Remembering Those Who Gave All

Why would anyone question the validity of your father's service?

You should be proud of your family's service to our country. I may have told this story sometime in the past, but my father enlisted in the army at the age of 36 in 1944. He tried several times prior but was told he was too old. I guess in 1944 his age was young enough. He hated military service and in particular one sergeant in his platoon. In 1974 I wore my uniform to my sister's wedding. I was a Staff Sergeant at the time. My father got upset at me for being a sergeant and couldn't understand why I liked being in the military. He was a good man, but really hated that sergeant.

 

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I was actually in Washington DC this year with my father, uncle, and three cousins. All of us military veterans, with my cousin John and I combat vets. He was shot in the head in Iraq but recovered and retired as CW5 in the Army.

This was my uncle's first visit, and he had to find his younger brothers name, as well as a cousin, on the Vietnam War memorial wall. It was pretty emotional.

 

I retired as a CW5 in 2001. What was your brother's specialty? I was Military Intelligence (oxymoron)/Counterintelligence.

 

He was logistics, as was his wife's. She retired a CW4.

 

One of my friends retired around 2019 as CW4 in Logistics His name is Danny Valez. His last assignment I think was the school house. Perhaps your brother knows him. It's a small enough field for warrant officers.

 

I had 17 relatives that fought in WW2/ three in the Kreigsmarines/ U-boots
Rest served in infantry/ panzer units/ all survived the War/ 12 are still with us today/ while the other 5 are in "Heaven".
My only famous relative was awarded the Ritterkreuz in 1945 for valour. He knocked out 66 Soviet heavy tanks/ mostly JS-2s in Danzig/ Narva sector. Here he is sitting on his KonigsTiger "88" gun. The kill rings denote tally at time.

 

Forgot to post coin of a ruler who died in battle.
Gordian III was either murdered by his men after a disasterous campaign vs the Sasanians in 244AD. Other theory is that he died in the Battle of Misiche/ when his army suffered adefeat at the hands of the Sasanians.

 

I do not believe that many of my family died in war but many of them participated. I would say there was a member of my family in almost all US conflicts.

I also don't know much about my family before my great grandmother who lived to be 100 and began her life in the late 19th century and died in the late 20th. her father is the earliest family member we have a picture of although we know earlier relatives fought on for the south. One died and the other gave up and spent some time in a camp before being released in Kansas I think.

Below is, I think, the old photo we have of a family member, I think it's my great grandmothers father.



Great grandmother and grandfather below. They had 9 children, many if not all of their children served.





Her as a girl



Military in my family











Great grandfather posing for a training phone, the man he is directing is his commander, or so I am told



I believe I had ancestors in the Civil War, WWI, WWII, Vietnam, Iraq among a few others.none died save many one in the Civil War I think

 

Germans had the big guns but they lost in the long run.I've seen one of those in a museum before,the inside actually was quite big.Kind of like a small apartment on a two week vacation,i sure would be up for it.

 

The "panzer arm" of the German wehrmacht had very mediocre tanks from Polish/ French/ campaigns to Barbarossa. The units were supberbly trained but had inferior tanks/ with puny guns inadequate armor. By July 41/ German panzer commanders were horrified by what the Soviets put against them in the form of T-34/ KV-1/ KV-2s. Famed tank ace Hermann Bix found his PZKW-III s gun could not penetrate the Soviet tanks at point blank range/ so he got his gunner to aim for the barrel! By late 1942/ Porsche and Henschel gave the panzer arm a new toy/ one that would dominate the battlefield to the end....the PZKWVI or the "Tiger". Twenty German aces would achieve 100+ kills with this tank. The Panther (PZKWV) was another cat that would take tremendous toll on the Red Army tank formations. They built 1600 Tigers from 42-45/ about 1200 were lost to enemy action/ their crews knocked out 25K Russian / Allied tanks. The most dangerous cat was the JagdTiger/ in 45 one knocked out 3 Shermans with one 128mm. round. During WW2 the Soviets lost 120K tanks.

 

This is a very interesting post. I have a number of family members that served in the past. The first picture is from my mother's family. General in the Polish army. The second is my grandfather's brother who was killed in action April 10, 1918.

 

Here is my father who served during WW 2 US Navy. Crew member of the USS Princeton CVL-23. The Princeton was sunk while father was in the air Oct. 24, 1944. He was a rear gunner and radio man in a Helldiver dive bomber. Then reassigned to squadron of B-24 Liberators as a top turret gunner. Squadron VPB-117 the Bule Raiders. In the picture of the B-24 my father is in the back row 3rd from the left.