What a wonderful tale of your father's bravery and selfless sacrifices to serve others. Was he one of many who, after the war ended, preferred to get on with his life and not talk about what must have been horrible experiences?

My DFIL was an in the Polish army, so he was an immediate POW. He and a buddy escaped, got their directions off and were captured, then made a plan and escaped again a few years later. Eventually ended up in England where they joined the forces preparing for the northern Europe invasion; he was under Canadian command, and landed at Normandy in August. The fighting there was still fierce and of course littered with debris etc. Their mission was the liberation of Holland. After the war of course the Poles could not go home, and received British citizenship. He learned English, worked, and in the 50s like many British emigrated. He and his young wife arrived in Canada.

I’m not sure when it started, but Holland started hosting commemorative reunions every 5 years or so for their Canadian liberators. DFIL and DMIL attended and their pictures bring tears to my eyes. People write Thank You messages on windows and sidewalks, there are processions in various towns and parents bring their young children, hoisting them on their shoulders and holding signs to salute the soldiers. Luncheons, dinners, wreath wreath-layings. Residents hosting them to stay in their homes. I think he was 90 went he went to his last one. Surely the soldiers are all gone or unable to travel now (my dad was 18 and had just graduated from high school when the war ended, so he served in the occupying forces). I wonder if the commemorations continue.

I was looking through my dad’s old high school yearbooks, and watched the progression of the war through the entries. In the beginning, there was a Red Cross Club and materials drives. Then, short lists of faculty and staff who had enlisted. Then recent graduates and even current students who enlisted. And more intensified war-support activities. Then ”friends we’ve lost”. I think of the kids who knew they would be putting off college and work to serve, even in my dad’s senior year when the end was perhaps in sight.

My great-grandfather's youngest child, Vincent, served in a medical unit. He trained stateside for two years, graduated from the Army's pharmacy program and wrote this letter in March 1944. I don't know if he was involved in D-Day. He was awarded a Bronze Star in October 1944 and a Silver Star a month later for his actions. On Jan 12 1945 his mother, my great-grandmother, received the dreaded Western Union telegram, "Your son was killed in action on 22 December 1944".

I can almost hear a young man say "Don't worry" ....

My Dad joined the Navy late as he was working in a defense plant and was deferred. He was sent to the Philippines. By the time they got there the war was essentially over and he was sent home again. But he told the hair-raising tale of being stuck on a barge being towed through the typhoon that had hit the Pacific.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Cobra

The tow cable snapped in the waves as the barge was riding one wave and the ship the next. They were left floating free in the ocean in the middle of a typhoon. No anchor would work as they were over the Mariana Trench. Fortunately, their tow ship tracked them by radar and when the eye of the storm came over, they found them and tied on a super thick, super long rope so they would not be separated during the 2nd half of the storm. They managed to survive. He said that, when he got into dock, he was stunned to see aircraft carriers with their flight decks folded down by the force of the waves, so great was that storm.

A Dr. gave a talk I'd gone to. He discussed his upbringing and the impact his father had on him. His father was a vet of WWII, and for so many of them, there was no mental health treatment for things like PTSD. In fact there was only reluctance to even talk about such things or being seen as "weak" or "crazy", so you buried it all, which is what his father did. But of course, you can't bury it in reality, and he discussed the impact his father's mental health had on him and his own healing journey. He went on to explain that his father was on Normandy....not during the invasion, but afterward. His job was to try to recover and make sense of the remains of the men who died on those beaches. I'd never even thought about the trauma men like that suffered and the role they played during that horrendous time.

My father enlisted in the Navy in late 1942 and was deployed to the Pacific theatre in 1943. He served as a radio man and waist gunner on PBY Catalinas for the duration.

He didn't like to talk about his experiences much unless he was around other servicemen that had similar experiences. I got to listen in to a few of those discussions over the years and picked up a bit about what he experienced.

A PBY he was on crashed while trying to land after being damaged in combat. Only he and 2 other crew members survived the crash and he was awarded a purple heart.

His PBY did a lot of reconnaissance patrolling of the Japanese Navy and was able to sink at least 2 Japanese subs. They also performed a lot of search and rescue missions.

My uncle (Mom's brother) served in Patton's 3rd Army in an engineering battalion but I don't know many details.

My husband's grandfather left graduate school in the middle of his degree and went on to work with Marconi and found the modern day signal corps, during WWI. An Army camp in NJ was named in his honor.

DH is a Vietnam veteran. It was a difficult time for him, especially how disrespectfully he was treated by civilians upon return.

Every so often he will share stories.

Land of the Free BECAUSE of the Brave!!! Whatever country we call home, we have our freedom because of the brave men and women, all who served to make it so. The many who fought for our freedoms, and the too many who died for us all!
My father and 3 uncles served in WWII. Two uncles were killed; one uncle spent over a year in the South Pacific as a POW. My father made it back safe. My husband was an officer who ran a hospital in Cu Chi during Vietnam. He’s now a retired physician, who like many who served, hardly ever wants to talk about that time, or the disrespect they all came back to. Our son served two tours in Afghanistan.

