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Posted by David Sherman [72.47.9.228] on Tuesday, December 07, 2010 at 23:37:15 :
In Reply to: Re: Days to remember posted by junior [64.136.27.229] on Tuesday, December 07, 2010 at 22:33:01 :
I grew up on my dad's B17 stories, and didn't really appreciate what it meant when he described bombing "the ball bearing factory" or "the synthetic oil plant". Fortunately his crew and plane completed all their missions and everyone came home safely, but he sure saw a lot who didn't.
I only know two WWII vets who are still alive, one a neighbor who served in the Navy, and then ran a coal and dynamite business. The other served in the infantry (I just recently found out) and then was in the gas station business. They're both around 90, and moving slow these days but still as tall a they can.
I wish they could just go into the schools and tell their stories to the kids. All my life I've loved to listen to the old-timers, but I don't think the kids these days get much of that. They think the world came with cell phones and computers and plasma blu-ray 3D HDTVs and clothes that are so cheap you throw them out when they get a hole in them, that's how it's always been. They don't understand what it took to get here, or that it will someday be there job to try to keep it going.
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