Veterans can be sooo cool

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Princess Valiant

Princess Valiant

A.K.A. Rainy Day Auto
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war verterans can be the coolest, i found out today.

this morning i was in town bcoz i had a doctor's appointment so as me and my adoptive mom were driving around we saw this rummage sale in the American legion building ......so we went in and there were a ton of old ppl and i didnt see anything i was interested in

But then i noticed these little plane models on a table to the back of the sale....they were sooooo cute and got my attention so i was really looking at them and i didnt notice an older gentleman was watching me as i looked at the models.

suddenly a deep powerful voice interupts my thought and says "miss where you from?" he was so tall and powerful looking he made me studder "i i i'm from India" i replied. then he says "do you like WWII stuff" i replied that i dont know all the details but i covered a lot of WWII in history class when i was in my Bachelors program.....and yes the little planes are sooooo cute.......i told him i will buy them and i will put them on my shelf as they had a 10 dollar price tag on the lot.


he says very sternly and authouritively...."have a seat young lady" so i said "yes sir" and sat down in the chair he pointed to.

i didnt know where this was going bcoz i didnt know what he was thinking about me.

he started by telling me that Troops from India had a big part in liberating Italy in WWII....

after i came home i looked it up and what he said is true

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGEWbR6F6xU"]Great battles - Indian army in world war II Italian Campaign documentary Part 1 of 3 - YouTube[/ame]

he told me that he is a Vietnam Vet and lived with his uncle most of his life who was a WWII vet who passed about 10 years ago.

we ended up talking for almost an hour about war stories and when i gave him 10 dollars for the planes he gave it back and told me that if i fix the two damaged ones and tell my friends about these war stories that i can have the planes.......i got his address and plan to go visit him again with my dad ....bcoz my adoptive dad is a US Army Vietnam era vet too. :D:D:D
 

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Very cool Rani I'm glad you took time to listen vets really enjoy it.Thank You Rani
 
Very cool. I used to occasionally run into WWII vets when I was doing HVAC service. Go into this high dollar apartment/ condo, and here sits a Corsair (F4-U) model. So I look at this guy, and estimate his age, and said "did you fly Corsairs?"

Yup He was a Marine Corsair pilot in the Pacific. He was surprised that "such a young guy" (probly 40 at the time) knew what a Corsair even WAS
 
I get a real kick out of hearing war stories! That said most people only get to hear one side of the story when it's told. I got to hear the story from the "other side" which was one of the most amazing exp I've ever had. When I was in Germany, I got to hear the story of a WW II Germany Army tank commander. One of the things he told me was "boy, I rolled across 3 different countries borders in 24 hours, fighting the entire way. I pray everyday; that your generation, or any generation, has to do what I did."
 
Rani, you made that gentleman's day. :prayer: There isn't enough youth that will take the time to listen to real history told by "someone who was there". It really is a shame because soon they will be gone and we will only have books, or the internet, to fall back on the past, if we even do. I don't know you personally, but I am proud of you and your great attitude.
 
One of my biggest regrets is that I was never able to find out from my grandfather about his experiences in WWII. It wasn't that I didn't have the opportunity, it was because it was an unwritten rule in our family not to bring it up. Grandpa served in the Illinois National Guard in the Phillipines and New Guinea, and saw some pretty nasty fighting. Although his main job was as a postal clerk, they were all "first and foremost soldiers." The only time I ever heard him say anything was when my niece was about 7 or 8 and she found out that he had been in WWII. She asked him point blank, as children will, "Did you kill anybody?" Everybody in earshot sucked in a big breath, and we waited for the explosion. My grandpa didn't say anything for a minute, and then quietly said, "Yes." That was it. I don't know what he saw or what he experienced, but when he left for the war he had black hair. When he came back, it was white. That, in itself, says enough.

I'm sorry, Rani, I didn't mean to jack your thread. It was a very interesting story, and I love talking to veterans and hearing what they have to say. If we don't listen to them, and listen to them well, we are doomed to repeat the mistakes that put them in harms way in the first place.
 
65LoveAffair said:
it was an unwritten rule in our family not to bring it up. .
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Some of these guys took considerable trauma to their graves. My Uncle was on a couple of Pacific Islands, including Okinawa. He didn't really like talking about it that much. Now that I've seen some real footage, I understand why.

The footage of the mass suicide of people on the island is enough to give anyone the willies. I've now seen other footage of U.S. soldiers, in rainy, flooded, filthy foxholes. In other words up to your neck in mud and water, filled with bugs, dead animals and remains of men, both Allied and enemy. You didn't dare "get up" or you'd get shot.
 
