Posts by BamaNomad
1 - 5 of 45 Posts
I don't know. David. The photo was in a quora message in my inbox today. I assumed it was recent (within the past year), as I'd read recently that an agency was looking for WWII veterans prior to our last Veteran's day....?? I looked again for the quora post, but since I'd deleted it in my email, I couldn't find it...?
The photo and street scene has the 'look' of perhaps being in France? but I'm not certain...
Thanks for the info, Shadetree (something about those medals made me think possibly Russia, but I couldn't see them clearly enough in the photo).
So Maybe US WWII veterans ARE already gone... My father enlisted in the Navy in early 1942 at age 20, served in the Pacific Navy until the end of the war and came home in late 1945 (crossing the International Date Line on Christmas Day in 1945). I still have the 'menus' from his ship where they got a 'Christmas Dinner' two straight days on that crossing. He was a Navy Radioman, who was assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force for a portion of the war, being commended for bravery and courage under fire by the Marine Commanding General when he went ashore with the first wave of Marines when they retook Bougainville (something I never knew until going thru his discharge papers upon his death in 2006, at age 84).
Any WWII veteran who actually served prior to the end of the war, would be very old. Assuming the earliest possible age (16 or 17?) in 1945, he would have been born ~ 1928 or so, and would be at LEAST 95 by now and even that is a pretty unlikely scenario, as any who actually served in the war would likely be ~ 100 by now.
So Maybe US WWII veterans ARE already gone... My father enlisted in the Navy in early 1942 at age 20, served in the Pacific Navy until the end of the war and came home in late 1945 (crossing the International Date Line on Christmas Day in 1945). I still have the 'menus' from his ship where they got a 'Christmas Dinner' two straight days on that crossing. He was a Navy Radioman, who was assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force for a portion of the war, being commended for bravery and courage under fire by the Marine Commanding General when he went ashore with the first wave of Marines when they retook Bougainville (something I never knew until going thru his discharge papers upon his death in 2006, at age 84).
Any WWII veteran who actually served prior to the end of the war, would be very old. Assuming the earliest possible age (16 or 17?) in 1945, he would have been born ~ 1928 or so, and would be at LEAST 95 by now and even that is a pretty unlikely scenario, as any who actually served in the war would likely be ~ 100 by now.
Mike, The Soviet Union lost more 'soldiers' (~ 10 million) and 'civilians' (~ 24 Million) during WWII than any other country, and they were fighting the Germans also... and without them, the Nazi's probably would have won the war...
I was born when my father was 26, two years after being discharged from the Navy after the end of WWII. He died at 84 in 2006 (17 yrs ago). I served in the USAF from 1968 til 1972; It will not be very long before we'll be having the same conversations about 'Vietnam vets' as we're having now about WWII vets... Time moves on and waits for no one!~
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