On Friday, July 25, 2014 4:46:05 PM UTC-7, wrote:

>
> I am happy you know the tale, my father never spoke about anything to
> do with WWII, I learned about it all later - his concentration was
> much more on Vimeira, and it's loss. He mourned the fact that many
> young lives were lost whilst he made it.

I don't think ANYBODY's dad spoke about anything to do with WW II. My
uncle had what we now know as PTSD. My dad just talked about how
nice the locals were; how grateful, and how he liked their food. It
took my wife's uncle 60 years to talk about Iwo Jima, where he had
been in the weapons company of the 28th Regiment. The 28th's Easy
Company supplied the men that raised the flag above Mt. Suribachi.

On 2014-07-25 20:48, wrote:

> I don't think ANYBODY's dad spoke about anything to do with WW II. My
> uncle had what we now know as PTSD. My dad just talked about how
> nice the locals were; how grateful, and how he liked their food. It
> took my wife's uncle 60 years to talk about Iwo Jima, where he had
> been in the weapons company of the 28th Regiment. The 28th's Easy
> Company supplied the men that raised the flag above Mt. Suribachi.
>


All my friends had all sorts of grandiose stories about what their
fathers had done during the war. All my father did was work on ground
crew, servicing Spitfire and Hurricane fighters, and that he spent the
last year of the war in British Columbia. At least, that is all he had
told us.

It was not until I was almost 18 that I learned that there was much
more to that. A guy from Denmark contacted him wanting to interview him
about his war time experience. It turned out that he had been a flight
engineer (co pilot) in a bomber and on his 19th operational flight the
plane was shot down over Denmark. He was the sole survivor of the crash
and is documented as being the first Allied airman to escape from
occupied Denmark.
The reason he was in BC was that that after having been in contact
with the Danish Resistance, he was not allowed to fly over Europe again.
He was sent out there as a flight instructor.

On Fri, 25 Jul 2014 21:01:55 -0400, Dave Smith
> wrote:

> All my friends had all sorts of grandiose stories about what their
> fathers had done during the war. All my father did was work on ground
> crew, servicing Spitfire and Hurricane fighters, and that he spent the
> last year of the war in British Columbia. At least, that is all he had
> told us.

I think the ones who do the least talk the most. One of our friends
who can't stop talking about the Viet Nam war was something akin to a
typist. In college, I had a friend who carried the body bags off
airplanes. He said he knew what condition the body was in if the bag
sagged or not.

--
All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.

On 7/25/2014 8:48 PM, wrote:
> On Friday, July 25, 2014 4:46:05 PM UTC-7, wrote:
>
>>
>> I am happy you know the tale, my father never spoke about anything to
>> do with WWII, I learned about it all later - his concentration was
>> much more on Vimeira, and it's loss. He mourned the fact that many
>> young lives were lost whilst he made it.
>
> I don't think ANYBODY's dad spoke about anything to do with WW II. My
> uncle had what we now know as PTSD. My dad just talked about how
> nice the locals were; how grateful, and how he liked their food. It
> took my wife's uncle 60 years to talk about Iwo Jima, where he had
> been in the weapons company of the 28th Regiment. The 28th's Easy
> Company supplied the men that raised the flag above Mt. Suribachi.
>
My parents did talk about the war, but they were both in the military.
My mother was in signals, my father was a combat cameraman.

On Fri, 25 Jul 2014 17:48:15 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

> On Friday, July 25, 2014 4:46:05 PM UTC-7, wrote:
>
> >
> > I am happy you know the tale, my father never spoke about anything to
> > do with WWII, I learned about it all later - his concentration was
> > much more on Vimeira, and it's loss. He mourned the fact that many
> > young lives were lost whilst he made it.
>
> I don't think ANYBODY's dad spoke about anything to do with WW II. My
> uncle had what we now know as PTSD. My dad just talked about how
> nice the locals were; how grateful, and how he liked their food. It
> took my wife's uncle 60 years to talk about Iwo Jima, where he had
> been in the weapons company of the 28th Regiment. The 28th's Easy
> Company supplied the men that raised the flag above Mt. Suribachi.

I think you're right. My dad is still alive, but he doesn't talk
about WWII and he was above the fighting - flying supplies over the
Atlantic and North Africa as a navigator. My (long dead) uncle's only
story (that I heard from my grandmother, not him) was about being
caught behind enemy lines and hiding in under the floor of I forget
what... (a barn, a windmill) for three days with the Nazis overhead.
That's it. No other details.

--
All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.

On 7/25/2014 7:48 PM, wrote:
> On Friday, July 25, 2014 4:46:05 PM UTC-7, wrote:
>
>>
>> I am happy you know the tale, my father never spoke about anything to
>> do with WWII, I learned about it all later - his concentration was
>> much more on Vimeira, and it's loss. He mourned the fact that many
>> young lives were lost whilst he made it.
>
> I don't think ANYBODY's dad spoke about anything to do with WW II. My
> uncle had what we now know as PTSD. My dad just talked about how
> nice the locals were; how grateful, and how he liked their food. It
> took my wife's uncle 60 years to talk about Iwo Jima, where he had
> been in the weapons company of the 28th Regiment. The 28th's Easy
> Company supplied the men that raised the flag above Mt. Suribachi.

We did not know my dad was in the Navy, until after he died, he never
talked about it.

Becca