How My Dad Spent Christmas 1944

[sisyphus]

It always amazes me when I read the battle history of his regiment. He never spoke about it, at all. He was 21 years old that month in 1944. http://www.coulthart.com/134/aa-44-dec.htm

[Tsal]

Your dad is a badass Patriot! What was he in the Army? Some things a man keeps to himself especially raising a family. He probably never mentioned it because it was a frightening time and reliving those memories might not have been pleasant for him.

[ncrobb]

That is awesome. There was a gentleman we went to church with when my son was young who spent his youth growing up all over Europe in the Second World War. He and my son were buddies and we always sat with Mr Bost. I guess looking back the only thing they had in common was they loved baseball. Anyway, he would tell us stories, but only funny stuff and when it was very cold he always would say, “At least we aren’t in Bastogne”. Our neighbor across the street begged his parents to lie for him so he could enlist at 16. I have the utmost respect for the men and women from that time. They truly are the Greatest Generation.

[Ronv69]

My dad was too young for WW1 and too old for WW2, but all of my Scout leaders were veterans of WW2. Some were at Normandy, some in Italy and my Scoutmaster was a tank commander and the Battle of the Bulge. Respect. They really don't make them like that anymore.

[Wildcrow]

Your pop was a bad mamajamma. Thats a very hair raising set of records. No need to talk about these things, as nobody would be able to relate.

I look up to every young man that ever stepped foot on enemy terrain and slapped them in their mouths. It takes a special type of person to throw away their innocence for the sake of love, and love of country.

[colorduke]

My Grandfather was there,he served in the Army in the 314 field artillery battalion 80th division.He never talked about it.He gave me his Army jacket many years ago and that means more to me then anything , when you think about what all them brave men went through.

[Fr_Tom]

My father would have been 22 on Christmas in 1944. He was in the Navy and was on a landing craft at the Invasion of Guam earlier that year. He stayed on the landing craft and it was the Marines who ran onto the beach...

[Dr Uhaha]

By Christmas 1944, my grandfather with the 80th Infantry had already been dead for a month. Somehow he and a first cousin were in the same unit and this cousin was right next to him when he was "machine gunned." His son would grow up with only one memory of his father: Being carried on his dad's shoulders through a snowy field on their farm in Iowa.

At the same time my other grandfather was in the Phillipines in grisly action. This grandfather didn't get his fill of blood and guts in the Phillipines and later got an age waiver through prior service to go to Vietnam in 1968-1969. I asked him once why he volunteered for Vietnam and he told me: "Cause I liked killing those bastards. You can't do that here."

[Ruffinogold]

Do you mean your grandfather ?

[Ronv69]

Do you mean your grandfather ?

Who are you addressing?