re: Saving Private Ryan gripe

My dad's dad trained army soldiers to go overseas to Europe.

My mom's dad was in Italy and he told me one story that they had to go through a mine field. Since he had the biggest feet they all followed him through there with no injuries.

A cousin of mine is related to Sledge from The Pacific miniseries and he never wanted to talk about it.

Spielberg had P51's saving the day. They weren't used for close air support IRL because their liquid cooled engines were vulnerable to ground fire.

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Or that the movie is filled with cliche war movie tropes?

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When Saving Private Ryan first released, it was the anti-cliche war movie. The whole idea of realism and unhinged violence in a war film hadn't been all that mainstream yet.

Now, its been copied so many times it has become cliche.

Not to ridicule you or anything but this is a stupid gripe.

My grandad was in WW2 and my dad was in Vietnam.

My grandad didn't talk a lot about WW2 when he was alive.

My dad didn't talk at all about Vietnam until a couple of years ago when he was asked to speak at a luncheon and finally put it on paper in the form of a speech.

Different times, better men., better country.

I attended my gradfather's funeral a few months ago. He was 95. Landed at Normandy on D-day plus four, and served all the way to the end.

He never talked about any of his experiences. He never attended a single reunion of his regiment. He asked that there be no military presence at his funeral. He kept no mementos. Not a box in the attic. Not his medals. Nothing.

I asked my grandmother why it was this way. She said for two reasons. One was that his company experienced 150% casualties in 10 months. All the guys he trained with and landed with were dead or wounded by the end of the war.

The second was that after being in combat for so long, his unit was eventually rotated to the rear. When the Germans started really surrendering en masse after the Bulge, they turned his unit into an MP/Prisoner escort company. But apparently there was a bit of a scandal when none of the prisoners assigned to them ever made it back behind the lines.

Also, survivor guilt is a big thing and Ryan would have had it. That was a big thing my dad carried. He was getting on a helicopter with his two best friends one day and at the last second an officer came up and needed a guy to stay behind and help him with something and randomly picked my dad. The Huey took off and his two best friends came back in bags later that day.

That kind of thing messes you up and you carry it forever. That's how Ryan would have been.

My grandfather refuses to speak about Vietnam. That shite effects people.

i have a friend that was in the Navy in WW2. Any time somebody mentions Japanese food he tells the story about one time when his destroyer was being attacked by kamikazes. One of the divebombers were shot out of the sky and his body and parts of the plane came falling down. Some of the pilot's guts landed in the mouth of one of the sailors standing near my friend. So he doesnt ever eat Japanese food. But he thinks that story is hilarious.

My Grandpa (he raised me) was a paratrooper and jumped into Normandy on D-Day. He told me many stories about it growing up but would hardly ever tell anything that involved death or killing.

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the end when Ryan and his family are in Normandy, his wife reads Miller's name like she doesn't know who he was. You're telling me Ryan lives his WHOLE life and doesn't tell his family the story of the men who sacrificed themselves for him? That's the way it plays to me.

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My grandpa served in France and Germany. About a month before he died, he and my dad talked for about two hours about the war. Dad said that's the most he'd ever heard about it from his dad.

I'd heard bits and pieces about it from my grandfather. We found all his ribbons and service medals in his toolbox in his garage. Some guys just didn't want to talk about it.