WW II Fighter planes

[Champ188]

7 hours ago, Old plug said:

I never lost anyone in WW2.But iwhen your job is to serve those veterans it should be taken a lot more serious than it was by many people where I worked. Many admistrative mistakes took place with things like awarding of purple hearts, lost recomendations for awards etc. Everyone who worked in that place should have taken it as a personal obligation to try to correct those things. But they did not. They were to busy being beurocrats. 

 

 

Thank you for being dedicated to serving our veterans. That's a noble cause and one you obviously took to heart. It's appreciated.

[Terrierman]

26 minutes ago, Champ188 said:

Thank you for being dedicated to serving our veterans. That's a noble cause and one you obviously took to heart. It's appreciated.

Yes, it is.

[Mitch f]

20 hours ago, ness said:

A couple years ago I sat down at Taco Bell for lunch next to a guy wearing a Veteran WWII hat. I struck up a conversation and it turns out he went into Normandy on D-Day. He was one of the engineers that had the long poles with explosives on the end that blew up the barbed wire. He said he fought at the Bulge, then went on into Germany and was in it until the end. I was just in awe of this guy eating at Taco Bell. Growing up, three doors down, there was a dad of a kid my age who had been at the Bulge. We just never talked about it with him. It was just Kevin's dad, it was just the war, and we'd since been to Korea and were then in Vietnam.

I think the long poles were called bangalores.

My Uncle and names sake Mitch Fields was in Normandy D3 and ended up in Bastogne. He got a Bronze star and Purple Heart and moved to California after freezing his feet in the war. He claimed years later that America would never win another war ever again with the UN style rules of engagement. 

He got a leave one time during the war and headed to England to visit my father, who was stationed over there at the time. He was going to present my dad with a Luger he took from a German officer he killed during combat. My father had left to go stateside 2 hours before he got there. The Luger ended up being given to his future brides son......darn it! ?

[Old plug]

Mitch your uncle was infantry. If he got his Bronze Star in the field he was entitled to a second one that the goverment awarded to anyone having earned the Combat infantrymans badge or Combat medical badge.  I am always curious about if people got their Olk Leaf Cluster for that. It was never widely announced evidently. Through out the 60's and 70's I and others must have ordered thousands of them for people.

My uncle never kept one thing from all hs service. He was in everything from Africa to the Army of Ocupation after the war. He was single and a bg bear of a man. When the war ended they sent those home first who had been n combat the logest.  He was 2nd in his division in returning home points but kept giving it to married guys. I offered to get hm a full set of his awards and decorations one time and he eid not want them as a reminder around the house., I finally ordered a set for my aunt after he died. He was a loner and did not come around for family get togethers and such. He has always been a hero to me. 

[ness]

1 hour ago, Mitch f said:

I think the long poles were called bangalores.

 

Thanks for that -- I couldn't remember the name of those things.

[JestersHK]

My Grandfather was a waist gunner on a B17.   Wish he would of stuck around longer with us so I could grow up and really talk to him about it.  Have a ton of pictures though.  

Wife's grandfather was in 101st during D day.  He never talked about it she said and I unfortunately never got to meet him before he died.  They do have his letters home, and also some german medals and insignia that I assumed they took off the dead officers.  I need to get some good photos of them and look them up.

[Sore Thumbs]

Haven't read previous posts but I believe Tom Walton owns all those plains. Forgive me if this has already been said.

[ness]

3 hours ago, Sore Thumbs said:

Haven't read previous posts but I believe Tom Walton owns all those plains. Forgive me if this has already been said.

Don't think that had been said, but we were figuring there was some Walton $$$ behind them since they're registered in Waltonville. Not a hobby for regular guys

 

[Sore Thumbs]

I tried to post a video from my phone yesterday but couldn't get it to upload. He was in an acrobatic plane yesterday doing barrel rolls, flying upside down and going straight up til his plane stalled and would plummet down in a spiral. It was impressive. 

[skeeter]

On ‎11‎/‎15‎/‎2016 at 7:08 PM, Terrierman said:

My mother was in the very first graduating class of enlisted Navy Waves back in the big one.  Spent the duration as a radio operator at NAS Jacksonville.  The stories she has shared were incredible.  My dad was a bombardier on B-24 in the Army Air Corps before there was such a thing as U.S. Air Force.  He was lucky to get out alive, those bomber crews had bad statistics.  Never heard one single word from him about what he went through.  Had an uncle who was a Navy Corpsman in the South Pacific.  He never said a word about it to any of us either.  And another uncle who was USMC in North Africa.  Not a peep from him either ever about what he did or saw.  Those folks did some hard things.

Regarding your oh-so-true comment "those bomber crews had bad statistics" I was recently shocked to learn the Eighth Air Force suffered slightly more casualties in the European theater than the hard-fighting Marines did in all of the Pacific campaign.   8th AF casualty rate was 2.6 % while the casualty rate for the Marines was 3.6%