location.
I spent a lot of time at the VFW in the 50s with my dad who was a B-17 Ball Turret.
Gunner who flew 50 missions. I don't remember any saying they were not proud of what they did.
Most of the stories were the funny ones and the Ragging on each other for what they did. Dad was always Ragged on by the Infantry ( Gravel Agitators) and Marines (Sea Going Bellhops) since he was a Flyboy :wink: By the way Dad always said is Combat tour was the most fun enjoyable thing he ever did and with a great bunch of guys. He could still say that after being shot down twice.

 

[Bob Wright]

While on the subject, there was an obituary in the Memphis Commercial Appeal for a WW II veteran who served with an anti-aircraft battery in WW II. He was in a 90 mm AA battery, went ashore on D-Day and fought in Hertergen Forrest, the Bulge and into Germany. His unit was credited with downing eight German planes. Later he went into Korea, where his battery pioneered the use of the 90mm AA gun as a fire support gun for the infantry.

I meet WW II verteans each Tuesday as Nita and I grocery shop and always stop for a brief talk and extend my thanks for their service.

Bob Wright

 

[Wyandot Jim]

Over the last several years 10+ the Experimental Aircraft Association has been recording interviews with a lot of WWII vets along with others. In most of the cases they are just about what the guys did. Some exciting some not. But they all did something. Yea these are mostly Flyboy stories.

If interested give it a listen.

http://www.eaavideo.org/channel.aspx?ch=ch_timeless

 

[Jim Puke]

Jim,

I'm not denying the clearly dominant stories of heroism, or just plain execution of duty. But it would be crazy to suggest that there aren't more than a few WWII vets, who like many veterans of war, have things they'd rather not talk about.

It's a natural product of war and human nature.

Not to put words in Rick's mouth...so to speak...it seems as though he may be saying that these guys lived through this stuff, so they probably warrant telling...warts and all.

I don't think that he was suggesting that all of these stories will be fit for Sunday School. JMO

 

[wolfsong]

As long as there are humans alive on this earth, there will be wars. And there will always be the stories of the soldiers who fought those wars. Only the names and dates change.

 

[hesco]

Grandfather was a radar operator on ship in the navy, never talked about it.

 

[Bob Wright]

The thing about WW II is that it was indeed a world war. Even those who never saw an enemy soldier, enemy plane, or enemy ship, lived some unusual times. I remember one vet, now gone, who was a member of my church. He was older and married at the time, but served in a rear echelon unit in Tunisia. He told several times of seeing men traveling by camel, of women cooking out in front of their houses; things we see only in books or news broadcasts, or travel pictures.

Even the civilians of the time have their stories. The lady who works at the laundry cleaners where I take my shirts was a little girl in London during WW II, and remembers the air raids and the V-1 buzz bombs. One of my friends in the Army was in Amsterdam during WW II, a young boy at the time, saw his mother and sister shot and killed by the Nazis because they had let a sliver of light leak out during a blackout.

Bob Wright

 

[RugerHound]

My brothers and sister had a unique opportunity in 2007 to visit with my dad's cousin who fought in Italy. "Cousin Bud" was a downeast character known far and wide along the coast of Maine. He grew up on Mount Desert Island, the son of a fisherman. Buddy was a fisherman himself, as were his two boys. We had a reunion of us 7 kids in 2007, (Our first get together with all 7 of us in 47 years) and thankfully we did since my brother David (2nd Oldest) has since died, and Bryan (oldest) has suffered a series of strokes that have left him quite incapacitated.

During our visit, we stopped to see Buddy... Who was in his 90s then. Buddy was happy to see us, but it was pretty clear that he was suffering from some bit of mental degradation. I don't think he knew most of us, but he knew that we were "Dana's Dummies", his pet name for our Dad's crew. (If Buddy didn't insult you at least 13 times in a conversation, you didn't rate!)

Buddy repeated many of his one-liners such as "I'm just retired and enjoying poor health" ad nauseum, but he was pretty damned sharp about some things, including the loss of his son Raymond at sea many years ago. The authorities never found him, nor did anyone know where he was. We theorized he was hauling lobster traps and the winch hooked up on something on the sea floor and pulled the boat under. "I know where he is... I've always known where he is. No need to take him to the grave yard. The sea has him now, and he's at peace. No need to dredge him and the boat up at this point."

Buddy was always very pragmatic.

Being a history nut, I thought I'd pick Bud's brain a bit about his time in Italy during the war. We knew he was wounded several times, and brought home a bucketful of purple hearts. But we couldn't get anything out of him at all. "War is a hell of a thing. What the hell did we fight about? Look at where the country is today? What the hell good was it for? All those people dead, and for what?"

He was clearly pretty bitter. We knew from his sister (Evadna is still alive) that he was part of the invasion force at Salerno, and that he fought for months at Monte Casino. But we couldn't get anything out of him. When we pressed him, he'd just shake his head. "No... It ain't nothin' I'm gonna talk about. War is horrible. There ain't any glory in it. Just kill & be killed. And for what?"

Cousin Bud died a year later, and took his experiences to the grave with him.

With our blessings and thanks...

 

[Wyandot Jim]

Even the civilians of the time have their stories.

Yes a lot of these people are forgotten. Everybody in the US was involved in WWII one way or another. It could have been the rationing, speed limit of 35MPH. working in a plant to produce products for home and abroad.
My Grandmother took care of me while Mom was working in an aircraft plant. Dad was in the AAF. My one grandfather was a welder in different plants. My other Grandfather was a farmer that feed those that were working in the factories.
The only way for us that were not able to remember, as I, is to read about what took place on The Home Front. I find it both fascinating what was done and makes me proud to be an American.
Our Enemies didn't have a clue what we could do. What a bunch of dumb Basterds.

 

[Don Lovel]

Dad was on the Oklahoma Honor Flight last year, at age 89, I am sure glad to see he got the opportunity while he was still in good health to enjoy the experience.
Dad was 19yrs old in the spring of 1945 as a radio man in a half track in the Military Governor's group of the 9th Armored and they were in the middle of the action at Remagen Bridge across the Rhine at Ludendorf Germany.
If he was 19 at the end of the war in Europe, and is 89 now, can't be that many left alive

 

[Colonialgirl]

My Dad enlisted in the Navy in 1932 and re-upped when that enlistment ended; He was aboard the Lexington when she went looking for Amelia Earhart in the South Pacific, my Mom USE to have a couch pillow cover in silk with the Lexington on it (SURE wish I had it now !!). Then he was Stuck for the duration of WW2, never heard a shot fired in anger despite serving aboard the Wasp and the Hornet (Said he guessed God was looking after him).
He had an older cousin that had been a Medic in WW1 and would talk about crawling out on the battlefield among the shell craters to treat the wounded; Said he and the German medics would treat any soldier that needed help and would sometimes work side by side on their own soldiers.; Also said his uniform sometimes got so stiff with dried blood it was hard to bend it.
My uncle Jimmy was Airborne (don't remember if it was the 101 or 82nd) but he would never talk about his WW2 experiences.
My Dad passed away in 1997, my uncle Jimmy sometime after that.

 

[Rick Courtright]

Not to put words in Rick's mouth...so to speak...it seems as though he may be saying that these guys lived through this stuff, so they probably warrant telling...warts and all.

I don't think that he was suggesting that all of these stories will be fit for Sunday School. JMO

Hi,

Jim, you said it better than I tried to. Thanks!

Rick C

 

[45Colt_Man]

Dad joined while still in high school. Was an Army Air Corp Sergeant, spent time in England and France. Spent most of time welding fins on the engine cylinders. Said on D-Day any plane with a hole in it less than 8" they taped over to get it back in the air.
He didn't like to talk about about the war. Said the French would charge the american saving their butts three times what they charged the locals at the store. Wouldn't drink wine after he came back either, something to do with waking up in a ditch in France. :lol: :lol: Miss him.

Dana

 

[2Late45]

My Dad enlisted in the Navy in 1932 and re-upped when that enlistment ended; He was aboard the Lexington when she went looking for Amelia Earhart in the South Pacific, my Mom USE to have a couch pillow cover in silk with the Lexington on it (SURE wish I had it now !!). Then he was Stuck for the duration of WW2, never heard a shot fired in anger despite serving aboard the Wasp and the Hornet (Said he guessed God was looking after him).
He had an older cousin that had been a Medic in WW1 and would talk about crawling out on the battlefield among the shell craters to treat the wounded; Said he and the German medics would treat any soldier that needed help and would sometimes work side by side on their own soldiers.; Also said his uniform sometimes got so stiff with dried blood it was hard to bend it.
My uncle Jimmy was Airborne (don't remember if it was the 101 or 82nd) but he would never talk about his WW2 experiences.
My Dad passed away in 1997, my uncle Jimmy sometime after that.

The Hornet was justifiably proud of launching The Doolittle raid on Japan, also both the original Wasp and the Hornet,(CV-7,CV-8), were lost to enemy action in 42/43. Your Dad certainly was one of the fortunate ones.

 

[graygun]

I used to drink at a VFW in the early 80s and most of the guys were WW2 and Korea,very few Vietnam. Off the top of my head,recall a guy who was a engineer who landed at Normandy,a 82nd Abn(er),a very quiet Marine,a chain smoking,draft beer drinking C-47 "hump" flier and a guy who was a body guard for McArthur. Also remember two Korea vets,army tanker and a Navy air crew photographer/gunner.

My father was a "chairborne infantry" (his words) clerk with 10th Army HQ shipped to Okinawa in anticipation of the invasion of Japan. My mother's brother was a AAF mechanic in the Aleutians and a BIL on her side was a Marine.

 

[bogus bill]

I have only one of nine uncles left that was in world war two. Uncle Art is I think, 96 years old. Some were aunts husbands.