WW2 Grandpas thread

nice, cool you got to listen to his stories before he passed away

Paternal Grandpa, WWII County Draft Board & Ration Board, he was WWI era vet
Maternal Grandpa, WWII was in an essential industry, Slightly too young for WWI service

Don't know his precise battalion or whatever numbers, but my Mother's father fought in Burma with Wingate's Chindits. He built bridges and blew them up. Fought alongside several nationalities. Loved the Brits and Aussies. Hated the Japanese until the day he died I think. They were just too inhuman. My Father's father died well before the war.

Chindits Wiki

Paternal grandfather was a paratrooper with the 17th Airborne division. He was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge and received a Purple Heart.

Paternal grandmother was a Sergeant at Oak Ridge working on the Manhattan Project. She never let Grandpa forget that she outranked him.

Maternal grandfather fought in Korea, but I don't know many details.

My step-dad was in WWII my grandpas were to old. My paternal grandfather had a couple younger brothers in (my great uncles).

Step dad was second wave at Utah Army K-9 corps. We always had extremely well trained German Shepherds growing up.

quote:

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Many of those stories are terrible.

Knew a Chosin Reservoir survivor well.

He could only count to six on his toes.

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He did come back in one piece, but never really talked about it. My other grandpa that fought in Europe never did either.

Maternal Grandfather - CO-pilot on a B24 flying out of San Giovanni airfields in Italy hitting targets in Germany, Austria and Yugoslavia for the 454th Bomb group.
On a return trip from Linz, Austria they had to crash land in Yugo mountains and was captured for a short while and held in a barn but freed hours later by Yugo guerrillas and somehow survived through the night and was eventually transported to London for medical attention.
Only 3 from the crew of 10 survived.

Both of my grandfather's served in the Pacific in WW2. Paternal grandfather passed when I was too young to tell me anything about his time there.

My maternal grandfather (who passed last month), didn't really want to talk about it. The older he got, the more stories he would tell. Towards the end, when his mind was mostly gone, he would show off his WW2 Veteran hat. He told people the admiral gave it to him for winning the war. It was my sister who gave it to him. So now I randomly salute her and call her the admiral.

Paternal grandfather, Navy, Atlantic troop transport, WW1, made I think 17 crossings.

Father, Navy, carriers, radioman, Pacific Theater.