Old 666 - WWII saga

[Codger_64]

I never cease to be amazed and inspired by the heroism and ingenuity of the Greatest Generation, my father's generation during WWII. Dad chafed and chomped the bit to join when Pearl Harbor was attacked. But he was too young to join. Almost two years passed before his seventeenth birthday when he slipped out of the house in Russellville Arkansas, caught a bus and enlisted in the Navy. During those two years, as the news of the young men out there fighting on the land, sea and air filled the airwaves and newspapers, Dad clipped pictures of ships and planes from Life Magazine and glued them to the overhead of the stairwell leading to the basement workshop. Those pictures were still there in my early childhood and as I grew up, I came to understand what they meant, and what they meant to Dad as a boy. Dad served aboard CA-71 U.S.S. Quincy in both theatres, saw Roosevelt and Churchill and the "Sheik of Araby" aboard his ship, was there on D-Day and in Tokyo Bay for the Japanese surrender. Then he came home. Those pictures were there when the old house was torn down after Dad died in the late 80's.

Several of the pictures Dad pasted were of bombers like the one in this film.

[youtube]6Im086TCu3I[/youtube]

 

[H2OCutter]

Thanks for sharing that. There are many unsung hero's of that great generation.
This past weekend POW- MIA were remembered. http://www.pow-miafamilies.org/League/Home.html
My great uncle, Group Captain Reginald C. Jordan on my mother's side flew Spitfire's during the war and was lost in the Med. There is a memorial on Malta that remembers..http://www.cwgc.org/search/certificate.aspx?casualty=1082415

 

[Ren the devils trailboss]

My Grandfather was a D Day veteran and a Captain in the Army. One man aside from my father who had a profound impact on my life. Thanks for sharing.

 

[joe-bob]

My Father-in-Law was a Navy Seabee. He was among the first people sent onto the island to repair the newly captured airfield. He was on Okinawa for just three days when he was shot by a sniper in the leg while driving a bulldozer working to repair the runway so that American planes could start using it.