Benfromalbuquerque
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- Jul 15, 2020
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Watched the movie “Lucky” recently and thought about this thread.
who all here has friends who served in ww2
- Thread starter 220yotekiller
- Start date
My FIL was a marine in WW2. He was a forward gunnery observer (damned dangerous). He made 3 landings, always second wave (which apparently was the worst landing wave to be in, though NONE were good) before he was finally wounded on Peleliu, which is to this day is the marine corp's bloodiest battle with the most casualties. Also, in true SNAFU form, a completely unnecessary battle.
None of my wife's family knew much of anything about his combat experience, including his own sons. Over the years he opened up to me about it with many tears - awful stories. Only 10% of WW2 veterans actually saw combat. All of that 10% were never the same. That entire generation's stoicism was admirable, but I don't think it helped many of them with the trauma they went through. So many sank into anger, alcoholism, and other self destructive patterns with no real formal help available.
I don't buy the "greatest generation" idea and think it's just marketing to sell one particular book. In no way did the WW2 generation pay the price families in the Civil and Revolutionary wars paid. Especially the Civil War. However, I get the sentiment and really admire that generation. Really, apart from some spec ops, WW2 was the last war we should have fought...
None of my wife's family knew much of anything about his combat experience, including his own sons. Over the years he opened up to me about it with many tears - awful stories. Only 10% of WW2 veterans actually saw combat. All of that 10% were never the same. That entire generation's stoicism was admirable, but I don't think it helped many of them with the trauma they went through. So many sank into anger, alcoholism, and other self destructive patterns with no real formal help available.
I don't buy the "greatest generation" idea and think it's just marketing to sell one particular book. In no way did the WW2 generation pay the price families in the Civil and Revolutionary wars paid. Especially the Civil War. However, I get the sentiment and really admire that generation. Really, apart from some spec ops, WW2 was the last war we should have fought...
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