Here's a fun story about my dad's service. 18 years old, on the troop ship from San Francisco to the Philippines. The war had recently ended, and lots of top brass were on board, too. Dad's standing in the chow line when someone comes along and asks him "soldier, do you like ice cream?". Dad, puzzled, replies "Yes, sir." And they brought him to the galley to help make ice cream for the brass! I hope they made enough for the GIs, too, but I know Dad got some!

It's interesting how many thoughts concern service during World War 2. It's my view that that was the last combat situation the US military should have been involved with and nearly all the other incidents and tens of thousands of deaths that have happened since were needless and resulted from ill-advised political decisions to insert ourselves into other countries' issues that didn't really threaten us.

Lynn, there are dozens and dozens of countries in the world that are democratic and whose people have the same freedoms we have, who have managed to do that without the needless sacrifice of their own military members to the extent we have. We don't seem to learn from our mistakes. I'm curious Lynn, did your husband volunteer to serve or was he drafted? Many doctors were drafted during the Vietnam years, some into active duty service and others into reserve forces.

The American public was lied to by the federal government and the military during the Vietnam War years. We got sucked into quicksand that proved difficult to get out of without admitting the mistakes that had been made, not unlike what happened in Afghanistan. Both needless and both futile. I'm a Vietnam-era veteran and I take no pride nor wish any recognition for my service, it was an unnecessary waste of time for me and a waste of money for the Army. I was able to avoid combat because of my own proactive actions. For me, draftees who served there were undeserving of the disrespect encountered from the angry public when they returned. As for those who volunteered other than in the face of an impeding draft call, in this regard, I have mixed feelings.

My DH did ROTC in college & was able to get a deferment after graduating to attend law school. After he graduated from law school, he had to serve & his first year we were in three locations as they readied him to go to Viet Nam, including three months of learning Vietnamese. Then he was flown out for his tour in VN which was a year. He was in intelligence & had a Vietnamese Counterpart, but honestly when he arrived, they kind of didn't know what to do with him for awhile! His main goal was to stay alive & return home to be reunited with me and our baby daughter who was born while he was deployed! What a strange time & he certainly holds not great feelings about the non support that awaited these veterans when they returned home. He rarely talks about his experience. He does appreciate friends, family etc. who have acknowledged his service on this Veteran's Day.

there are dozens and dozens of countries in the world that are democratic and whose people have the same freedoms we have, who have managed to do that without the needless sacrifice of their own military members to the extent we have.

Really? Granted few countries have set themselves up for being major military powers on the global stage as the US has, being the richest nation in the world and certainly the biggest military spender by far.....but tell me which countries have enjoyed democratic governments without military interventions and loss of lives...Iceland and Andorra?

My dad. WWII. First Lieutenant. First wave going into Anzio. I am glad he made it home. When I asked to see his war pictures, he showed me Mt. Vesuvius erupting, farmers and children smiling, others he met as he moved north through Italy, and one of himself leaning against the bell at the top of the leaning tower in Pisa (one we two reconstructed when he took us all to Europe ~20 years later). At the time, I was disappointed. Now I know those were the people he was there for just as he was there for his neighbors and friends, his future children and all children. He was there to rid the world of the policies of Nazis and any who thought as they did. I could not be more proud of the man he was.

My husband. Vietnam. AF Captain. I am glad he came home, too.

DH lost many friends there and I saw brothers of friends and a cousin return irretrievably changed. The draft was abolished when I was a junior in college. War is never a 'good' thing for those who are fighting them nor for civilians caught in the midst of them, but today is not a day for politics, Elmer.

Note that my comments were oriented toward post-WW2. If you want to know which democratic countries offer the same freedoms Americans have without having had a succession of deaths from unnecessary and costly ill-advised militarily actions, you can start with this list - every one.

The US currently has military personnel in something like 100 countries. Why? The money wasted year after year is unconscionable.

As for:

"US has, being the richest nation in the world and certainly the biggest military spender by far."

We're a large nation with a large population and the GNP number adds up. If you aggregate numbers for smaller Western European EU members constituting about the same population, you don't get a very different result in total. Same freedoms, same affluence for most citizens. EU members have partially shared international and military policies. Most are also NATO members. None have been so foolish as to have the succession of ill-advised actions, personnel losses, or proportionally sized military spending as the US does.

Thank you for sharing. All the stories offer a plethora of opportunity to reflect on the sacrifice and valor of those who served and their loved ones.

One of the hardest things I have done in my life was to go with my husband to the hospital where my daughter worked to tell her that her fiance had been killed in Vietnam.

Senior gal

Such touching stories. Nickel, that letter is heartbreaking.

Senior gal, how awful.

HU...that must have been awful to tell your daughter that sad horrible news. My DH's best friend & best man in our wedding was killed over there, leaving his newly married wife. Still remember the message we received about him, not too long before my DH was due to be deployed over there. I often think of her & hope she went on to have a happy life, and I hope that also was true for your daughter.

