June 6, 20188 yr My father, who served in the Army in the Pacific building airstrips, used to say "The only thing worse than winning a war is losing a war."
June 6, 20188 yr Just think, the YOUNGEST survivors of that landing today are 91-92 years old, and most older. It's very possible that in 10-12 years, maybe less, we will be able to count on two hands the number of living WWII battle survivors.
June 7, 20188 yr Author Just think, the YOUNGEST survivors of that landing today are 91-92 years old, and most older. It's very possible that in 10-12 years, maybe less, we will be able to count on two hands the number of living WWII battle survivors. Pretty much all of the men portrayed in Band of Brothers have passed on.
June 7, 20188 yr Just think, the YOUNGEST survivors of that landing today are 91-92 years old, and most older. It's very possible that in 10-12 years, maybe less, we will be able to count on two hands the number of living WWII battle survivors. Albert Woolson, the last Civil War veteran, died in 1956, 91 years after the war ended, at the age of 106. He joined the 1st Minnesota Heavy Artillery Regiment in 1964 as a drummer boy. Of course, I don't believe we had 14 year olds serving in 1944. The last WWI vet died in 2012. The last American WWI veteran passed away in 2011. However, with advances in medicine, I would not be surprised to see a D-Day veteran or two around in 2044.
June 7, 20188 yr My father, who served in the Army in the Pacific building airstrips, used to say "The only thing worse than winning a war is losing a war." My father would not watch any war movies. Dad always said, "I lived through that. Why would I want to watch it? That's not entertainment to me. It's something I want to forget." Yet, he loved M.A.S.H.
June 7, 20188 yr I've read the accounts of Easy Company, watched Band of Brothers and found it very compelling. The opening scene of Saving Private Ryan was the most intense movie scene I have watched to that point. It has only been surpassed by a later scene in the same movie of the life and death struggle between a German soldier and a Jewish-American soldier. I was on the edge of my seat from the beginning of the movie through the end. The thought that kept going through my head, "What if I was there? Would I have been able to move forward?" It certainly makes one realize the cost of freedom. My father was a WWII vet and I recall him talking about listening to the radio on the Day of Infamy, enlisting in 1943, his recollection of the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge on his birthday (he was not present), and the importance of D-Day. I remember walking through a hallway at a high school in Cincinnati. I don't recall which one. But the pictures of the football teams on the wall were telling. The team pictures for 1940, 41, and 42 were all full rosters. The rosters for 1943, 44, 45 were depleted as I suppose many of those who would have been on the team enlisted. Again, a reminder of the cost of freedom. As an aside, my Dad also had cool stories about Chuck Yeager as he was stationed at Muroc Army Air Core base with him at the end of the war.
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