Re: [WW] The Best Source of Storylines...

[Sean Michael Whipkey <highway@cstone.net>]

LiveDaD@aol.com wrote:
> Seek out your living history out there... Most of them are ready to talk and
> are appreciative of a young ear who actually cares...

I've had the priviledge of listening to a number of veterans speak of
their days.  It means a lot to them to meet someone - particularly a
young person - who will listen to them and appreciates their
sacrifices.  It can be hard, though, some of the feelings are really
strong.  My brother nearly got into a fight at "Saving Private Ryan"
when with veterans on one side, some crying, some smartass on the other
side of him was making jokes.

A good friend of mine in high school had a father who was in WWII.  He
was a ranger, and had some exciting stories.  He told me of the assault
he was in on D-Day, when they hit the wrong beach and had to pull out
and go back somewhere else.  He doesn't remember most of the day - it's
a blur, but he scaled the cliffs, took out bunkers with submachine guns
and willy pete, had a grenade in his breast pocket that stopped a
bullet, and his poncho was shredded by shrapnel - and his best friend's
head blown apart next to him.  He told me about stealing wood from the
French farmers...they had intricate wood piles, and the GIs would take
them apart, take the wood out of the middle, and put them back
together.  He and a friend shot a deer one day and were the heroes of
the platoon for bringing back fresh meat, even if they forgot to gut it
or do anything to the corpse.  He got shot leading his squad, and before
he blacked out he saw the German who shot him hovering in air as his
squad lit into him with everything they had.  When he was put back on
active duty it was over in Europe, and they put him in a very green
unit, so his discharge was overlooked for months.  The story of the
party that they threw him is almost a horror story (particularly the
hangover, riding in a jeep across wartorn Germany).

Another veteran that I knew was a Marine in the Pacific.  He took a
burst from a Japanese machine gun and lived - I saw his half dozen round
scars on his chest.  He, on the other hand, past that wouldn't talk
hardly at all about it, so I never pressed it.  From the little I knew
he had it very, very rough...

SeanMike

-- 
"Teen lesbians will get you through times of no scooters better than 
scooters will get you through times of no teen lesbians." 
 - http://www.seacoastonline.com/2001news/12_9elliot.htm