In Memoriam Give-away

Just wanted to say that this is a great give-away and congratulations to who ever wins.:thumbup:
Jim
 
This is is great give away and I can't believe you would want to part with that fine knife! I choose 777 if not taken. I would like to tell of my brother in more then one way. He was my warrior/Cherokee brother and most importantly my brother in Christ Jesus! His name was Gerald(Jerry) Webster. He was a very humble man, and never bragged on himself so I don't know any stories from his service in Vietnam. I new before he died that he was an Army Guard chopper pilot, but I did not know of him being a highly decorated Army chopper pilot until his funeral. I new he was a special man in life but when I walked into the funeral home the day of his burrial and seen boocoos of Army Rangers walking around I started getting a clue! At the eulogy I then found out about his great service to our Nation! This was my first of several military funerals. After we all got out to the grave, taps played and then the missing man helicopters flew over(three Blackhawks and one seperated Huey)! That was the first time I seen big manly type men weep including this one! God's speed my dear brother!!
 
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Great contest,
I will take 56 the age of my father when he passed. My father joined the Army at the age of 15 and served his duty in WWII in the US as a Drill Instructor. He left the Army as a Master Sargent. My uncle won a Medal of Valor in Italy but let the bottle win once he was back stateside. Alot people in my family did'nt like my uncle but he was always good to me.
RIP
Dad
Uncle Bob
 
STDK said:
Great contest,
I will take 56 the age of my father when he passed. My father joined the Army at the age of 15 and served his duty in WWII in the US as a Drill Instructor. He left the Army as a Master Sargent. My uncle won a Medal of Valor in Italy but let the bottle win once he was back stateside. Alot people in my family did'nt like my uncle but he was always good to me.
RIP
Dad
Uncle Bob
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Thank for sharing that piece of your family history STDK.
It reminds of the saying "All gave some, some gave all." The war doesn't always end just because you made it back to the states.
I'll include them both in my prayers tonight.
Dave
 
Thanks for the chance. I'll take 49. The age my father died. He served in the Airforce and went to Iwa Jima after the fighting to clean up. He never talked about it much. He talked more about being in the band and playing with I think Benny Goodman on occasion.My father played the Sax, and later the Clarinet. He would be proud of my daughter, now 12 getting pretty good at the Oboe.
 
I'd like to take # 568 please.

Both of my grandfathers served, and now my brother-in-law is Air Force. My Father-in-law is active duty as is his brother, and a few other of my wife's relatives (cousin, etc.).

The story I have though, is from someone not related to me. We got dispatched to a local nursing home late on a Saturday evening for a water leak. We were all grousing about how they should have called a plumber instead of 911, even though we were happy to help. After arriving we went upstairs and found that the water had been shut off already, and an older man was working to try and repair a leak on a shop vac to clean it up. I assumed he was the janitor until he stood up. He was about 80 years old, and was a resident at the nursing home. His room was currently being flooded by the overflowed toilet, and rather than sit around and complain he was trying to help the nursing staff get it resolved. We started helping and quickly got it all back as neat as we could.

The old man started talking to me. Like old men do, he grabbed my arm. It was like being stuck in a vice, I thought for sure I'd have bruises from it! He told me that he was a marine during the invasion of Guam, and that they had 'lots of sand, lots of snakes, and lots of japs, but we never had nothing like this!'. We all got a good laugh out of that. He told us he wished he had some of the sand bags he had filled back then to stem the tide.

On the way out, he shook each of our hands and thanked us. I was ready for him and gave him a firm grip in reply. One of the other guys didn't know what he was in for and got his knuckles popped when he limp wristed the tough old guy. He chuckled and asked for a do-over on the hand shake.

It just goes to show that they weren't called the greatest generation for nothing!
 
801, to remember my father-in-law who left part of an arm and a leg in Germany.
RIP Stew!!
 
Thanks for your generous offer, Todd. I’ll pick 341.