67Dart273 said:
Some of these guys took considerable trauma to their graves. My Uncle was on a couple of Pacific Islands, including Okinawa. He didn't really like talking about it that much. Now that I've seen some real footage, I understand why.

The footage of the mass suicide of people on the island is enough to give anyone the willies. I've now seen other footage of U.S. soldiers, in rainy, flooded, filthy foxholes. In other words up to your neck in mud and water, filled with bugs, dead animals and remains of men, both Allied and enemy. You didn't dare "get up" or you'd get shot.
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well through it all war is an ugliness of the world and its amazing how these ppl in the service endure it ....when you stand back and take a look at who is fighting in these wars .......children. late teens early 20s are still very inexperienced ppl and what they see in war is really too much yet they do it.

im glad the gentleman today brought my home country into it......even though most Americans i talk to dont know the difference between the middle east and India......im sure glad that my birth country has excellent relations with the USA (even now) and im glad to know that my ppl were there to assist the Allied Forces in the time of need in WWII.
 
Living history,
Visit the man soon and often. People of this quality and knowledge are becoming rare. If possible record his live for others.

Michael
 
My grandfather fought in world war 1 and I used to try to get him to talk about it and was successful a few times. He fought a Vimy Ridge and lost a LOT of friends there. I plan on going to Vimy for the hundredth anniversary to honor my grandfather. Thanks for this post as it reminded me of my buddy, my grandfather who I still miss to this day. If it wasn't for the vets we might not have the freedom we love today, so thank them EVERY chance you get.
 
i like to hear my adoptive dad talk about his time served ....he served US Army vietnam era but didnt go to Vietnam....instead he was stationed in Germany and he tells me stories of how ...i guess you can choose to live on base in the barricks or off base .......well he chose to live off and he told of how some guys had attitudes towards the German ppl and called them "rads" in a bad way........wel by living off the base he was exposed to a beautiful cuture and learned some German ......he ran a lot of convoys that he called duece and halfs....and he said during that time Levi jeans were a hot item in Germany that ppl were making big money off of.

before Germany he stationed in Alabama which he says is culture shock coming from Colorado...not exactly war stories ....but still good stories.

Basic training was interesting to hear about
 
good timing for for WWII talk ...i didnt realize that we are on the anniversary for D-DAY.

thanks again all you Veterans :thumbup:
 
Love the planes Rani! I can name every one of them too! If everyone didnt already know i am a huge World War 2 nut ..I have tons of uniforms and weapons and just aberything used out everything used in the war!
 
DartDude335 said:
Love the planes Rani! I can name every one of them too! If everyone didnt already know i am a huge World War 2 nut ..I have tons of uniforms and weapons and just aberything used out everything used in the war!
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You got a real T-34 or a Tiger 2 sitting in your back yard? I want picture of that tiger 2!
 
RaniDart70 said:
....he ran a lot of convoys that he called duece and halfs....
Basic training was interesting to hear about
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A 'deuce-and-a-half', the M35A2 truck (two-and-a-half ton class) designed to carry 5000-pound loads on road but were known to sometimes carry twice as much.

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Sounds like your adoptive dad and I were in about the same time period. Where did he have Basic Training? I went to Ft. Polk in Louisiana, talk about culture shock having been born and raised in Southern California.
 
ocdart said:
Sounds like your adoptive dad and I were in about the same time period. Where did he have Basic Training? I went to Ft. Polk in Louisiana, talk about culture shock having been born and raised in Southern California.
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i just saw him briefly as he zoomed through ....he said Fort Ord, California for basic and then after basic went to Alabama.
 
What a neat encounter for you to have!
I took my Dad to breakfast the other morning and on our way out the door a young man noticed my Dads hat that says WW II veteran on it. He stopped Dad and said " Thank you for serving sir".
That made my Dads day!
 
May I say "thank you" to all of you who thank us Vets! We never did it for the thanks, but for the love we have for our country and countrymen. But it still feels good to be thanked, so "thanks" back atcha!
 
ocdart said:
A 'deuce-and-a-half', the M35A2 truck (two-and-a-half ton class) designed to carry 5000-pound loads on road but were known to sometimes carry twice as much.

View attachment 1714626341


Sounds like your adoptive dad and I were in about the same time period. Where did he have Basic Training? I went to Ft. Polk in Louisiana, talk about culture shock having been born and raised in Southern California.
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Hey I got Deuce too an very rare one at that a 1951 M34 Super Single with a GAS engine!
 

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Too bad they can't be tagged to drive on the road every day
 
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