re: The Second World War came to an end 75 years ago today...

My father in law, a kind gentle man, who I deeply respected, served in WWII in the Pacific front against Imperial Japan. He did not often talk about his experiences, but a few times he briefly mentioned the horrors during the Battle of Okinawa. He sent a letter (which we have) to his Mom which he said “shooting Japs is like shooting coyotes at our ranch”. His unit was slated as the first wave to invade Japan, which would have resulted in very high casualties. Thankfully, the war ended before the invasion because of the US atomic bombing.

He returned home to Wyoming and worked as a roughneck in the oil field, but because of a horrific car accident with a drunk driver he was unable to do heavy physical work, he enrolled at the University of Wyoming and majored in Petroleum Engineering. Prior to his enrollment while at VA hospital recovering from his car accident, he met a nurse who also served in WWII and who he later married. My mother in law is still living and is now 100 years old and has been featured in numerous newspaper articles.

In the mud fifties, my father in law was hired by Chevron as a drilling engineer and relocated from the Wyoming prairie to company camps at Leeville and later Venice.

WWII was horrific, but there was one positive. Years later, I had a first date with a cute girl (no pics) for a LSU football game in 1972, who later became my wife.

Sad how we let all those Nazis cross the ocean and take over Portland. WWII vets must be in awe of what antifa has to face.

RollTide 1987, I posted in in your Hiroshima thread photos of the Enola Gay, etc. my uncle took while serving as the radar observer on the B-29 “Dangerous Lady” while on Tinian, Marianas Islands, flying missions over Japan. LINK

Here is another photo he took from his air ship as they flew over the USS Missouri as the Japanese were signing the surrender treaty. (I snapped the photo from his war time photo album at a family reunion last August hence the poor quality).

His caption is readable - he was in the no 2 ship of a flight of 15 B-29s that flew over the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay which is the battleship ship in the middle of the photo as the treaty was signed. Note the other large USS battleships surrounding the Missouri.


This is a photo I found on the internet that was taken by a professional photographer aboard the USS Missouri as the surrender was being signed of 4 of the B-29s in the 15 plane formation. If these happen to be leading planes in the 15 plane formation my uncle is in one of these B-29s.


Below is photo of my uncle (left, Army Air Corp) - and my dad (right, Navy) in the Phillipines in late 1945 before being shipped home. Uncle was at Clark Air Base, Dad at Subic Bay Naval Station and they were able to hook up



Fast forward 74 years, (photo taken in August a year ago), Uncle sitting In wheelchair (95 years young) and Dad right (gray shirt, 94 years young) with their 2 ‘“younger” sisters and “younger” cousin.



Go Tigers!

surrender you jap bastards.