My Dad was a Navy Machinist’s Mate during the Hitler war. Here’s a letter he wrote to my Mother, in the wind up for D Day. He explained, “Since I was on a destroyer escort our letters were not highly censored.”

May 28, 1944, Sunday.

Dear Ronnie,

It is a beautiful warm calm day here in the Belfast Harbor, but it seems that this is liable to be what they call the calm before the storm. The harbor is full of warships and they say that every port in Scotland and England is the same way. We have anchored close to us three battleships-the Texas, Arkansas, and the Nevada, four cruisers-the Quincy, the Marblehead, the Tuscaloosa, and the Wichita. In addition there are 21 destroyers and two destroyer escorts besides us. Besides that the limey's have four ships and the French a couple of ships. If every Great Britain port is as crowded with ships as this place is, it all adds up to one hell of a lot of ships and guns and men.

May 29, 1944, Monday.

I stopped writing to go to a show. There were two pretty good pictures of which I enjoyed the first, "Good Morning Judge," best. It was a comedy with a theme of business woman falls in love and stops being a business woman. The second picture was a murder thriller and had a few good points, such as plenty of pretty girls.

A liberty party went ashore today with the choice of either Belfast or Bangor to be landed at. We are in Bangor Harbor, but both towns face the banks of this harbor. One fellow was going to see if he can send a telegram for me and a couple more said they would try to find a souvenir of some kind for me. Maybe I will get something out of the deal. Time will tell. The boys have to ride ashore in a liberty boat and liberty expires at 10 PM.

An electrician standing watch with me last night is one of the boys I went to boot camp with. He was telling me about the time he spent in Great Lakes and Portsmouth Naval prisons since I saw him last. He went over the hill for 11 days and spent 11 months behind bars because of it. The reason he went over the hill was because he got lonesome for his girlfriend. Kenny Kalbfresh wrote me that he got himself in a little jam out on the West Coast. He got so drunk ashore that he overstayed his liberty and missed his ship. He did some brig time, he says, and is now aboard a different ship.

I just finished washing all my clothes. It was a good hour's work getting all the dirt out. I'm glad to say the clothes are now drying on our engine room wash line. Have to wash about once a week because if I leave them go any longer than that I don't have any clean clothes to wear.

We will be here probably another two or three days from the looks of things. We've been getting instructions in first aid and have been warned to get our life belts in shape to use. Our steaming watches are changed so that as soon as we get underway, we will be standing four on and four off. That's the condition between war cruising and general quarters, and by standing watches like that all guns will be manned if it would be necessary to call us to general quarters at the first show of trouble. I still stand my watch in the aft engine room, but no longer have charge of the watch. I'm only a second class and they are now two first class now in charge.

Love,
Clyde
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knowtracks said:
Thank for sharing that piece of your family history STDK.
It reminds of the saying "All gave some, some gave all." The war doesn't always end just because you made it back to the states.
I'll include them both in my prayers tonight.
Dave
Click to expand...

Knowtracks,
Thank you for the prayers, they truly are appreciated.
 
I'll take 876.

It didn't really hit home to me until my cousin died in Iraq. Stray shrapnel from a roadside bomb caught him between the seams of his vest. The car ride to the cemetary was lined like a parade up one side and down the other with people...complete straners. Some waved flags, some wore uniforms of service gone by, and one gentleman held the tightest salute that I've ever seen until we were way out of eyesight.

God bless!
 
Thanks for a great and worthy comp.

I'll take 379and pay the extra overseas mail cost if I win.

My father was born in Poland and was trained as a Medic by the Polish Army. After being a guest of both the Nazis & the Russians he eventually arrived in the UK in 1942 and joined the British Army. The Royal Army Medical Corp grabbed him as a trained man & that gave him British citizenship. Most of his family back in Poland did not survive.

He was sent to Edinburgh, Scotland for training where my Mum was an Ambulance Driver. She and her sister were keen on dating Polish servicemen because they were extremely polite and according to my Mum, good kissers, apparently.

He spent most of the next 3 years as an RAMC NCO in West Africa.

