Dad was pretty lucky when he served in WWII. He'd been working for the FCC prior to being drafted and then was transfered to the OSS after training to serve in Sicily, maintaining contact with agents on Malta and I believe the Italian mainland. Spent the war in a nice hotel room and never was shot at.
The unit he trained with wasn't so lucky. They were on a transport taking them from England to France in December of '44, when it was torpedoed by a German U-Boat. A lot of the men he trained with drowned when the ship sank and the crew fled in the lifeboats. You can read about it in Clive Cussler's non-fiction book The Sea Hunters which how my dad found out about it.
After the war he used the G.I. Bill to get a proper college degree from the South Dakota School of Mines and Engineering, and went to work in DC where he met my mom. He didn't talk much about the war, not because he was ashamed or suffered in any way, but just because he wasn't the sort to toot his own horn.
My uncles didn't talk about it much until I asked them either. They didn't want to remember and like your own father, they saw it as 'tooting their own horn', which was to be avoided.
Yeah, the glowing foxes were certainly one of the weirder plans the OSS came up with.
And if I remember right, several thousand Japanese civilians killed themselves at Suicide Cliff after the Japanese military commande rtold them that if they surrendered they would be shaming their families before the Emperor, and besides the Americans would just torture them all to death anyway. It's believed by some historians that events like that were what helped convince the US to use the atomic bombs on Japan rather than invade.
My uncles knew some guys who saw worse things than they ever did -- like first US Army into Buchenwald and guys who went throught he Bataan Death March. My uncles used to wonder how those guys ever stayed sane.
My Uncle George, who drove the landing ship at Omaha Beach, told me once that on one day he saw more young men die than he ever thought existed in the whole world. And that when General Sherman said that War was Hell, it was only because he didn't know any worse swear words.
And I had another uncle at Omaha beach, though he didn't become one until after the war by marrying my mother's sister. Uncle Suell served as a field medic; since he was a Moravian (Pietist Church), he didn't even carry a pistol, but he treated woudned and dying men all day long. I figured Mom's side of the family deserved a mention too.
America's young men came home horribly wounded in mind and spirit at the end of WW 2, more so than was realized or admitted by psychologists, psychiatrists, and military officials. In many cases, they simply dosed themselves with liquor and other alcoholic beverages, keeping the memories at bay that way so they could go to their jobs and earn what was needed to feed and clothe and house their families. A great deal of alcoholism came about among them as a result. Long-term drinkers often black out and do things while out of it that they would never do sober, sometimes to their wives and children. The hordes of runaways of the 1960s came about in large part because of that, but no authorities would admit it, because they didn't want to shame our veterans. And up until the last couple of decades, there were no reliable ways to alleviate the suffering of those veterans with the judicious use of prescription drugs. Men were expected to keep such things to themselves, and liquor was approved of, so . . . Two and three generations
( ... )
Wow! This is a piece of history that would be unlikely to be shown on TV or in the movies because it's "just too weird" -- but most of the real world is that world. We just screen it out and carry on as best we can, but if we stop to think about things, we start remembering, and the weirdness presents itself to us again.
I hope someday this ends up in a book on what families have preserved of what uncles, fathers, brothers, etc. told them about the wars of the 20th century, and handed them down to the following generations. This is . . . riveting. At least.
Comments 20
The unit he trained with wasn't so lucky. They were on a transport taking them from England to France in December of '44, when it was torpedoed by a German U-Boat. A lot of the men he trained with drowned when the ship sank and the crew fled in the lifeboats. You can read about it in Clive Cussler's non-fiction book The Sea Hunters which how my dad found out about it.
After the war he used the G.I. Bill to get a proper college degree from the South Dakota School of Mines and Engineering, and went to work in DC where he met my mom. He didn't talk much about the war, not because he was ashamed or suffered in any way, but just because he wasn't the sort to toot his own horn.
Reply
And thanks for reading it!
Reply
And yee, I also did not know that, regards Suicide Cliff. o_o
Reply
And if I remember right, several thousand Japanese civilians killed themselves at Suicide Cliff after the Japanese military commande rtold them that if they surrendered they would be shaming their families before the Emperor, and besides the Americans would just torture them all to death anyway. It's believed by some historians that events like that were what helped convince the US to use the atomic bombs on Japan rather than invade.
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
BTW, I like the Calientra LJ userpic.
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
Reply
Reply
And I had another uncle at Omaha beach, though he didn't become one until after the war by marrying my mother's sister. Uncle Suell served as a field medic; since he was a Moravian (Pietist Church), he didn't even carry a pistol, but he treated woudned and dying men all day long. I figured Mom's side of the family deserved a mention too.
Reply
Reply
I hope someday this ends up in a book on what families have preserved of what uncles, fathers, brothers, etc. told them about the wars of the 20th century, and handed them down to the following generations. This is . . . riveting. At least.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment