SO WHAT DID YOUR PARENTS DO IN THE BIG WAR

My father, John Wagner was an airplane mechanic in the 27th Troup
Carrier Sqn in the 14th Air Force and was discharged a Sargent. He flew
as crew chief in C47s over the Hump in the CBI theater. He went to basic
training in St Petersburg, Florida, a town he later moved to.

My mother, Doris, was a student in a West Virgina town taking shop and
drafting. The only female student in the classes.

Much of the rest of the family worked for the railroads.

Steve

In article ,
says...


Well after watching the Ken Burns series THE WAR ad naseum ad naseum,
I thought I'd come into the group today with one of my curious questions.

What did your parents, family, etc. do in the big WWII.

Mine worked at the Canada Car foundry in what was then called
Fort William, Ontario.

They were inspectors helping to make Hawker Hurricanes and later other
types of figthers including the Curtis Helldiver.

How about your folks.....

My Dad served in 672nd amphibious tractor division of the army for a couple
of years, one of which was in the Philipines. This was the division that
delivered the troops to the Los Banos P.O.W. camp in the somewhat famous
and daring rescue of the camp's civilian prisoners, and collected and
transported them out of the camp to the safety of the army's lines. I don't
know if he was part of that operation or not. My efforts to find out the
details of his service were fruitless, since his records, as well as
thousands (millions?) of others were destroyed in a V.A. fire years ago.
And he died many years ago, long before he and I had reached a point we
could have discussed his war experiences.

"SHIVER ME TIMBERS" wrote in message
...
Well after watching the Ken Burns series THE WAR ad naseum ad naseum,
I thought I'd come into the group today with one of my curious questions.

What did your parents, family, etc. do in the big WWII.

Mine worked at the Canada Car foundry in what was then called
Fort William, Ontario.

They were inspectors helping to make Hawker Hurricanes and later other
types of figthers including the Curtis Helldiver.

How about your folks.....

How about your folks.....

My parents were married on December 7 1941 at Ft Lewis Washington.
(their honeymoon was delayed)
At the time my father was an Army corporal in the medical corps and my
mother was a Lieutenant Army nurse. She was not allowed to stay in the
Army after she was married and spent the war having my brother and me.
In 1942-44 my father was stationed at Camp Barkley, Abilene Texas where
he taught hand to hand combat. Then he went to OCS and was transferred
to Camp Pickett, Virginia before going to Germany to help open a
hospital at Nuremberg just after the war ended.
An Uncle was a Marine pilot who survived without a scratch and on his
first back in the states was hit by a taxi and spent 6 weeks in the
hospital
--

09=ix

"Leonard Oglesby" lencsgt@{NO SPAM}lightspeed.net wrote in message
news:2007110518173643658-lencsgt@NOSPAMlightspeednet...
On 2007-11-04 21:18:55 -0800, Leonard Oglesby lencsgt@{NO
SPAM}lightspeed.net said:


On 2007-11-04 11:41:05 -0800, SHIVER ME TIMBERS
said:

Well after watching the Ken Burns series THE WAR ad naseum ad naseum, I
thought I'd come into the group today with one of my curious questions.

What did your parents, family, etc. do in the big WWII.

Mine worked at the Canada Car foundry in what was then called Fort
William, Ontario.

They were inspectors helping to make Hawker Hurricanes and later other
types of figthers including the Curtis Helldiver.

How about your folks.....

My father flew P-47s and P-38s in the SW Pacific, New Guinea, Leyte,
Linguyan, Okinawa with the 9th FS, 49th Fighter Group, 5th Air Force
1943-1945.

On August 21, 1945 Dad flew as part of the P38 escort for the
"Surrender" Betties on their return flight from Ie Shima back to Kyushu.
He was also a member of the Honor Guard flight which flew into Japan on
August 29 1945 prior to the signing of the Surrender documents on the
USS Missouri on September 2, 1945, Making the 9th Fighter Squadron of
the 49th Fighter Group the first USAAF tactical unit to land on Japan.

Here is a piece from the 9th Fighter Squadron History, "The Flying
Knights";

"On Wednesday, 29 August, twenty-five airplanes received
preliminary loading of C-rations, cots, blankets, and pilots'
clothes. At first sixteen planes were to make the trip as the
honor squadron then the number was upped to twenty-five,
and finally down to eight. The eight oldest pilots in the
squadron, all veterans of the Leyte Campaign and two
second tour boys form Gusap, took off with a four plane
additional escort at 1200 hours, 30 August 1945. Major
Petrovich, squadron C.O., led the flight with Lt. Corley flying
his wing. S/Sgt. Serapin was riding piggy-back in Corley's
ship. Lt. Oglesby, veteran of 150 missions and 400 combat
hours with four Nips to his credit and then on his second
tour of duty flew Red Flight Element. Lt. Gribble, veteran of
the Leyte scrap, flew number four. Captain Howes, with over
598 combat hours and four Nips destroyed in aerial combat
under his belt led White Flight with Captain Clark flying his
wing. Lt. Poston, who returned to combat with Oglesby
when stateside flying proved too dull, led White Flight
Element with Lt. Smith, back just south of Kyushu and the
eight original planes winged on thru a clear sky, though
thunderheads and towering cumulus hovered over the
mountains to the west. Three and one-half hours out,
towering Fujiyama became visible through the haze ahead,
its top hidden in clouds, as the flat, green plains of the
Atsumu-Hanto peninsula passed under the left wing. The
flights landed at Atsugi Airstrip, southeast of Tokyo, at 1615
hours and were parked by Colonel Gerald Johnson, former
group commander, then operations officer of the first
American airstrip in Japan, in a grassy field just north of the
strip.
A Jap truck, drive by an American GI, drove up and the
baggage and personnel loaded aboard. The truck drove past
a number of "Jacks" in apparently good condition, past the
partially damaged hangars housing 11th Airborne personnel,
and in a few minutes, pulled up in front of an unpainted,
two-story, wooden barracks building that served as
headquarters for the 63rd Service Squadron. A few minutes
later the pilots were stowing their gear in two-men rooms of
a similar wooden structure not far away, one of a row of GI
barracks very like the American version. A few differences
could be noted upon inspection, mainly in toilet and bathing
facilities. The oriental version of a latrine provided no
support to the user and the shower bath was replaced by the
community pool, complete with round wooden buckets and
stools on which the bather sat while dipping water from the
cement hot water tanks on the side. All furniture, desks,
mirror heights, etc., were scaled to the shorter oriental
stature.
The Japanese had provided a mess hall, which was to operate
until V-J Day, equipped with white linen table cloths,
chinaware and floral centerpieces. Polite, if non-committal
Japanese waiters served the dinner, consisting of soup, cold
plate meat and fish, potatoes, peas and one quart of Japanese
beer per man. The beer, very much like Australian brew, was
excellent.
Thus it was; the senior pilots of the "Flying Knights" moved
in one month from the peaceful shores of Lingayen to the
midst of the turmoil of occupying the heart of Japan, 1,800
miles to the north. So far as was known at the time, the outfit
had flown its last combat mission of the war, suitable
enough arriving in the van at the enemy capital."



--
ð¹


My Dad was too young for WWII service as he's 74 this past October 16th, but
he can remember them announcing Pearl Harbor in the newspaper and on the
radio. My Mom doesn't remember it much at all as she was raised on a very
small farm about 15 minutes from where I currently reside in Kentucky. I
have an Uncle was a medic in a field hospital somewhere in New Guinea
though. My Grandfather was a "track watcher" for the local railroad keeping
an eye out for sabotage, while my Grandmother was busy trying to raise 13
kids. Guess you could say when Granpappy wasn't watchin' the tracks, he was
watchin' Granmammy have another kid. LOL

--
Lonnie


*Photo Attached:

Specialist 4th Class James R. Potter
United States Army (1954-1956)
Basic Training at Ft. Knox, KY
Overseas Assignment to Pirmasens, Germany
MOS: Field Wireman/Pole Line Construction

****Note: In 1989, I used to operate radios off the antennae he helped
erect back in the mid 50's. Wow!!!

Dov wrote:
SHIVER ME TIMBERS wrote:

Well after watching the Ken Burns series THE WAR ad naseum ad naseum,
What did your parents, family, etc. do in the big WWII.


My dad was a teenager growing up in central France. On becoming 18 he went into
hiding to avoid the STO slave labor. He and his buddy Jean went south to join
the guerillas in the gorges-du-Lot maquis, whereas all the other youths of the
village went north, to Mont Mouchet.
Turned out that in the south the nazis didn't go after them, whereas at Mont
Mouchet they were basically exterminated. Not one from the village came back.


My Mom was still in school. Her elder brother evaded to Algeria to join the Free
French Naval Forces. Served in the commandos on PT-type boats, landing at night
to blow up radar stations and artillery on the Med coast. At the time of the
Provence landing, his boat was sunk by a nazi plane, and he was the sole
survivor. Was picked up by the FNFL after 3 days drifting in a dinghy. He never
speaks about it, but he is deeply religious ever since this day.


About weird events and blind luck: Grandpa had learnt to swim in his military
service, and during ww2 he rescued a kid who was drowning in the local river.
Turned out he was the son of the local chief of the nazi-puppet Vichy 'milice'.
When Vichy ordered the militia to deport the Jewish families into nazi death
camps, this fascist ******* zealously rounded up every family but spared ours.


On my wife's side, uncle Frank served in the marines. Was in a ski unit and
ended the war in Austria and at Berchtesgaden. Uncle Mickey was in the army and
served in the Japan occupation after VE-day. They never talk about it either.



My two elder brothers served in the 6-days war. The older one was a paratroop
officer and got killed in the battle for Jerusalem. The younger one commanded a
tank company. He was killed in the Sinai.

I was too young for 6dw, and served in the attrition and kippur wars. Was hurt
twice but the docs did a good job. Later got injured again in Levanon during op
peace for Galil. This time too damaged to patch up, and discharged in 1983. I
can walk almost normally again now, and consider myself the lucky one.


My older kid is getting 14, and I wish so much that they wouldn't have to go
through the same things. With hamas, fatah, hizbullah, Iran and in general the
muslim fanatics, it looks worse than ever. Darn it.

Dov.

God bless you and your family Dov. Freedom commands a high price, and
you've paid far more than your fair share.

--
Heaven is where the police are British, the chefs Italian, the mechanics
German, the lovers French and it is all organized by the Swiss.

Hell is where the police are German, the chefs British, the mechanics
French, the lovers Swiss and it is all organized by Italians.

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/paul1cart/albums/

Paul Elliot wrote:
Dov wrote:
SHIVER ME TIMBERS wrote:

Well after watching the Ken Burns series THE WAR ad naseum ad naseum,
What did your parents, family, etc. do in the big WWII.


My dad was a teenager growing up in central France. On becoming 18 he
went into
hiding to avoid the STO slave labor. He and his buddy Jean went south
to join
the guerillas in the gorges-du-Lot maquis, whereas all the other
youths of the
village went north, to Mont Mouchet.
Turned out that in the south the nazis didn't go after them, whereas
at Mont
Mouchet they were basically exterminated. Not one from the village
came back.


My Mom was still in school. Her elder brother evaded to Algeria to
join the Free
French Naval Forces. Served in the commandos on PT-type boats, landing
at night
to blow up radar stations and artillery on the Med coast. At the time
of the
Provence landing, his boat was sunk by a nazi plane, and he was the sole
survivor. Was picked up by the FNFL after 3 days drifting in a dinghy.
He never
speaks about it, but he is deeply religious ever since this day.


About weird events and blind luck: Grandpa had learnt to swim in his
military
service, and during ww2 he rescued a kid who was drowning in the local
river.
Turned out he was the son of the local chief of the nazi-puppet Vichy
'milice'.
When Vichy ordered the militia to deport the Jewish families into nazi
death
camps, this fascist ******* zealously rounded up every family but
spared ours.

On my wife's side, uncle Frank served in the marines. Was in a ski
unit and
ended the war in Austria and at Berchtesgaden. Uncle Mickey was in the
army and
served in the Japan occupation after VE-day. They never talk about it
either.



My two elder brothers served in the 6-days war. The older one was a
paratroop
officer and got killed in the battle for Jerusalem. The younger one
commanded a
tank company. He was killed in the Sinai.

I was too young for 6dw, and served in the attrition and kippur wars.
Was hurt
twice but the docs did a good job. Later got injured again in Levanon
during op
peace for Galil. This time too damaged to patch up, and discharged in
1983. I
can walk almost normally again now, and consider myself the lucky one.


My older kid is getting 14, and I wish so much that they wouldn't have
to go
through the same things. With hamas, fatah, hizbullah, Iran and in
general the
muslim fanatics, it looks worse than ever. Darn it.

Dov.

God bless you and your family Dov. Freedom commands a high price, and
you've paid far more than your fair share.



Shalom! You and your family have enough mitzvah for an eternity.

Never Again!

Dave