Like so many others, he somehow managed to establish and foster a normal family life after the war and with my Mum gave my sister & I the set of values we live by and have passed onto our kids.

I'd like to think that if I were tested to such a degree as he was I would meet his standards.

David
 
Great Contest Todd in honor of your Great uncle Earnest with a really fine knife most apropos as the give-a-way prize!.

This is a very gracious and considerate gesture here!. Thanks for encouraging us to remember all the many soldiers who gave 'all' for there buddies and ultimately the rest of us and the country. Its a real fine way to honor all our kinfolk who fought and died for country they loved.

I to had an uncle who was killed in action in WWII. My uncle Clint. He was USAF pilot. Here is to his memory. :thumbup: I salute him! Several of my uncles served in Korea as well. My father served between Korea and Vietnam. And friends of mine in the Gulf War. I salute them all!. :thumbup:

I am also inclined to remember my Grandfather Candeloro who fought in WWI circa 1917..

f2vgub.jpg



-- May I please have number: 656


Anthony
 
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My father skippered a patrol craft and my uncle was a PT-boat squadron commander in New Guinea so I guess you could say I'm from a Navy family.

Wonderful tribute to those who secured our freedom.

#809 for me, please.
 
Hey Todd I'll take 333, my Grandfather gave me My first knife when I was back in Hungary visitin' as a kid back in the early '70s.

I'll remember all the fallen on the 8th and nearly every other day too.
 
The gentleman from Goleta picks=====> 62

My father served on BB-62 last part of WWII (Radioman)
2 of his brothers were in Pearl harbor
BattleshipNewJerseyBB62Pan.jpg

As I kid he would tell me about how when she fired the big guns the whole boat would rock
I only learned after he died, that the New Jersey pounded Wake Island
He told me about the signing ceremony with the fleet in Tokyo Bay

My father admired 2 people the most:
Caesar Chavez and Admiral Halsey
He would sit around drinkin' his Burgie beer and tell me how great those men were
It really had an impact on me
I hope to visit BB-62 in New Jersey someday....

I try and reflect on those who fought wars every Memorial Day
I really like going to the parades
Nothing is more Pure Americana to me than a Memorial Day parade in some small town somewhere.....

My father and his 6 brothers came from very poor, rural Conejos County, Colorado
They all got the GI bill and got masters and PHD's
You always think of the bad things of war
But, I guess having a way to pay for college is a "good" thing among all the horror??

GREAT contest "topic":thumbup:
Thanks for having the contest
If I win I wil give it to my 9 yr old nephew
He was born after my father passed away and he has two of his grandpa's knives that I gave him
 
I have already entered but although not of WWII, I would to take time to remember my brother Butch and brother in law Bob. Butch was a member of the Air Cavalry, he was helicoptered in to hotspots all over Vietnam and was almost always in constant battle, if you saw the Mel Gibson movie "We Were Soldiers" that is what he did. Life would get rough for him after his years in the service as he was taughtened by people who worked with him as a "Baby Killer" and other remarks that really took a toll on him. He did raise a family of 4 wonderful kids but succumed to lung and brain cancer that was caused by Agent orange. RIP Bro.
Bob was a career service man, he was a giant of a man 6:3" and 320 pounds and had the real "Military Attitude" about him when we met. But after living in Kentucky, we turned him into a big lovable bear. He never told me about his time in Viet Nam but I do know he caught hepatitus and it eventually was the cause of his death.
So they both ended up being casualties of war, it just took longer.
 
My father missed WW2 he was just under the age.I remember him telling me most of his
friends in high school made the draft. He was very disapointed at the fact he couldn't go.
What a good way too remember V E day thank you Todd #603
 
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311 for me. My grandfather served in the pacific during WWII I never got to meet him he died 26years before I was born, but when my grandma passed I inherited one thing I carry every day, it is a silver peso 1909 from the phillipines that he got during the war and carried every day until he died everytime I hold it I wish I could have met him.
 
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