re: When you were 19 (1st OT post) Vietnam

quote:

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Last night at a business dinner in a restaurant here in Nashville, the 4 of us were fortunate to have a 92 yr. old WWII vet come in and dine at the table next to us. He's wearing his vet ball cap and he's with his daughter (legit OT 7.5-8). We wanted to pay for their meal but someone had beat us, so we offered him a fine dessert cordial (he chose 18 yr Glenlivet and later after he learned it was us getting it for him jokingly said he should've got the Louis the 13th ) and was treated to 45 mins of conversation with him. Okinowa, Guam, Tokyo. Wow! A wonderful soul with so much life led and more to come. It was a great, great moment in our blessed lives to hear him speak and to honor his service with the little we did. These guys are special.

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If he is 92 then he was fairly young during the war. He definitely lied about his age to get in if he was at the battle of Guam because he was only 16.

Actually, I take that back. If he was at the second battle of Guam he would have been at least 18.


There is a gentleman at our previous church who was an airman in WW2. Was a radio operator on B-25's and B-26's early in the war. When he first shipped out he was supposed to be on a B-17, but said he couldn't stand the pilot's arrogance so he requested a transfer to a different crew, which was granted. The next week the B-17 crew went on its first, and only, bombing mission.

Later in the war he was on B-29's, and was in squadron that dropped the final bombs on Japan. He was also on the last combat flight in the war. They were in the air headed back to Japan to drop bombs on...I think Tokyo, but the Japanese surrendered before they got to their target.

Edit: Forgot this relevant part. He lied about his age to get in. Said he was 6 months older than he was. So for the rest of his life he celebrated for his military birthday and his civilian birthday.