I do not always agree with Elmer but we as a people need to look more closely at who we put into harms way and why. When we send people important to us into harms way we need to have a reason important to us and that has not been the case in too many of the wars we have expected our own to fight. I am the granddaughter and daughter, sister and sister in law of the military and am lucky to have never lost one of them in war but I do know this, no one belonging to us should die for some corporate bottom line. That has been our normal for too long. We need to do better.

senoir gal, I cannot imagine.

nickel, I will never forget those letters.

My husband and I were dating just as the protests against the Viet Name War were revving up. He told me once and still remembers telling me that he had a promonition that he would be killed in Viet Nam. He never had to go because he had a high number. I overheard him telling one of the grandsons that if it was not for the lottery he would not have gone on to have a full life. He really believes this and he is not a spooky kind of guy. Strangely, I do not know anyone who served in Viet Nam. Friends who were in the military at that time were stationed in Korea and Germany.

As a sophomore in high school, I wrote a letter to a soldier stationed in Viet Nam. I was not supoosed to incude my name and address but I did. Several weeks later, i received a response from a medic. he was given my letter because we have the same last name. This soldier asked me to write back. My father told me not to respond because I was so young and I didn't, not because I was told not to, but I really did not know what to write about after the first letter. When I visited the Viet Nam Memorial in Washington DC, I was very nervous about searching for his name; it was a huge relief to learn this fellow survIved the war. I still have the letter. Through the internet, I have learned that this soldier went on to become a successful urologist.

I honestly do not think there is/was one right way or one wrong way to have served in Vietnam, or in other wars or altercations. Unlike some, I have no desire to debate that. Our people, whether enlisted or drafted, most of them tried to do what they felt was the right thing to do. Many, many left with a huge amount of realities needing to be deal with afterwards. But, I truly believe that without them, we would already be a minion of China. I, for one, am grateful for their sacrifice, and because of my own family’s sacrifice, I know the high cost of the freedom we all now enjoy. There is no debate, just what each of us sees.

Land of the FREE because of the BRAVE. War/fighting is ugly all the time every time. The cost and price are beyond words and yet the necessity is real. Those that point fingers and are indignant at the idea of war--thank a Veteran. Some will be forever clueless and again that is thanks to a Veteran. It's a great gift these attitudes of personal choice and self righteousness--again thank a Veteran. Goes hand in hand with what's happened to the attitude concerning the police. Good luck with that.

"Our people, whether enlisted or drafted, most of them tried to do what they felt was the right thing to do."

About half of the men I served with during my initial active duty period in the Army were draftees. All were bitter in varying degrees about having been unwillingly uprooted from their civilian lives and forced to go into the military and potentially into mortal jeopardy. Other draftees I knew, classmates, work colleagues, brothers of friends, all felt the same way. Some while unhappy about having been drafted tried to make the best of their active duty experiences to protect their own backsides. Some didn't. I have extensive personal experiences to share on this particular topic and I doubt that you do.

I was in a medical reserve unit for the majority of my enlistment term. There was a large contingent of physicians who had been drafted but assigned to inactive rather than active duty. I got to know many and among them, a large percentage had been "encouraged" by the Selective Service system to go to a graduate or professional school to continue their draft deferments as students and so wound up in medical school. Many were similarly bitter about having been ultimately drafted as doctors, it wasn't what they had envisioned the outcome of their medical school draft dodging to be. A doctor treating a patient will always be a doctor treating a patient, no matter what the circumstances, but none of those I met were happy about having a military obligation.

As you didn't directly answer my question about whether your husband had been drafted, I will assume that was his pathway into the military.

"But, I truly believe that without them, we would already be a minion of China."

Is Germany a minion of China? How about Sweden, the Netherlands, the UK, Italy, Switzerland, France, on and on. None of these countries has been as irresponsible with their military as the US has and as previously stated, all of them have prosperity and freedom similar to what's in the US.

I think the upshot of all of this is that there are veterans whose military service defined their lives and who are ready to don their old uniforms and march in Veterans Day parades. Some who had bad experiences that perhaps didn't trigger a lifetime of hyperpatriotism but did leave them with bad memories. There are others, myself included, who look back on their military service as being the result of bad luck without too series consequences (certainly true during the draft years) or a youthful mistake and who have moved on. A vet is a vet but don't assume all are happy to get a handshake or pat on the back, many I know really couldn't care less.

I'm the direct descendant of American soldiers from the Revolutionary War through WWII. ALL of them contributed to preserving this nation. I hope we won't require another war to bond us -- to remind us how to value what we have here.

Most who served in the US military (or any other military) at any point in history have direct descendants who are alive today. I'm not sure why knowing who they are or aren't matters much.

Even prior to WWII, the US engaged in numerous instances of unwarranted and unnecessary heavy-handed misuse of the military. Nearly all who participated in all the ill-advised actions, whether it be Vietnam, the more recent ones, or those long ago, did so involuntarily.

If we want to honor our veterans, the best way to do so is to honor them while they're on active service by not treating them as expendable cannon fodder who can be used and whose lives can be lost for senseless political means.

While I honor and am grateful for all vets' services, I feel as Elmer does and believe they are mostly pawns in a "big boys" game/s. I fly my flag on Veterans' Day and Memorial Day only. I used to fly it on the 4th but feel that symbol has been co-opted.