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Growing up our neighbor was a retired army infantryman and he used to tell us if all the places he had been , made it sound like all he did was sightsee for all those years. After I enlisted and came home on leave for the first time we all sat on his porch and drank some beer . Only then did he share some of the stories he had put in in his years of " sightseeing "

He was wounded the first time in North Africa when the tank he was hitching a ride on ran over a tank mine . He was evacuated to England to a hospital for some time . He then got assigned the 101st where in time he got caught up in Battle of the Bulge . After that he saw the aftermath of some of minor the work camps run by the Nazis .

He finished off his story by mentioning Korea where he was also wounded by getting his ass shot off .Lol or at least a chunk of it when he was retreating with his unit in the face of countless Chinese regulars . He said he was on a crew served anti aircraft gun that they modified to shoot down a hill into a valley that was alive with enemy soldiers. He said you could watch the bodies falling in lines as each bullet passed through several people . In spite of that still they came .

The picture he painted that night scared the hell out of me because I wondered if I would have what it took when/ if the time came . Always amazed me that he was such a nice old man in spite of all the horror he saw and took part in .

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Amazing the hardships these men suffered but somehow they managed to return to normal life.

I worked with a older guy when I was 18 who served on an LST during WWII. (Landing Ship, Tank) You may have seen one, it is the ship where the entire front opens up to load and unload tanks.

He talked of how the Germans had these giant torpedoes, big as a sub, that they could only launch from shore do to their size. The Germans would launch these things without a target, just knowing it would travel across the English Channel until it hit something. They had enough explosive power to wipe out an entire port.

One evening he was out on the rail of his ship when he saw something monstrous coming directly at him from the sea! With no time to yell out, it hit his ship right below his feet. He said he closed his eyes and cringed because it was time to die.

There was this terrible ripping of steel sound as the Torpedo tore into his ship and just kept on coming! It stopped, well embedded into the ship but it did not explode! Alarms were ringing and men were scrambling as he finally opened his eyes.

They sailed back to England with that beast in their side, never knowing when it would go off! He said it was like trying to sail an "L" through the water, very difficult and the longest trip of his life!

They would not let them come to port in England because of its destructive power so they had to abandon ship and go ashore in lifeboats.

No one would volunteer to sail out to get them! smile

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My grandfather on my Dad's side fought in North Africa and a few other places too, the only reason we knew was because he said, 'I was there'. No stories or anything else ever said.

Lost some fingers over there, but would still beat you at a game of pool in his 80's.


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